Around the World in 60 Seconds Fall 2017
With many branches of the Wesleyan Methodist family tree stretching around the globe, we hope to keep you connected to ongoing activities, celebrations, and challenges that about 80 million of our sisters and brothers from about 80 Methodist denominations are encountering.
*In Great Britain, the Methodist Church has issued congratulations to ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, on its receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Vice President of the Methodist Conference Jill Baker stated,
This recognition of the important work of ICAN with the Nobel Peace prize could not be more appropriate. Through this campaign, peace activists, lawyers, city mayors, faith leaders, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and many others are speaking with one voice. The message is clear: there can be no moral or legal justification for threatening whole populations with devastating and indiscriminate nuclear weapons.
*As just one sample of the devastation in the Caribbean. The Wesleyan Church reports on the scale of damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria on Wesleyan churches and educational institutions in Puerto Rico. According to this report, the communities most affected are Aguas Buenas, Dorado, Humacao, Levittown, and Vega Alta.
*The Methodist Church in Brazil has been probing the responsibility of the church towards refugees. Learn more about Pastor Roberto Lugon as “he shared the experience of welcoming a Syrian family in the Methodist Church in Carlos Prates, Belo Horizonte.”
*The World Methodist Council has published a statement expressing grave concern at the persecution of Rohingya people in Myanmar. It reads, in part,
We condemn the violence, persecution and human rights abuses of the Rohingya by Rakhine Buddhists and government personnel, and we appeal to State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to stop the abuse and to ensure that the rights of minorities are protected. We call on the United Nations, Amnesty International and other agencies to assist in halting the atrocities against Rohingya’s Muslims and to provide relief for those who fled the violence.
We call upon the World Methodist family and all persons of good will to pray for these people who have not been given the dignity of a home and citizenship, and we pray for an end to these abuses of human rights.
*Recently Church of the Nazarene members living in refugee camps took up collections to aid the relief of those in Sierra Leone suffering the effects of devastating mudslides. “Church members in refugee camps in the Horn of Africa, where there is severe famine, sold their maize allocation so they could donate to help survivors in Sierra Leone.”
*The Korean Methodist Church is marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with a special exhibition, “The Reformation and the Bible.”
These snapshots are a brief glimpse of just a few dynamics among Wesleyan Methodists around our world.
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