February

Heresy complaints against
Bishop Sprague dismissed

(February 28) A United Methodist Church team assigned to investigate an accusation of heresy made against Chicago Area Bishop C. Joseph Sprague dismissed the complaint, affirmed his ministry and called for public theological dialog “to discover and explore the points of continuity or disconnect between the traditional and new interpretations of [the church’s] doctrinal statements.”

“It became apparent to the supervisory response team, in our review of this case,” the team’s statement said, “that Bishop Sprague knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, has faith in Christ’s saving and transforming power and is obedient to Christ’s teachings. This is evident in the fruits of his pastoral and Episcopal ministries and many of his public statements.”

The decision of the Supervisory Response Team report was issued by Bishop Bruce R. Ough of West Ohio, president of the North Central Jurisdiction College of Bishops.

The team asked Bishop Sprague to issue a public statement clarifying and reaffirming his adherence to the doctrinal standards of the United Methodist Church.

The team recommended that Bishop Sprague and the complainants participate in a public, third-party facilitated dialog on the theological and doctrinal issues presented in the case.

The team also asked the United Methodist Council of Bishops to “take immediate steps to enter into serious theological reflection on issues of Christology, Biblical authority and the mission of the Church.”

The team called for an apology from the complainants for “disregarding the spirit of confidentiality intended” in the process specified in church law for handling such complaints.

Under normal procedures outlined in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the denomination’s book of laws, the first step in handling any complaint is a supervisory response “directed toward a just resolution and/or reconciliation among all parties.” The supervisory response is to be carried out in a confidential manner.

In this case, however, members of the supervisory response team made their decision public, they said, because the complainants publicly disclosed their complaint through a press release.

Following a number of public accusations against Bishop Sprague made by Mark Tooley, director of UM Action, a committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) in Washington, D.C., a formal complaint against Bishop Sprague was filed on Dec. 30, 2002, by members of The Confessing Movement and Good News, two unofficial groups within the United Methodist Church that call themselves “renewal movements.”

The complaint accused Bishop Sprague of “dissemination of doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrine of The United Methodist Church” based on comments he made last year in a speech at Iliff School of Theology in Denver and in his recently published book, Affirmations of a Dissenter.

“It is regrettable and unconscionable that Bishop Sprague first learned of the Dec. 30 complaint through the press,” the supervisory response team statement said.

Response team members also said they were making their opinion public because “the theological and doctrinal issues raised in the complaint are already a matter of considerable public debate within the United Methodist Church,” and “the supervisory response team desires to speak to the whole Church, as well as the parties to the complaint.”

Response team members expressed concern that the denomination is “drifting, or being driven, toward becoming a doctrinal or creedal church.” They also questioned whether or not there is “room in the Church for leaders (ordained clergy and consecrated bishops) to engage in serious theological and biblical discourse, either of a scholarly or confessional nature, without threat of charges.” And they noted the need for “processes of accountability” for groups and individuals that “relentlessly and increasingly pressure Church leaders and agencies to reflect their positions.”

The team asked the church to take advantage of this opportunity to “seek the Spirit’s wisdom.”

“Many in our church believe the threat is doctrinal impurity and heresy,” the team said. “Others in our Church believe the threat is the narrowing of Wesleyan doctrine to a static, rigid formulation. It is the humble, but considered, opinion of the supervisory response team that the real threat may well be our arrogance and parochial attitudes. The Evil One is surely enjoying our folly!”

The team asked the church to “enter into a season of listening deeply to the Holy Spirit and to one another. Let us cast out our penchant to power and control. Let us lay aside our arrogance. Let us reclaim our mission of ‘spreading scriptural holiness over the lands.’”

Bishop Sprague’s response to dismissal of charges

After accusations of heresy against Bishop C. Joseph Sprague were dismissed by a United Methodist Church team assigned to investigate, Bishop Sprague issued the following statement:

“While I was willing, even eager, to go to Church trial, because I said or wrote nothing heretical, I applaud the decision of the North Central Jurisdiction Supervisory Response Team.

“This is not a victory for me. This ongoing struggle is not a win-lose game. Rather, the decision is a step forward for the whole Church. It moves us toward the establishment of a venue for biblical and theological debate in which progressive voices can speak without fear of strident reprisals.

“Such a setting is essential in the search for Gospel truths for today’s Church and world.”

A four-person Supervisory Response Team dismissed the complaints against Bishop Sprague, affirmed his ministry and called for public theological dialog “to discover and explore the points of continuity or disconnect between the traditional and new interpretations of [the church’s] doctrinal statements.”

