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 Native American elder women. 150th anniversary of the Oklahoma Indian Mission Conference, Tahlequah, OK. Photo by Christie House. |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodists across the country will open their wallets on May 7 for a special offering dedicated to enhancing Native American ministries.
Native American Awareness Sunday recognizes and supports the contributions of American Indians to the church and society. The observance, approved by the 1988 General Conference, is one of six special churchwide Sunday offerings to be celebrated in each of the 35,986 United Methodist churches in the United States.
"Have all things in common" is the theme for this year's special Sunday observance. The funds collected will allow the United Methodist Church to partner with existing native ministries and create programs on behalf of American Indians. Money collected also supports seminary scholarships for United Methodist Native Americans.
Fifty percent of the offering remains in the annual conference to develop and strengthen local Native American ministries. Should no such ministries exist within the conference, the offering is remitted in full to the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA). The funds are then distributed equally between the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry to provide scholarships for American Indians attending the church's schools of theology and the Native American Urban Initiative of the Board of Global Ministries.
A 1990 Census report estimated that 1.9 million American Indians live within the boundaries of the 66 United Methodist annual conferences, and more than 60 percent live in urban areas. The denomination has 200 Native American churches, ministries and fellowships in the country, and 28 are in urban areas.
Oklahoma, with 49 tribes, has the largest concentration of American Indians in the United States. The largest amount of the nearly 19,000 Native Americans in the United Methodist Church resides in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, which has 7,500 members and 91 churches. Native American United Methodists and ministries may be found from the tip of Florida to Alaska, and the denomination has large populations of American Indian members in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arizona, New Mexico and California.
The strong United Methodist presence in the Southeast and Southwest and in Oklahoma is due to the "comity agreements" of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to the denomination's Native American Office of Communications. Agreements were made between major mainline denominations and the U.S. government in the late 1800s, and the denominations were assigned regions of the country for their work among native people.
GCFA figures indicate that United Methodist awareness of American Indian ministries is steadily increasing. Local churches have given $650,000 in support of Native American Awareness Sunday in the past three years. In 1999, offering receipts totaled $335,000, up from $315,000 in 1998 and $290,819 in 1997.
Giving for the special Sunday has increased 15.2 percent in the past three years, said Kent McNish, director of marketing at United Methodist Communications (UMCom) in Nashville, Tenn. "We have had a 14 percent increase in the number of churches ordering Native American Awareness Sunday promotional materials over the past three years." The increases are the result of greater commitment on the part of local churches to take the offering and higher awareness of native ministries in annual conferences, he said.
The increases also can be attributed to an innovative idea that originated in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, said Ray Buckley, director of the United Methodist Native American Communications Office in Nashville.
Several years ago, the conference began training a team of individuals who could speak of the concerns and needs of American Indians and about ministry opportunities within their communities, he said. Those individuals are known as "interpreters."
Although some Native American communities no longer possess tribal languages and culture, the Oklahoma Indian Conference represents unique faith communities, strongly connected to tribal histories and culture, Buckley said. Individuals trained as interpreters represent their people and the United Methodist Church.
From that original idea sprang a series of "interpretation" programs within non-Indian conferences of the United Methodist Church. Interpreters serve to answer questions regarding Native Americans and "put a face" on native ministries.
Many local churches and annual conferences struggle with Native American Awareness Sunday promotions, Buckley said. They seek more in-depth ideas that can be used in a variety of settings.
Scheduled for release in July, Sharing the Heritage is a guide for annual conferences in the promotion of Native American Awareness Sunday and the work of conference committees on Indian ministry. This guide, produced and written by the Native American Communications Office and UMCom, is an effort to assist annual conferences in moving beyond the yearly promotions to developing effective, long-term, meaningful programs. The resource includes ideas for sermon illustrations, quarterly children's bulletins and programs, developing a conference theme and emphasis, ideas for ministry and promotion.
Although Native American Awareness Sunday is generally observed with an offering on the third Sunday of Easter, some churches designate an alternate time in the year to emphasize it.
In particular, four Native American United Methodist churches in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference will conduct a special event on July 1. Together, these congregations in the Oklahoma City area - Norman First American, Mary Lee Clark, Billy Hooton Memorial and Angie Smith Memorial - will host a powwow and invite all area United Methodist churches to attend and learn about American Indians. A powwow is a traditional Indian social gathering that involves tribal dancing, celebrations, food and fellowship. Exhibits will explain Native American Awareness Sunday and provide opportunities for conversations about the offering and how it is used in the United Methodist Church.
Delegates to the 2000 General Conference will consider legislation brought by a joint task force of the GCFA and the General Council on Ministries that is proposing the reduction of special Sundays with offerings. The proposed legislation recommends that Native American Awareness Sunday be changed to Native American Ministry Sunday in 2001. The name change would highlight the fact that the fund supports specific ministries with and for native people at the annual conference and general church levels.
General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, will meet May 2-12 in Cleveland.
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Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, New York, and Washington.