United Methodist NeXus
Published bi-weekly by TPC Publications Inc.
The UMC’s Best National E-newsletter 2006
Copyright (c) 2008 by TPC Publications, Inc.

Editor: Cynthia B. Astle
Publisher: S. Kathleen Palmer
Volume 3, Number 24

COMMENTARY
Spiritual Principles for Managers When Downsizing
By Lydia Ma
COMMENTARY
Eliminate ‘Pay to Play’ Politics
By Gregory Palmer
CONTEXT
UMCOR Responds to Zimbabwe Crisis
Compiled by UM NeXus
QUOTABLES
E-PISTLES

UM NeXus PUBLICATION ENDING: The parent company that publishes UM NeXus, TPC Publications, Inc., is suspending production of UM NeXus effective with this issue. “We deeply regret that we can no longer afford to offer NeXus to our many readers at no cost,” said Stephen Swecker, editor and publisher of TPCP. Mr. Swecker said that the decision to end publication could be reversed if donations totaling $5,000 or more were received by Dec. 31. (Make a charitable donation to TPC Publications, publisher of UM NeXus, TPC NeXus and The Progressive Christian magazine.) “Under the leadership of editor Cynthia Astle and publisher Kathleen Palmer, NeXus has become a widely-respected, award-winning publication in an extraordinarily brief period of time. We will look for every opportunity to resume publication in the future, but it will need to be on cost-effective basis,” Mr. Swecker added.

CHRISTMAS WISHES: Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) continues its eight-year-old tradition of sending Christmas wishes and prayers for peace and justice to Christians in Bethlehem. CMEP says wishes and prayers will be printed and handed out as personal messages, educational materials (e.g. at schools), and in the context of interfaith prayers (in places of worship) and in the newly established peace house of the Arab Educational Institute in Bethlehem, affiliated with several church-related organizations. Messages should be emailed aei@p-ol.com before Dec. 25 (Western Christmas) and/or Jan. 7, 2009 (Eastern Christmas). Messages can be read at the Arab Education Institute’s web site.

HOPE AND PEACE: The General Board of Global Ministries invites United Methodists to join in prayers for global hope and peace during this Christmas season. Global Ministries’ new top executive, Rev. Edward W. Paup, notes “at any time, in many places, there is no peace.  …Violence in families, communities, and cities the world over are reminders of the absence of peace and goodwill in hearts and attitudes.” Rev. Paup’s message includes a prayer: “Hope for peace at Christmas 2008 sends us to pray: ‘Bring, God, your better world to birth, your kingdom, love’s domain, where peace with God, and peace on earth, and peace eternal reign.’ ”

MONEY, MONEY: United Methodist investments have lost significant value because of the global recession, says an economic advisory committee for the General Council on Finance and Administration in a United Methodist News Service report. “Each recession is unique, so predicting the duration of the current recession is inherently difficult,” said economist Don House, a committee member from College Station, TX. Giving by individual congregations is uncertain because of the stock market’s decline and weakness in the financial sector, the committee also said. The advisory committee issued a statement outlining the situation for annual conference leaders.

Meanwhile, investments for the United Methodist Church Foundation are performing well against their benchmarks, director Byrd Bonner recently assured GCFA. The only problem is, the benchmarks themselves “are really rotten,” Bonner said in a Nov. 25 UMNS report. The foundation manages 15 endowment funds and some additional agency accounts that totaled more than $87 million at the end of 2007. By the end of October 2008, its Balanced Fund had decreased by more than 23 percent while its benchmark was down more than 24 percent.

CHARITIES REELING: Nonprofit organizations across the nation are reeling from the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities after federal regulators arrested the founder Dec. 11 on charges that he had defrauded investors of some $50 billion, reported the Dec. 16 New York Times. Among those damaged are Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel’s Foundation for Humanity, which invested $37 million with Madoff and realized less than a tenth of that in returns. The Times reported that at least three other foundations, having lost nearly all their assets, have been forced to close their doors. Federal investigators described the Madoff fraud as a Ponzi scheme in which new investment money is used to pay off older investors.

WEDDING PROTESTS: About 250 gay and lesbian demonstrators seeking the opportunity to marry greeted Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, 52, and his new bride, businesswoman Carole Rome, 39, outside First UMC of St. Petersburg, FL, where they were married Dec. 13.  Gov. Crist and his family have attended First UMC for many years, reported the local ABC affiliate, WWSB Channel 7.  Florida voters passed Amendment 2 on Nov. 4, which changed the state’s constitution to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. ImpACT-Florida organized the protest of the amendment’s passage, with some attendees donning pink T-shirts reading “Congratulations, Governor Crist. When can I get married?” “Governor Crist endorsed Amendment 2,” ImpACT-Florida director Lorna Bracewell told WWSB. “We found it particularly ironic that just over a month after … here he is exercising that right that he supported taking away from me and people like me.”

FAITHFUL GUIDE: Sunday worshipers at Wooster (OH) UMC are used to seeing Amber Johnson lying on the floor behind the pulpit, writes Colette M. Jenkins of Ohio.com.  A 3-year-old golden retriever, Amber is a Seeing Eye dog that assists Wooster’s associate pastor, the Rev. Diane K. Johnson. “Pastor Diane,” an ordained deacon, has a degenerative retinal disorder that started in her youth and progressed into young adulthood. With Amber’s help, the 50-year-old Johnson can do just about anything but drive a car.

