Presenter: Liberato "Levi" Bautista, Assistant General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society, Main Representative of GBCS to the United Nations

Levi Bautista began his thought-provoking briefing by sharing his personal history as a product of The United Methodist Church. As a youth, he was national president of the United Methodist Youth Fellowship in the Philippines. At that same time, he was active in the ecumenical movement by way of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. He served the church at a time of political ferment (during the Marcos dictatorship and the transition under Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos) and his activism found concrete expressions in the church, university, and society. "One day, I was organizing in the student movement against President Marcos's dictatorship; the next, I was at a Central Conference session," he said. Now, long after the end of the Marcos regime, Bautista is dedicating his ministries to international human rights and justice at the UN. All through his years of activism in the Philippines, Bautista said, he drew inspiration from the prophetic witness of The United Methodist Church by way of the Social Principles and the Book of Resolutions, which he carried with him to church conferences or community organizing events.

The GBGM, other UMC boards, and ecumenical agencies have played a major role in the leadership development of Levi Bautista. As recipient of a leadership development scholarship from a combination of partners (GBGM, United Church Board for World Ministries, United Church of Canada, World Council of Churches), he went on to become a New World Missioner, with training in evangelism under the GBOD. For nearly 10 years, he served as human rights coordinator of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. Bautista and his wife, also a former national president of the United Methodist Youth Fellowship, eventually found their way to New Jersey, where he continues to work on his doctorate in religion and society at Drew University in his spare time. He is now head of the United Nations Office of the General Board of Church and Society in New York City.

Bautista summarized the proud history of Methodism at the United Nations. From the time the UN was founded in 1945, The United Methodist Church and its predecessor denominations have made their positions known at the UN, bringing a spiritual dimension to the debate and discourse on critical issues affecting the lives of peoples, states, and nations around the world.

With Mia Adjali of the Women's Division, Bautista co-directs the denomination's United Methodist Office for the United Nations (UMOUN). Just back from a United Nations meeting in Rome called "Bethlehem 2000 International Conference," Bautista cited some ways in which the GBCS and the GBGM could work more closely together. For example, understanding the Russia Initiative of GBGM would enhance the chances for a positive dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church. By the same token, the GBGM could draw benefit from the forum, resources, and insights UMOUN provides on key issues affecting our partners from countries represented at the United Nations.

The conference Bautista attended in Rome was to organize joint Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cooperation on Bethlehem 2000 in an attempt to bring an informed context to the frenzy of millions of tourists who will visit the Holy Land at the turn of the millennium. This project, under the auspices of the United Nations, arose from an initiative of the Palestinian Authority to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem.

Bautista challenged our thinking by focusing on the definitions of terms and concepts that can have a significant impact on our interpretation and implementation of the mission of the GBGM. For example, globalization, a term used widely in everyday conversation, clearly means different things to different people. There is significant debate within the UMC regarding whether the church is truly global or is really a US-based church carrying out mission throughout the world. If implemented, the recommendations in the draft report by the Connectional Process Team would "transform" The United Methodist Church as we know it into one whose organization is globally based.

Bautista offered the thought that instead of the church's structure, what needs to be globalized is implementation of the mission of Jesus Christ. Entities in their varied contexts should be free to realize mission with integrity and relevance to their needs and location. If ecclesially the locus of mission is the local church, politically the locus of organizing is the local community—the countries in which people called United Methodists are found. National contexts then become entities whose integrity of witness must be engendered and supported—not by globalizing their structures but by inviting them to participate in mutual mission. A global mission that respects local/national structure is another way of organizing mission and of forging relations in a variety of contexts. Instead of globalization, why not glocalization—the global and the local in creative tension and beneficial mutuality.

Another concept misused is "civil society," Bautista stressed. Civil society as a paradigm arose from the witness and struggle of nongovernmental organizations opposed to militarism and militarization. In its true meaning, civil society is about the absence of war and violence, and hence very much about the active presence of justice and peace in society. Too often today, it is synonymous with the concept of communities and entities whose organizing principle is not that of the state. Any nonstate entity therefore becomes civil society. Such misuse of the term "civil society" expands it to include transnational corporations, the National Rifle Association, and chambers of commerce and industry—all nonstate entities, but entities that do not spring from a history of opposition to militarism and militarization.

Bautista went on to describe some programs at 777 United Nations Plaza, the building owned by the Women's Division and housing many conferences, seminars, and other activities that are directly related to the UN and/or involve a human rights and justice agenda.

By way of the UMOUN, the two boards working cooperatively organize United Methodist representation at United Nations meetings and conferences. The UM teams bring with them to the UN the approved statements and resolutions of The United Methodist Church. They then report back to the church by way of the two boards.