Clergy, laity gather to support
Bishop, applaud decision

(February 28) About 40 United Methodist clergy and laity from six annual conferences gathered at The Chicago Temple on Feb. 18, the morning after complaints of heresy against Bishop C. Joseph Sprague were dismissed. They said they gathered to support Bishop Sprague, to applaud the action of the Supervisory Response Team that dismissed the complaints, and to call for an end to the “witch hunts” they said are victimizing the United Methodist Church.

“I am exuberant and joyful with the news that the charges against our bishop have been dropped,” said the Rev. Marti Scott, Chicago Northwestern District superintendent, calling the Team’s decision “genuinely good news.”

She said some have suggested that the Supervisory Response Team was admonishing Bishop Sprague when it asked him to issue a public statement “clarifying and reaffirming his adherence to the doctrinal standards of the United Methodist Church.”

“I receive that as a blessed, joyful invitation that they are asking our bishop to write more, say more, teach more and lead more,” Scott said.

Many speakers at the gathering praised Sprague for his social witness, his commitment to following the teachings of Jesus Christ, his support for the ministry of both clergy and laity and his “willingness to search for new ways to proclaim the profound truth of the Gospel to a hurting and broken world.”

“The Bishop’s leadership has been significant to this Conference, and we have been blessed by God to have him at this time in the history of the Northern Illinois Conference,” said Roger Curless, NIC Lay Leader.

Christina Wright, Northwestern University senior from the West Michigan Conference, said she is applying to seminary because “people like Bishop Sprague make me want to be a part of the [United Methodist] organization. I am thankful that we have leaders like him to provide a role model for people like me.”

In addition to praising Sprague, speakers expressed hope for open theological discussion within the denomination and criticized those who brought the complaints against Sprague.

The Rev. Philip Blackwell, senior pastor of First UMC of Chicago (The Chicago Temple), called the charges leveled against Sprague “unfaithful, un-Methodist, dangerous and, finally, they betrayed the connection.”

Blackwell said the fact that the Bishop “is inspired by the metaphorical power of the Virgin Birth and does not insist that it be understood as a gynecological fact may put him at odds with Matthew and Luke, but it puts him in harmony with the theologies of John and Paul. And, for what it is worth, according to a 1998 Jeffrey Hadden survey, it puts him in harmony with 60% of United Methodist clergy in America.”

Pointing to the Wesley Quadrilateral of Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason, Blackwell accused those who brought charges against Sprague of “losing sight of the last three.”

Blackwell also called the charges a “flamboyant misrepresentation of the Bishop’s theology.”

The charges, Blackwell said, “had the potential to undermine the denomination.” But, he said “there seem to be some people for whom destroying United Methodism is okay as long as they get their way.”

When it was noted that clergy who filed the complaint against Sprague could be charged with “behavior that undermines the ministry of another pastor,” a chargeable offense in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, most speakers said they didn’t plan to file their own complaints.

“My personal hope is that we will not do that,” said the Rev. Eugene Winkler, retired NIC pastor. “I hope we will be open to dialog. The problem all along has been that we don’t talk to one another.”

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Foundation awards 12 grants

(February 28) The United Methodist Foundation of the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC) awarded 12 grants totaling $38,835 in its fifth year of funding ministries in local churches and Conference agencies. Grants were awarded to fund a theater ministry and programs for children, older adults, Spanish speaking citizens, youths and female adolescents. The grants program is funded by income from the Foundation’s permanent endowment fund.

“From the outset,” said the Rev. Richard Heiss, Foundation president, “these grants have been designed to fund ministry that directly touches other people’s lives and makes a difference.”

But the Foundation’s ministry is about more than money, Heiss told the grant recipients. It’s a “partnership in ministry with partners all across the Northern Illinois Conference,” he said.

“As partners with each of you, we celebrate what you are doing in the trenches,” Heiss said, “where vital things happen that make a difference in people’s lives.”

“This is probably one of the happiest meetings we come to,” said Edgar Pigg, chair of the Foundation’s Grant Committee, at the awards ceremony. “We get to give away some money because people around the Conference - churches and individuals - determine that we’re the proper place to invest their long-term funds.

“When the Foundation makes its meager fee off of those investments, it doesn’t go to shareholders. It comes back to fund ministries like these.”

Pigg said the “only regret is that we can’t fund every request we get.”

