Prayers answered, Nigerian Methodists released

Bishop Michael Stephen of the World Methodist Council Steering Committee and former Archbishop of the Methodist Church Nigeria shares the following from the latest news of the kidnapping of the Prelate alongside the Bishop of Owerri Diocese Dennis Mark and the Prelate’s Chaplain, The Very Rev. Shittu, which was received with great shock and sadness when it happened.  

“We are thankful that God heard the prayers of the people that went out across the country. After about 24 hours, the news of their release rent the airwaves. 

We all are thankful to God for his intervention. This incident points to the state of insecurity that has enveloped our country and the need to request the prayers of the people of God all over the world for divine intervention in the affairs of Nigeria. 

We are grateful for the prompt statements and concerns from the World Methodist Council, Africa Methodist Council and other Ecumenical partners.”

President of the World Methodist Council, the Rev. Dr. JC Park, added, “Let’s praise God who rescued the beloved Prelate just as King David praised God when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies. ‘I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies.’ (Psalm 18:3) We want to join the joyful praise of our Nigerian people called Methodists: Worthy is the Lamb!”

 

Global religious leaders representing half a billion Christians urge G20: “climate emergency demands deep-seated transformations”

In a letter to G20 leaders, global religious leaders representing half a billion Christians in over 100 countries warned that rising global temperatures will have increasingly disastrous consequences on impoverished and vulnerable communities that contribute least to the climate crisis.

Hurricane Eta hit hard on the north coast of Honduras on November 2020. Before the local population has been able to begin recovery hurricane the population is braced for hurricane Iota, now entering the region.

 Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC

“Many of our congregations are already experiencing devastating and intensifying climate impacts and many are also responding with concrete actions and proposals,” reads the letter. “The root cause of the climate emergency is the current development model and ideology that is founded upon fossil fuel-driven economic growth.”

The faith-based groups note that, as some economies have grown wealthier, the climate and frontline communities have paid a heavy price. “Unless a radical change is made to the current economic model, the goals of the Paris Agreement will not be met, and the climate crisis will not be averted,” the letter reads. “Today, humanity is at a turning point. The climate emergency demands deep-seated transformations towards net-zero economies by the middle of the century, within a framework of justice and solidarity.”

And, the letter further notes, these changes must happen within a rapidly closing window of opportunity.

“The path to a just and sustainable future and flourishing earth community is to be found in bold economic policies that re-embed economics in society and ecology, account for social and ecological risks and costs, as well as promote the redistribution of resources to allow space for low- and middle-income countries to combat poverty aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and to respond to the existential challenge of climate change,” the letter urges. “Economic policies should be directed towards improving the health and wellbeing of communities and the planet as captured by alternative measures including decent work, health, and ecological sustainability, rather than merely increasing income and production.”

The letter urges G20 leaders to release countries, especially those at the forefront of climate change effects, from their onerous and historic external debts. “Debt cancellation would enable indebted climate disaster-stricken countries to break free from costly build-rebuild cycles that force them further into debt,” the letter notes. “It would make available resources for transitioning to a decarbonised economy.”

The letter also urges G20 leaders to implement progressive carbon and pollution taxes at various levels, and to invest heavily in climate protection and the restoration of ecosystems. “In particular, we must privilege such areas as agro-ecology, reforestation and community-based renewable energy systems in our COVID-19 recovery strategies and longer-term plans,” the letter reads. “Now is the time to incentivise a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels toward clean, renewable energies like solar and wind.”

Read the full letter

Organisations representing a half billon Christians worldwide urge G20 to fix a broken global tax system

In a letter to the G20 finance ministers before the International Tax Symposium on 9 July, organizations representing a half billion Christians worldwide urged that it has never been more urgent and necessary to fix our broken global tax system.

      Photo: Marcelo Schneider/WCC

The World Council of Churches, World Communion of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, and Council for World Mission urged strong social protection measures in all countries to ensure that the poor and vulnerable are able to weather COVID-19’s unprecedented health and economic consequences.

“The pandemic has revealed once again the importance of people’s access to essential health care and basic income security throughout their lives,” reads the letter. “To date rich countries have spent 35.6 percent of their GDPs on responding to the health emergency and supporting employment and businesses.”

In contrast, low-income countries were only able to expend a meagre 6 percent of their GDPs on fighting the pandemic and are even now struggling to meet the demands of protecting their citizens, the letter notes.

“As the most sustainable source of revenue, tax systems have a pivotal role to play in bolstering social sector initiatives and financing the recovery from the crisis,” the letter continues. “We acknowledge recent efforts by the international community at tax reform, not least the G7 proposal for a 15% global corporate minimum tax.”