GOD’S WATCHING, TOO: Unholy thieves who think it’s fun to snatch Baby Jesus from a church’s Nativity scene had best beware: the Holy Infant may be wired. USA Today reports that churches, synagogues and other places displaying holiday scenes are using Global Positioning Systems (GPS), satellite tracking devices, to combat ongoing thefts. For instance, St. Marks Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn, IL, has installed tracking devices in the figures of Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, one wise man, a camel, a donkey and a sheep.

ROCKING THE APOLLO: One of Harlem’s best-known venues, the Apollo Theater, has welcomed a new nondenominational worship service led by a pastor with United Methodist ties, reports the New York Times. The Rev. Dr. Suzan D. Johnson Cook, a Baptist pastor who has led “Wonderful Wall Street Wednesdays” at historic John Street UMC since 2001, started Harlem Hallelujah Dec. 14 with a crowd of 800 people. “She’s on the cutting edge of prophetic ministry,” said the Rev. Johnnie G. McCann of St. Luke’s Baptist Church of Harlem, who also has participated in the John Street UMC services. Dr. Sujay, as she’s called, drew a clamorous response from the crowd when she proclaimed, “We need to turn our 401(k)’s into 401(j)’s!” she said, meaning “j” for Jesus.

TODDLER DIES: A toddler who choked on a piece of a sliced peach at Lambuth Memorial UMC Preschool died Dec. 11 at Vanderbilt Medical Center, reported the Jackson Sun. Jackson police said the incident was accidental and no criminal charges against the preschool will be filed. The Rev. John Bonson, pastor of Lambuth Memorial UMC, told the newspaper, “words are just inadequate to explain the depth of my sympathy in the family’s loss. We have 75 children in this preschool. If one is harmed, it’s as if your own child has been harmed.” The preschool remains open and parents are supportive, according to church officials.

RAISING NEW PROPHETS: The World Student Christian Federation will hold its 2009 North America Regional Conference and Consultation Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in San Francisco with the theme, “Raising New Prophets, Arising of a Movement.” The event marks the launch of the WSCF-NA, the North American region of the global federation, reports the General Board of Church and Society’s “Faith in Action” weekly newsletter. The WSCF’s mission is “to empower students to be agents in constructive transformation of the world by providing a space for prayer and celebration, theological reflection, study and analysis of social and cultural processes, and solidarity and action across the boundaries of culture, gender and ethnicity,” the newsletter says. For more information and applications, e-mail, or call (212) 870-2470.

YOUNG CLERGY: Jan. 16 is the deadline to apply to attend the 5th annual Young Clergy Capitol Hill Leadership Forum, sponsored by the GBCS, reports “Faith in Action.” The forum will be held Sunday to Wednesday, Feb. 8-11, at the historic United Methodist Building, next door to the U.S. Supreme Court and across the street from the U.S. Capitol. Annual conferences are encouraged to send two people, age 35 and under, who may be either elders or on an elder track, and serving a local church full-time. The forum will provide “creative and participatory ways” to teach the United Methodist Social Principles in congregations, according to the newsletter.

OBAMA CHURCH: As the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama approaches, there’s continued speculation about where the First Family will attend church in Washington, DC. The president-elect painfully withdrew from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago after inflammatory remarks by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a campaign issue. While many pundits are tracing the attributes of a number of fine UCC churches in the Washington area, Michael L. Westmoreland-White, Ph.D., of Louisville, KY, has pointed out another possibility in his blog, Levellers: Foundry sits about a mile north of the White House and has long been a beacon of the progressive wing of The United Methodist Church. Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton and her daughter Chelsea are United Methodists and the family, including President Bill Clinton, a Baptist, attended Foundry during his presidential terms. Writes Westmoreland-White: “The current pastor, Rev. Dr. Dean Snyder, is a bridge-builder between liberal and evangelical Christians – something Obama himself has attempted.” Likewise, Foundry is experienced in the security issues surrounding presidential parishioners, so it may be a stronger candidate than one might think.

SENIOR LIVING: Clearlake Oaks (CA) Community UMC has played a central role in the development of a senior living facility that culminated Dec. 12 in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Eskaton Clearlake Oaks Manor, a two-story, 23-unit low-income senior housing complex, reported the Lake County News. Pastor Bill Thornton, who died in 2005, and his wife, Pastor Ruth Canady, who died earlier this year, were credited during the ceremony for envisioning the housing complex as one facet of an overall plan to revitalize Clearlake Oaks, a rural community about 75 miles northwest of Sacramento. The two were much-loved church leaders.

EDITOR’S MESSAGE: As we face together the uncertain future of this publication ministry and so many other vital ministries across Christ’s church during this global economic crisis, the words of a familiar hymn bring comfort and hope: “God be with you ’til we meet again/By his counsel’s guide uphold you/With his sheep securely fold you/God be with you ’til we meet again.” (No. 673, United Methodist Hymnal). May the anticipation of Advent, the joy of Christmas and the promise of the New Year be yours, now and always. – Cynthia Astle

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