This year the Foundation received 15 requests for grants totaling $75,735.

The 12 programs receiving funding for 2003 are:

4-year string broken, NIC pays
85% of General apportionment

(February 21) The struggling U.S. economy took its toll on the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC) last year making it unable to pay100% of its General Church apportionment to the denomination for the first time in 5 years. Losses in the stock market reduced Conference reserves used in the past to offset income shortfalls. And a lower percentage of apportionment payments received from local churches brought the Conference to the end of the year $300,000 under budget.

For 2002, the NIC paid 84.6% or $1,630,401 on a General Church apportionment of $1,927,023. In 2001, the NIC paid $1,980,497 - 100% of its General Church apportionment.

Ironically, in 2002 more local churches paid 100% of their apportionment to the Conference than in 2001: 290 versus 288. And for the third year in a row, apportionment receipts from local churches exceeded $7 million. In fact, 2002 finished slightly ahead of 2001 apportionment receipts, setting a new all-time high of $7,097,219. But the receipts fell short of the amount budgeted for 2002.

The 2002 budget was based on an assumption that local churches would pay at least 91% of the amount apportioned to them. Actual receipts were 86.5%. “We had budgeted to receive $7.4 million,” said Lonnie Chafin, NIC treasurer, “and we actually received $7.1 million.”

The Conference Council on Finance and Administration (CCFA) voted at its January meeting to maintain the NIC reserve fund at 10% of projected conference operating expenses for 2003 or $570,000. That effectively assured the NIC would not pay its full General Church apportionment when receipts came in under projections.

“It’s necessary to keep funds in reserve in order to cover payroll and other operating expenses while waiting for local churches to send in apportionments,” Chafin said. “Many churches wait until the last minute to make their apportionment payments. We receive more than $2 million - 35% of our total receipts - in the last two months of the fiscal year.”

For the past few years, sufficient reserves and money in the Mission Focus Fund were used to cover cash flow shortages and supplement income to pay the General Church apportionments.

“Last year, we dipped into reserves to pay our apportionments to the General Church,” Chafin said. “This year, we used some of our reserves, but if we had paid 100% of our apportionments, our reserves would have dropped to the lowest level since I’ve been here. They would have been only enough to cover one month of payroll.”

Aurora led the six NIC Districts in 2002 local church apportionment payments with $1,869,488 - 91% of its apportioned amount. Elgin was second at $1,722,934 or 89.3% of its amount. Chicago Southern paid $1,129,391 or 88.9% of its apportionment. Chicago Northwestern churches paid $847,705 (85.5%); Rockford, $790,558 (76.2%); and DeKalb, $737,143 (77.3%).

Seventy-two percent of NIC congregations paid their apportionments in full, compared to 70% in 2001. Seventeen congregations paid more than 100% of their apportionments. Church of the Incarnation UMC in Arlington Heights led this group by paying $6,248 above its apportionment, or 123.4%. Grace UMC, Park Forest, paid 126.2% of its apportioned amount, or $3,864 over. Centro La Paz, an unchartered congregation in Chicago, paid $620 to the Conference, although it had no apportionment.

Aurora District led in the percentage of churches paying 100% of their apportionment at 81.3%. Chicago Northwestern was second at 77.6%. Chicago Southern was 73%; Elgin, 72.6%; Rockford, 70.4%; and DeKalb, 61%.

CCFA voted to divide NIC’s payment to the General Church equally in terms of percentage among the seven churchwide apportioned funds. World Service, Ministerial Education, Black Colleges, Africa University, Interdenominational Cooperation, General Administration and Episcopal Fund were each paid at approximately 85% of the asking.

In addition to its apportionments in 2002, the NIC raised almost $100,000 for the six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings. NIC churches contributed $10,387 for Human Relations Sunday; $57,327 for One Great Hour of Sharing; $4,386 for Peace with Justice Sunday; $7,180 for Native American Ministries Sunday; $12,104 for World Communion Sunday; and $1,719 for United Methodist Student Day. The NIC also raised $2,064 for World Service Specials and $613 for the Youth Service Fund.

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‘High Alert’ for Muslim Holy Days greeted us?!

By the Rev. Al and Mavis Streyffeler

(February 21) “High Alert: Muslim Holy Days are near” greeted us on our return after eight years as United Methodist missionaries in Senegal, a West African country that is 95% Muslim. Indeed, the Muslim Holy Days of Tabaski were Feb. 11 and 12.