The endemic injustices of global poverty, racial inequity, health inequality and climate change are rooted in the legacies of colonial exploitation and resource extraction, and call for systemic change, urges the letter. “The pandemic shows us people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake, at a time when the life of the earth is also under threat, the letter reads. “Not only is tax justice at the heart of any recovery plan, it is crucial for mitigating widening inequality and stepping up to the challenges posed by a rapidly warming climate.”

Read the full letter

AME Pastor Rev. Dr. Silvester Beaman to deliver benediction at inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

The Reverend Doctor Silvester Beaman will deliver the benediction at the 59th Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2021, where Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States.  Dr. Beaman is the pastor of Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, and a long-time friend of the Biden family. During the 2020 Presidential election campaign, a photo of  President-elect Biden holding a community at Dr. Beaman’s church after the murder of George Floyd was placed in a Republican attack ad characterizing the attendees as “thugs”.

Dr. Beaman stated, “It is an extreme honor to have the President-elect ask me to do this. The benediction is a priestly function where the pastor stands as the voice of God to announce God’s grace. I will be standing in the place where the rioters stood; in front of a building built by slaves. I hope to speak a word of healing through this prayer. As an AME, I’m proud to represent in this way.”

AME clergy have participated in several high-profile public celebrations led by leaders over the last few years. At the 2008 election night celebration for President Barack Obama in Chicago, Bishop Phillip R. Cousin delivered the opening prayer. The invocation at the 2011 White House Easter Prayer Breakfast was delivered by Bishop Vashti McKenzie who also gave the benediction on one evening of the 2016 Democratic National Convention. BIshop Sam Green delivered a homily during the official worship service before the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

WMC STATEMENT ON ETHIOPIAN/TIGRAY REGION HUMANITARIAN CONFLICT

#SilenceTheGuns, African Resolution by African Leaders for African Conflict

The World Methodist Council (WMC), joins the World Council of Churches (WCC) in its
condemnation of violent attacks in the Tigray region of conflict in Ethiopia. In addition,
WMC General Secretary, Bishop Ivan Abrahams, hears with deep distress that UNHCR, the
UN’s refugee agency, reports that women, children and men have crossed the border at a
rate of 4,000 per day in Tigray, adding to more than 100,000 Eritrean refugees in four camps
in Tigray who were displaced in the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrea border war.
In the light of WMC’s call on the United Nations to adopt UNSCR 2532 and support a global
ceasefire amidst the Coronavirus (2) pandemic, WMC General Secretary appeals to all
African political, civil and faith leaders in the African Union to support #SilenceTheGuns,
an African initiative to address African problems by Africa’s leaders.

The WMC further notes that AU President, HE President Cyril Ramaphosa, emphasised in a
meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister, HE Sahle-Work Zewde that “Ethiopia occupies a
place of pride and honour in the history of Africa, having successfully resisted colonialism,
and played a leading role in the decolonization of Africa. The decision of the Founding
Fathers that Africa’s foremost Continental organisation, the Organisation for African Unity
(OAU), should be established and headquartered in Addis Ababa, was a fitting tribute to
Ethiopia’s role as a symbol of African unity.” Ramaphosa indicated, however, that “the
ongoing conflict … is a matter of great concern not only for countries in the region of the
Horn of Africa, but for the continent as a whole.”

Bishop Ivan Abrahams, in response to #SilenceTheGuns initiative, therefore, “calls on the
‘People called Methodist’ as well as all humans globally to be mindful of and work in every
way possible for an end to this historic, regional conflict and to seek the promotion of a
just, peaceful and sustainable solution to this … fragile conflict in Africa.” “We call on all
people who are committed to global solidarity to mourn the unnecessary loss of life and
look to the legacy of historic peace and co-existence that Ethiopia has been and remains
able to contribute toward the future of African co-existence, humanitarian peace and
solidarity.” To this end, the WMC calls on its membership on the African continent and in
the rest of the world to support the African Union President, HE Cyril Ramaphosa’s deep
desire “that the conflict … be brought to an end through dialogue between the conflict
ridden parties and that such initiative be viewed against the background of the African
Union’s objective of #SilenceTheGuns, intended to achieve a conflict-free Africa, prevent
genocide, make peace a reality for all and rid the continent of wars, violent conflicts,
human rights violations, and humanitarian disasters.”

The WMC calls on all to pray, work and call for a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict
raging in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the Horn of Africa: “God of healing, light and
compassion; we bring to You all who suffer in body, mind or spirit as a result of war and
conflict in Ethiopia or because of fears, suspicions raised by cultural, religious or human
differences. We pray for all who seek refuge, for those who have been displaced from
family, livelihoods or securities. Show them Your mercy and compassion, O Lord and grant
strength to those who seek victims’ relief in any form of distress; for Your Name’s sake.
God bless Africa. Guide her leaders. Guard her children; And give her peace. Amen”

Statement prepared by Keith Vermeulen, Researcher, WMC

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa invites you

The Executive Committee of the Limpopo Synod of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa has the
pleasure of inviting you to the Inaugural Rev. Dr. Stanley Mogoba Lecture. 