Having spent the previous seven High Holy Days celebrating this festival with our neighbors, the only “High Alert” which we were aware of was for the several million sheep who were dispatched to Paradise as the sacrifice for the sins of the family. Every male over age 30 is required to purchase a sacrificial sheep for the family; a sheep that is large, unblemished, and expensive ($200-$800). Early in the morning only the men go to mosque to pray; followed by the ritual slaughter of a sacrificial sheep. Each male head of a family asks Allah to forgive their sins and accept their sacrifice.

After a great feast, which the women have been preparing, the men go to each of their neighbors and ask them for forgiveness for any sins that they have committed against their household. The neighborhoods are blossoms of colors of red, blue, gold and orange. Every member of the family gets a complete set of new clothes once a year and everyone says the ritual words: “Forgive us, and we hope that Allah will forgive all of us”.

The Feb. 12 scripture reading in 1 Corinthians picks up the historic struggle in the early Church over the issue of animal sacrifice versus the Perfect Sacrifice of the Suffering Prophet of God, Jesus the Christ.

This coming Sunday in each of the 14 United Methodist Churches in Senegal, the pastor will lead the people in the Prayers of Confession and the Act of Pardon, followed by the congregational handshakes and hugs of reconciliation and peace. The stench of sheep remains still hangs heavy in the air. Many of the Senegalaise in the congregations share with us how they feel “freed for joyful obedience and praise” in the United Methodist Church. Fatu and Pap share freely that they feel that God loves them, and that they are liberated in the name of Jesus, who suffered and reconciled us all to God through Christ, once for all.

This experience has deepened our understanding of and appreciation for the Act of Confession in corporate worship. The Good News is that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God’s love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.

(The Streyffelers, who have been General Board of Global Ministries [GBGM] missionaries for 15 years, returned to the United States on Feb. 1. They have been assigned as Mission Interpreters in Residence for the North Central Jurisdiction. They will work out of GBGM’s offices at 10 School St. in Naperville. They can be reached at (630) 357-0170.)

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Candidates sought for
General, Jurisdictional delegates

(February 21) When members of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference meet June 5-7 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, they will elect delegates for the 2004 General and Jurisdictional Conferences.

Northern Illinois will elect 12 delegates to General Conference (6 lay and 6 clergy), another 12 delegates to North Central Jurisdictional Conference (6 lay and 6 clergy), and four alternates (2 lay and 2 clergy).

General Conference, the denomination’s top policy making body, will meet April 25 through May 7, 2004, in Pittsburgh.

North Central Jurisdictional Conference meets July 12-14, 2004, in Davenport, Iowa. Delegates to General Conference and delegates elected to Jurisdictional Conference will all serve as delegates to the Jurisdictional Conference in Iowa to elect and assign Bishops. Because a new Bishop will be assigned to the Chicago Area in September, 2004, this will be a particularly important process for the NIC.

All clergy members of the NIC in full connection are eligible for election as General or Jurisdictional Conference delegates and will be assigned numbers for balloting.

To be eligible for election as delegates, laity must be members of a local church for at least two years and active for four years. Those wishing to stand for election should complete an application form available on the NIC web site (delegate application) and return it to NIC Program Office, 217 Division St., Elgin, IL 60120, Attn: Natarsha Gardner, postmarked by March 15.

As forms are received they will be assigned a number to be used during balloting and election. Submitted materials will be placed in a handbook that will be available prior to the start of the conference session. Please keep this in mind as you write or type the form, make it easy for others to read.

For more information, contact Roger Curless, NIC Lay Leader, (312) 368-2714.

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Chicago Wesley receives grant
for Igniting Ministry advertising

(February 14) Wesley UMC, located in the Roseland Heights community on Chicago’s south side, has been awarded an Igniting Ministry matching grant of $2,519.40 to pay for half of the cost of airing Igniting Ministry television commercials on selected Chicago television cable networks from Feb. 5 through April 19. Commercials will be shown Wednesday through Saturday each week on Black Entertainment Television (BET), Lifetime, Turner Network Television (TNT) and The Learning Channel (TLC) in eight zip codes on the south side of Chicago.

Commercials to run are “Advice” from the Love Letters expression and “I Believe” from the Diversity expression. Each commercial is tagged “Wesley United Methodist Church, 201 East 95th Street, Sunday 10:30 a.m. worship.”

“We decided to do it because we’re very interested in both evangelism for the sake of expanding the ministry of Christ as well as evangelism for the sake of expanding the membership of our local church,” said the Rev. Charles Straight, assistant pastor and chair of the church’s Evangelism Committee.

Building new structure

“We are in the process of building a new church building, and we want persons in our community to know we exist,” Straight said. “We want them to know that we have ministries available that would be beneficial to them in their everyday life as well as their spiritual life.”

Total cost of the advertising campaign is $5,038.80. Straight said the congregation, which averages 180 to 220 in worship, would never have been able to do television advertising without the matching grant from United Methodist Communications (UMCom), the denomination’s general agency that sponsors the Igniting Ministry advertising campaign.

“A matching grant was a very important component of the reason we were able to advertise,” Straight said. In addition to funding half the cost of the ad campaign, he said UMCom contacts with television cable companies helped the church “get a better price for us than we were able to get on our own” and “minimize the area we were trying to focus on.”

“If we had to do all of Chicago, we couldn’t have afforded it,” Straight said, “so we localized it” by focusing on adjacent zip codes.

Members commit to pay half

To make sure the church could afford the advertising campaign, the 12 members of the church’s Evangelism Committee committed to pay half the church’s cost ($2519.40) of the ad campaign, making the church liable for only one-fourth of the total amount, or $1259.70.

“Our committee will hold a fund raiser to raise the money,” Straight said. “But if we don’t raise enough, it will come out of our own pockets. Because there are approximately 12 people on the committee, we agreed to pay about $100 apiece if it comes to that.”

Because of the commitments from the individuals on the Evangelism Committee, “it was easy to get the Church Council to agree to it,” Straight said.

The congregation agreed to the plan even though “moneys were absolutely an issue for us,” Straight said. “Every dime we get these days goes into the building fund,” he said. “The new church building is going to cost us $2.5 million. That’s a lot of money to spread out among a small number of people.”

Build to heavier frequency

The advertising campaign was customized to start the second week of February with a minimal number of spots running and build up to heavier frequency during the last two weeks of Lent, culminating on Easter Sunday.

“The part of Igniting Ministry most appealing to us was that it is a very inviting campaign,” Straight said. “It extends an invitation to all kinds of people to become a part of Christ and to become a part of the United Methodist Church.

“We certainly have faith that it is going to produce good outreach for us. We really would be satisfied and feel that our money was well spent if one person sees the commercial and feels invited and comes to worship with us. We’re hoping for many more than that, but if one person comes to worship it will be worth it.”

Spirit of God

Church members are confident that Wesley UMC is a welcoming place, so if one person comes, “the Spirit of God will do the rest,” Straight said.

In addition to the television commercials, the church will run newspaper ads in the two neighborhood newspapers for two weeks prior to Easter Sunday. Boy Scouts will distribute door hangers in the neighborhood the month before Easter.

In the fall, the church hopes to run more television commercials and conduct a direct mail campaign in the neighborhood. “We’re planning to make this a year-long campaign,” Straight said.

Every month, the church has “Fellowship Sunday” when members are encouraged to invite someone to church. A special fellowship time is held after worship.

Currently worshiping in a 20-year-old building plagued by construction problems, the congregation has decided to tear down the structure this spring and rebuild on the same site.

Many, many problems with building

“We have had many, many problems with this building,” Straight said, noting that the construction company that built it went out of business and the individual in charge of the project died before it was completed.

“Nothing in the building has been right,” Straight said. “We consulted with construction engineers who told us there is nothing we can do but tear it down and build again.”

Straight said the congregation hopes that when the new building starts to go up, it will generate some excitement in the neighborhood.

During construction, the congregation will worship across the street in its former church building erected in 1963. That building was replaced by the current structure in 1983 and is now used as a community center.

Straight said he hopes the advertising will appeal to younger persons in the community, who will continue the life of the church.

“The church is growing,” Straight said, “and we are doing a lot of things to continue that growth.”

Straight has been at Wesley for a little over two years. Senor pastor is the Rev. Emma Robinson.

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Antioch’s Curl attacked at home by intruder

(February 14) Late Saturday night, Feb. 1, a white male broke into the home of the Rev. Gary Curl, pastor of Antioch UMC. The perpetrator threatened to attack Curl’s wife, Marybeth. Curl intervened and, police said, the intruder tried to gouge out Curl’s eyes and severely beat Curl with a cast iron skillet causing serious injuries to the pastor’s head and face.

Police, summoned by Marybeth, arrested Mark Spangler, 28, who was arraigned in Lake County on charges of attempted murder, home invasion, resisting arrest and criminal damage to property.