Dr. Mogoba is the recipient of the 1996 World Methodist Council Peace Award and has spent many years serving the Council.

General Secretary Ivan Abrahams will also be speaking during this lecture. You can join this momentous event by going to the Methodist Church of Southern Africa website (https://methodist.org.za/) and watching the live stream. 

Click here

Zimbabwe Pastoral Letter

Click here

Click here to read the Zimbabwe Pastoral Letter from the World Methodist Council, World Council of Churches, The Lutheran World Federation, and World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). 

A call to a day of fasting, prayer, and acts of charity

Let your steadfast love, O God, be upon us, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:22 (NRSV)

The Wesleyan and Methodist family have been invited respond to a call for a day of fasting, and of prayer. This call has been taken up by Pope Francis in his weekday prayer of 3 March 2020, to an invitation from the Human Committee of Human Fraternity, and furthered by the World Council of Churches; amongst others. The suggested day is 14 May, 2020.

John Wesley in suggesting fasting as a ‘means of grace’, fasting was not so much a question of whether Methodist’s did so, but ‘How do you fast?’. He commended a spirituality of fasting as much as a practice – to do so is to recognise the importance of loving God and of loving one’s neighbour.

 In words of Susanna Wesley:                                                                                                                                                                           Help me, Lord,                                                                                                                                                                                                     to remember that religion                                                                                                                                                                               is not to be confined to the church or closet,                                                                                                                                                 nor exercised only in prayer and meditation,                                                                                                                                               but that everywhere I am in your presence.                                                                                                                                                   So may my every word and action have a moral content.

(“Practising the presence of God” in Prayers and Meditations of Susanna Wesley by Michael McMullen. Methodist Publishing House, Peterborough: 2000.)

Fasting can be an experience of practising and being attentive to the presence of God. It can represent a struggle to feel God being present, and it reveal an acute awareness of God’s presence like never before. We can discover a realisation or a reaffirmation that God is in all of ‘this’, in all the diverse experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic – life, death, sickness, healing, isolation, physical distancing, struggle, despair, loneliness, solitude, looking out for your neighbour, personal sacrifices, economic sacrifices, awareness of others whether they are too close or too far away. We attune ourselves to both our own experiences, the experiences of our family friends and colleagues, and the experiences of a world of people. This involves the whole self because God wants your whole self to participate in his mission in the world.

Therefore, fasting is a time for extending prayer, for yourself and others. As Wesley concludes in his seventh sermon in his series on the Sermon on the Mount (which is focused on fasting), the only thing to remain to be said is that of adding good deeds to our fast – giving alms and helping those in need.

Fasting and prayer, whether structured, literal, spiritual, or however we feel we can mark the time, is most of all an attentiveness to others – being alert and making ourselves aware of the obvious, the surprising, the unexpected, the longed for presence and moving of God, in a world and in peoples so terribly impacted by the pandemic of Covid-19. This is a calling for all people of faith and goodwill.

A reflection by (Rev) Tony Franklin-Ross, Chairperson – Ecumenical Relationships, World Methodist Council

 Look kindly on our world, our God,                                                                                                                                                             as we suffer and struggle with one another.                                                                                                                                       Look kindly on your Church, driven by the same necessity;                                                                                                               and may the light we have seen in Jesus                                                                                                                                       illuminate and brighten all the world.   Amen.

 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;                                                                                                                                                for his steadfast love endures for ever.                                                                                                                                                          Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,                                                                                                                                                     those he redeemed from trouble                                                                                                                                                               and gathered in from the lands,                                                                                                                                                              from the east and from the west,                                                                                                                                                            from the north and from the south.                                                                                                                                                               Psalm 107:1-3 (NRSV)

Risen and revealing God, you walked with us for a long time before we knew who you truly were. We talked about this world as if we were the ones who saw it clearly. Now that we more fully recognise your continued presence with us, give us eyes to see the beauty that surrounds us, as well as the problems we have too long ignored. And may our hearts then burn with your illuminating and catalysing fire that we might see the world that you envision.  Amen.                                    (© Community of Corrymeela – Ireland)

 Some wandered in desert wastes,                                                                                                                                                         finding no way to an inhabited town;                                                                                                                                                 hungry and thirsty,                                                                                                                                                                                   their soul fainted within them.                                                                                                                                                               Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,                                                                                                                                               and he delivered them from their distress;                                                                                                                                                     he led them by a straight way,                                                                                                                                                                 until they reached an inhabited town.                                                                                                                                                       Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,                                                                                                                                      for his wonderful works to humankind.                                                                                                                                                       For he satisfies the thirsty,                                                                                                                                                                        and the hungry he fills with good things.                                                                                                                                           Psalm 107:4-9 (NRSV)