On Sunday, Feb. 2, Curl underwent the first of what is expected to be many surgeries.

“Initial prognosis after his first surgery is positive,” said the Rev. Arlene Christopherson, Elgin District superintendent. “The doctors are hopeful that his eyesight will not be permanently impaired.”

Christopherson said Curl will probably need a series of facial reconstruction surgeries. “There appears to be no neurological damage and no permanent eye impairment,” she said.

Christopherson said there is no known connection between Spangler and the Curls or the church. “It appears to be a random act,” she said.

The Rev. Russell Carlson, retired NIC clergy, will serve as interim pastor for Antioch UMC while Curl recuperates.

For more information about Curl’s condition, contact Antioch UMC, 848 S. Main St., (847) 395-1259.

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Korean clergy, laity meet with Bishop
to discuss situation in their homeland

(February 7) To begin the year 2003, the 100th anniversary of Korean Methodism in the United States, Bishop C. Joseph Sprague and several members of the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC) Staff Leadership Team met with Korean-American clergy and laity to discuss the current crisis in Korea.

The Rev. Jongmin Martin Lee, NIC director of Congregational Development and Redevelopment, coordinated the Jan. 25 gathering at Galilee Korean UMC in Glenview.

The Rev. Keyong Hee Lee, pastor of Galilee Korean UMC and chair of the United Methodist North Central Jurisdiction Korean Reunification Committee, reported on efforts of the United Methodist Church to feed victims of famine in North Korea by supporting noodle factories. He said current plans are to switch financial support to projects - such as greenhouses and farm equipment - that will enable North Koreans to grow more food crops.

The Rev. Hyesung Hong Lee, Ph.D. candidate at Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary, reviewed the history of relations between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK - North Korea). She said the basic characteristics of the relationship between the United States and North Korea have changed from enemy after the Korean War to “dialog partners” in the 1990s and back to “enemy relationship” since the beginning of the current Bush administration.

“The Bush administration has consistently shown its hostile policy towards the DPRK by calling it an ‘axis of evil,’ singling it out as a target of pre-emptive nuclear attack, by refusing to talk or negotiate and by stopping delivery of heavy oil to the DPRK,” Lee said. “All these are acts of breaking the 1993, 1994 and 2000 agreements between the U.S. and DPRK. In responding to this United States hostile policy, the DPRK has also declared its intention to break all agreements between the two [countries].”

Lee said she believes it is not too late for the United States government to return to the right track of building up its peaceful relationship with DPRK. She suggested that the United States honor the agreements made during the Clinton administration, stop its hostile policies, support inter-Korean dialogs and continue humanitarian aid to ease the hunger problems in North Korea.

Kwang Dong Jo, vice president of the Chicago Korean television broadcasting network, said he believes the Korean peninsula should be a nuclear free zone and urged the Bush administration to maintain pressure against North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons.

Responding to these comments, Bishop Sprague referred to the United Methodist Social Principles and Book of Resolutions which call for reunification of the nation of Korea “in any form possible through peaceful means in the earliest possible time.” He urged the group to continue to work for peace and reunification of their homeland.

“God always will make a way when there seems to be no way,” Bishop Sprague told the group, “if we will dare to sit at table with one another.”

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LaSalle Grace answers Upper Room prayer line

(February 7) Grace UMC, 1345 Chartres St., LaSalle, hosts the Upper Room Prayer Ministry dial-in line each Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers at the church answer calls and offer prayers for people who request them. Calls can come from virtually anywhere in the world, and callers ask the volunteers to pray with them for circumstances ranging from marital problems to disease, from financial difficulties to lonesomeness.

The Rev. Lynn Longenbaugh, pastor, said church volunteers answer between 16 to 20 calls per week. “I think the volunteers feel they are reaching out, touching people’s lives in a significant way,” he said. “I think they feel a closer connection with God.”

Longenbaugh said the volunteers feel strengthened and grow in their personal lives as well.

Volunteers Marlene Slogar and Ruth Kubberness agree the dial-in prayer line buoys them in their personal lives. “From experience, I know prayer really works,” says Slogar, an Oglesby resident who credits prayer by church members for helping her recovery from knee surgery.

Kubberness said, “You’re just thankful you can talk to them for a few minutes.”

Grace is part of a network that involves hundreds of churches to keep the Upper Room’s prayer line operating around the clock. Northern Illinois Conference’s United Methodist Men, for example, host the line for a day each fall during the organization’s retreat in Williams Bay, Wis.