God of tumult, God of peace: more will change in the weeks and months to come. Further landscapes of our normal will be shaken to the ground. Gradual movements will accelerate, market trends will shift, and they will sweep away much of what we know. And so we pray for what we need: the reassurance of your strength in the midst of our community; and the life that returns in fuller resurrection after what we love is laid to rest.   Amen.                                                                    (© Community of Corrymeela – Ireland)

 When they are diminished and brought low                                                                                                                                   through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,                                                                                                                                                 he pours contempt on princes                                                                                                                                                                   and makes them wander in trackless wastes;                                                                                                                                         but he raises up the needy out of distress,                                                                                                                                               and makes their families like flocks.                                                                                                                                                        The upright see it and are glad;                                                                                                                                                               and all wickedness stops its mouth.                                                                                                                                                          Let those who are wise give heed to these things,                                                                                                                                and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.                                                                                                                                     Psalm 107:39-43 (NRSV)

God of the protective fold, God of the abundant life: you did not form us to live in fear of others or in want of simple joys. In your keep may we find the abundance you came to provide: a constant supply of the love we need and an ever-opening expanse of a life that is ours to explore.   Amen.                                                                                                                    (© Community of Corrymeela – Ireland)

 In the commissioning words of Jesus:                                                                                                                                                   And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.                                                                                                             Matthew 28:20b (NRSV)

 God of opportunity and change,                                                                                                                                                                     praise to you for giving us life at this critical time.                                                                                                                                   As our horizons extend, keep us loyal to our past;                                                                                                                                 as our dangers increase, help us to prepare the future;                                                                                                                           keep us trusting and hopeful, ready to recognise your kingdom as it comes;                                                                                     through the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.   Amen. 

Click on the buttons below to read letters from Cardinal Kurt Koch from the Vaticana, and from Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam from the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity
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In Memoriam of Geoffrey Wainwright

The Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright, 80, who was a current resident of Chapel Hill is mourned by his many friends and colleagues of the World Methodist Council.  Well loved for his leadership and work in many areas, Wainwright served as chair of the Council’s Ecumenical Relationships Committee.

The Council joins many around the world in mourning the death and celebrating the incredible life and witness. A significant contributor to theology and ecumenism, he taught at Duke Divinity School, contributed greatly to the drafting of the “Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry” (BEM) convergence text as he served as a member of the World Council of Churches Faith & Order Commission, and co-chaired the International Commission between the World Methodist Conference and the Roman Catholic Church. A preeminent scholar, he authored and edited multiple volumes, including Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine, and Life.

Dr. Wainwright died on March 17, 2020 and his arrangements: Cremation Society of the Carolinas of Raleigh. For more details click on the link: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsobserver/obituary.aspx?pid=195758063

Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends.  

The Lord is near to those who mourn; he lifts up those whose spirit is crushed.  Ps 34:18

Statement by The World Methodist Council – COVID-19

The World Methodist Council joins the world in prayer. It seeks ways to offer comfort to
people who are dealing with the Coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation has
declared a global pandemic.


“Our prayers are with the many people around the world who are affected directly or
indirectly because of this pandemic,” said Council General Secretary Ivan Abrahams. He
reminds us that in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, we are encouraged to build each other up. “We ask
everyone in the Methodist and Wesleyan family to pray and to offer support in ways that fit
the needs of their local area. Physical and mental health is affected as people are ill,
isolated, and uncertain,” he said.


The Council is and will continue to make adjustments, cancel meetings, and reach out to
others. The prestigious Annual Peace Award Ceremony planned for 27 March at Central Hall, London,
UK, for the Rev. Dr. Inderjit Bhogal has been postponed. May we continue to pray for peace
in the world and people’s lives at this time of uncertainty and insecurity.


As the Council receives communications and information regarding the COVID-19, we are
aware of the significant challenges arising daily.  The virus is spreading rapidly, and there are
announcements of an increasing number of cases reported throughout the world.    


Everyday life, including church services and meetings, have and will continue to be cancelled
and rescheduled to slow down the rate of infection. While it is unfamiliar territory, health
care professionals advise that these precautions are necessary.


The WMC General Secretary further encouraged member churches to seek creative ways of
dealing with the pandemic, which presents new opportunities for service. He challenged us
to spread the love of God through sharing resources during these trying times. He stated
that the only way to overcome this pandemic is for all sectors of society (government,
private, civil, religious) to work together.


With the awareness that so many are dependent on church ministries, the Council hopes
you will continue to support these ministries and missions in new and unique ways.


It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31: 8