At LaSalle, the volunteers gather for prayer to begin their shift and put their own concerns aside. When the phone rings, answerers ask the callers’ names and where they are calling from. Then they ask what they want prayed for. Answerers pray with the callers and then the request is forwarded to the Upper Room in Nashville to be sent to other prayer groups.

“I think we have every kind of emotion you can think of,” Kubberness said about callers. “By the time you leave, you’re exhausted. But it’s a good exhaustion.”

Joan Resetich, a missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries, volunteers at the LaSalle prayer center. She ties a piece of cloth to a large evergreen tree outside the church to remind everyone about the callers’ needs. “They’re there as a reminder that the prayers don’t just go out and fall on the ground,” Resetich said. “Those prayers, even though they come in today, go on.”

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Ingleside-Whitfield dedicates
Harley’s Haven for youths

(February 7) Ingleside-Whitfield UMC in Chicago recently dedicated Harley’s Haven Community Center, 76th St. and Ingleside Ave., Chicago. The community center, which occupies a former parsonage across the street from the church, was dedicated by two former pastors of Ingleside-Whitfield: Dr. Philip A. Harley, for whom the center is named, and Bishop Edsel Ammons (retired).

Harley’s Haven will offer programs aimed at neighborhood youths ages 5 to 18. Reading and math tutoring, homework help, college prep, a computer center and Bible study will be supplemented with entertainment.

“We also plan to have folks come in to do presentations for youths and the whole community, and facilitate a teen talk,” said the Rev. Felix Burrows, pastor of Ingleside-Whitfield.

12-year-old proposed concept

Burrows said the concept of the community center came from an Ingleside-Whitfield youth member, Ashley Garrison, who first proposed it at age 12 a few years ago.

“When I came here I was coming to live in that parsonage,” Burrows said. “When they started going through the checklist of what it would take to bring that parsonage up to code, it would almost cost as much to build a new home on that lot. Instead, we decided to convert it for ministry.”

Burrows said the biggest change required in the building was wiring, particularly to support a DSL line to access the Internet.

Foundation grant

The Northern Illinois Conference United Methodist Foundation helped the center get on its feet with a $3,000 grant, Burrows said. The church used that money to purchase equipment and board games. Members of the church have supplemented that with a ping pong table, air hockey and video games for the computer lab.

“A number of these kids don’t have these machines at home,” Burrows said. “So they go to the local lounge to play the games. There’s no video arcade in our community, so the lounge, of course, is problematic for kids to hang out in.”

The center will be open almost every day, Burrows said, and staffed by members of the congregation. “I hope that ultimately we can do some grant funding and get permanent paid staff over there,” he said. “Right now we have members of the church doing volunteer teaching.”

The director of the center is also a member of the church who works without pay.

“This has been a real churchwide project pulling this together,” Burrows said. “This is also a real nice opportunity for the community.”

Provide something to the community

Burrows described the center as an opportunity to serve beyond the walls of the church. “You have to reach out and provide something to the community,” he said. “This is a part of taking it out into the community and sharing the gift.

“We hope that through the educational and the entertainment components, we can begin to foster a different type of social culture for our youth,” Burrows said, “so they can realize a different way of life, not always in the street.”

Burrows said Hirsch High School is working with Ingleside-Whitfield on the center. The school’s principal, Dr. Mel Parker, participated in the dedication service.

The center is named for Phil Harley, who served Ingleside-Whitfield UMC from 1985 to 1990 and was a founder of the Pembroke Institute, a program to prepare African-American youths to understand their call to ministry.

For more information, call Ingleside-Whitfield UMC, 929 E. 76th St., (773) 483-7798.

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Crandall completes 20th consecutive year
as volunteer at Appalachia Service Project

(February 7) Esther Crandall, a member of Burritt Community Church in Rockford, completed her 20th consecutive year as a volunteer at Appalachia Service Project last year. Her 20th trip involved home rehabilitation in Lee County, Ky., where she was accompanied by three grandsons to work with her at the volunteer mission project that provides safer, warmer and dryer housing to people in impoverished areas of Appalachia.

Crandall said her involvement with Appalachia Service Project (ASP) began when her husband, the Rev. Ken Crandall, a retired Northern Illinois Conference clergy member, was serving at Roselle UMC (In the photo, Esther is shown on this past year’s trip with her grandson, Joe Crandall, a member of First UMC, Inverness, Fla.).

“A new associate pastor, Pam Couture Dunlap, had been active in ASP in her previous church and brought the program with her,” Crandall said. “When Ken was appointed to Lansing in 1982, I started ASP there and have been able to continue with them to date.”

Appalachia Service Project is a General Advance Special (#982050-1) of the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1969, ASP has served as the model for other home-repair work camp ministries. ASP provides cross-cultural, intergenerational mission service opportunities through which volunteers of all ages and skill levels, and building trades professionals, repair and rehabilitate existing homes and build new homes for low- income families in the central Appalachian regions of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. ASP works in the most economically depressed counties of the region.

During the summer of 2001 more than 12,700 volunteers participated through 23 centers (3 housing services centers and 20 temporary centers). The year-round programs through ASP’s three housing service centers facilitate the work of an additional 1,000 volunteers each summer.

Crandall said she has undertaken a wide variety of housing projects: roofing, eaves and soffits, adding rooms, building a new house twice from “scratch,” studding, insulating, dry walling, “lots of mudding” and taping, painting, putting up siding, building and or rebuilding porches, building an outhouse, digging trenches for a septic system, building a wheelchair ramp for an invalid and adding skirting. “The list seems endless,” she commented.

“Working with a family is very rewarding,” Crandall said. “Our youths and theirs work side by side and exchange details of their lives. Each learns from the other.”

Crandall said adults also come away feeling that they have received far more than they have given. “One lovely woman in whose home we were working summed up our relationship by saying, ‘There are no strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet,’” Crandall recalled. “This is the spirit of working with ASP.”

Four of Crandall’s grandsons have worked with her on these projects in recent years. She expects more who are coming of age to join. Phil and Joe Crandall, members of First UMC, Inverness, Fla., and Chris and Alex Crandall, members of United Protestant Church in Grayslake, have participated so far.

“I can think of no better way to build character, loving concern and the spirit of mission in young people and adults alike than participation in the Appalachia Service Project,” Crandall said. “It has been and continues to be a lodestone in my life.”

For more about ASP, contact its offices at 4523 Bristol Hwy., Johnson City, TN 37601, or visit the Advance web site, http://gbgm-umc.org/advproj. Enter the Advance number to pull up a description of ASP.

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2 Districts to conduct Valentine
Youth dance at Glenview UMC

(February 7) When asked what social events they wanted to hold during the next year, the incoming officers of Glenview United Methodist Youth included a dance on their wish list. After all, the church social hall was being completely renovated and already had an “awesome” sound and lighting system (complete with large screen video capabilities). Never wanting to think small, Youth Director Chris Ernst encouraged them to make it a districtwide event.

“With an ideal facility already in place, I wanted to make sure that the dance was open to a large group of youths,” Ernst said. The first order of business was to pitch the idea to the District Youth. In September he attended a Council of Youth Ministry (CYM) meeting of the Chicago Northwestern District and pitched the idea. It received an enthusiastic response.

Valentine’s Day seemed like the perfect date to hold a youth dance. “It was far enough in the future to allow groups to get it on their calendars,” Ernst said. “It was a Friday night, and the facility was available.”

Having a green light, Ernst brought his Youth Group President Renee Giometti and Secretary Justin Zabielski into the planning. They worked with the Chicago Northwestern and Elgin District CYMs to plan the event.

A DJ from BAM Musical Pro-ductions was hired to provide music for the dance, which was advertised through flyers, phone calls, e-mails and word of mouth. A web page (www.glenviewumc.com/dance/) was created so people with Internet access could get the information and even print flyers.

“Besides having a good time, an underlying goal of hosting the dance is to bring the combined resources of Elgin and Chicago Northwestern Districts together and see what kind of interest we can generate,” Ernst said. “By holding a large event like this, maybe more youths will be interested in volunteering their time and help to plan future events.”

There will also be a penny competition between the Chicago Northwestern and Elgin District youths to benefit mission and youth work here and abroad.

The dance, which is open to Junior and Senior High District youth groups, will be Friday, Feb. 14, at Glenview UMC, 727 Harlem Ave., from 7 to 11 p.m. No one will be admitted after 10 p.m. There is a $2 admission fee and youth groups are asked to bring one adult for every seven youths.

Concessions will be available for purchase and there will be a couple of game rooms for those who want to take a break from dancing. For further information or to volunteer to help for an hour during the dance, please visit the web site or send an e-mail to cernst@glenviewumc.com.

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