2025marchcurrent

GENERAL CHURCH NEWS

USAID freeze strikes Africa University

COMMITTEE BEGINS ITS THEOLOGICAL WORK Bishop David Bard chairs Committee on Faith and Order BY HEATHER HAHN ATLANTA – The United Methodist Committee on Faith

BY JIM PATTERSON OLD MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNews) – United Methodist aid efforts in Africa are suffering, and thousands of employees aren’t getting their paychecks, after the Trump administration froze funding to the federal agency that provides aid and development help around the world. A 90-day freeze on foreign aid was imposed on the inauguration day of President Trump. The freeze shuttered worldwide programs at the United States Agency for International Development. Now thousands of agency employees are on administrative leave, its Washington headquarters closed and its website shut down. At Africa University, a pan-African United Methodist university in Zimbabwe, programs researching malaria and tuberculosis were halted and staff members on those efforts were no longer getting their paychecks. In Zimbabwe alone, 25,000 people were affected by the freeze, said James H. Salley, president and chief executive officer of Africa University. “The United States is the largest contributor of humanitarian aid in the country of Zimbabwe,” Salley said. “Some people are not eating; they have no idea where their next dollar will come from.” The freeze had an immediate $1.2 million impact on Africa University, Salley said. On malaria research alone, 30 people aren’t getting their salaries. “Our shared United Methodist values compel us to help and not hurt the most vulnerable in our midst, which includes our global neighbors,” said Bishop Julius C. Trimble, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society. “For the U.S. to abruptly renege on its congressional commitments to fund extremely vital programs for the most vulnerable in the world by withholding life-saving food and medicine from children, the sick and elderly is astounding, shameful and deeply un-Christian.” Trimble added: “Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’” Efforts to counter the USAID cuts were limited at Africa University to education in its spheres of influence “to help make them aware of how dire things are when USAID is not up and running in the country of Zimbabwe,” Salley said.

and Order is one of the bodies helping to develop the General Book of Discipline. The committee is responsible for guiding the denomination in informed theological reflection and discernment. The committee, whose members include United Methodist scholars and ecumenical leaders from around the globe, has additional tasks assigned by last year’s General Conference. The group met together immediately before the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters’ meeting in Atlanta to do its work. “I’m delighted with the committee we’ve got,” said Bishop David A. Bard, the committee’s chair. He also leads the Michigan and Illinois Great Rivers conferences. “Our meeting has gone very well. People are active and engaged. And there’s a really good energy.” The committee has four main projects over the next four years, each with its own working group. • Revising the proposed theological statement “Sent in Love: A United Methodist Understanding of the Church,” which articulates why United Methodists have church in the first place. • Reviewing United Methodist sacramental theology in light of online worship that gained popularity during the COVID pandemic. • Drafting a statement on Christian unity and interchurch relationships. • Examining the theology of regionalization. As part of the work on sacramental theology, the committee plans to conduct a survey to determine how churches with online services are handling the sacrament of Holy Communion. “Not that practice necessarily dictates the theological reflection,” Bard said. “But it’s good to know what’s happening out there.” BY HEATHER HAHN ATLANTA (UM News) – United Methodist leaders from four continents are moving forward with a years-long effort to restructure the denomination’s main policy book. They want to make clear what parts of the Book of Discipline are essentials that bind all United Methodists together and what parts can be adapted in the church’s different geographic regions. For the longest time, this project has only involved determining what is adaptable in the denomination’s central conferences — eight church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines that each consist of multiple bodies called annual conferences. Under the denomination’s constitution, central conferences long have held the right to make “such changes and adaptations” to the Discipline’s administrative section as missional needs and differing legal contexts require. Now, regionalization — a package of constitutional amendments up for a vote in annual conferences this year — potentially adds a new wrinkle to the work. Under regionalization, the central conferences and the church in the U.S. would each become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt the Discipline. To be ratified, at least two-thirds of the total voters at this year’s annual conferences will need to support the measure. Bishops expect to announce the voting results in early November. But regardless of whether regionalization is ratified, the work will continue to create a more globally relevant policy

UMNews file photo by Mike DuBose (ABOVE) An instructor and student share a teaching microscope at Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in 2017. (LEFT) Africa University, a United Methodist-related university in Zimbabwe, was impacted $1.2 million when the Trump administration froze disbursements to USAID projects on inauguration day. This illustration breaks down some of the cuts. Graphic information courtesy of Africa University.

Africa University’s employees are primarily locals, so they are not affected by the call to return to the U.S., Salley said. Salley is planning to fundraise to help alleviate the damage, but he said he doesn’t think he can raise $1.6 million to completely compensate for the loss of USAID funds. “The immediate thing that comes to my mind is when COVID hit, we had individuals who provided gifts specifically to keep people working,” Salley said. “So that's what makes me optimistic. I believe in people and folk coming to our assistance.” Trimble suggested people concerned about the situation help by contacting Congress’s switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and telling U.S. representatives to restore “the funding for the United States Agency for International Development and save lives.” Salley declared himself optimistic that a solution would be forthcoming. “We have come this far by faith,” he said. “With man, it’s impossible, but with God, all things are possible.… When other folk counted us out, when other people, when other governments and when other regimes said ‘no,’ God said ‘yes,’ and I believe that now. “We stand on what God has done once, God will do again. So that’s why I’m optimistic.” (Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tenn.) General Conference as well as a lay and clergy member from each central conference. Its authority will be similar to that of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, which also acts as a legislative committee during General Conference reviewing all petitions related to the central conferences. Just as with the standing committee, anything the new U.S. Regional Committee supports will have to go before the full international General Conference plenary for approval. “Without the ratification of regionalization, the U.S. will still depend on General Conference,” Rückert told United Methodist News. “They have to go through General Conference for everything, and I don’t think that they really want that.” If a new U.S. Regional Conference is established with ratification, the U.S. Regional Committee will cease to exist. Whatever happens, Dr. Glenn Paraso is among the United Methodists excited to see where work on a new more global Discipline goes. Paraso is a lay member of the standing committee and chief executive of the Mary Johnston Hospital in the Philippines. “It’s like defining a new path in order to govern better,” he told UM News. “Hopefully, if we consider context and culture, because of our diversity, then maybe we can live into our ministries more. The U.S. will be the U.S. The Philippines will be the Philippines. And Africa will be Africa. So maybe our diversity will make us unite better.” (Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News.)

In addition to the 90-day freeze, the Trump administration, led in part by businessman Elon Musk, has made plans to shut down USAID and possibly move its functions under the U.S. State Department. President John F. Kennedy established the United States Agency for International Development by executive order based on authority given in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. In 1998, U.S. Congress enshrined USAID as an executive agency under U.S. law. Many legal experts say only an act of Congress could eliminate USAID, and they add that the current dismantling of the agency by Musk and others in the Trump administration violates U.S. law. In the past year, the agency has worked to alleviate poverty and disease in more than 100 countries, often in coordination with faith-based partners. On Feb. 6, The New York Times reported the Trump administration’s plans to reduce the number of USAID workers from a staff of more than 10,000 to about 290 positions. That same day, officials learned that about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency were being canceled. As of Feb. 7, almost all of the agency’s direct hires were put on administrative leave and its roster of foreign service officers given 30 days to return to the U.S. the biggest section in the denomination’s policy book. To decide what’s adaptable, the standing committee has worked with three other denominational leadership bodies — the Committee on Faith and Order, the Ministry Study Commission and the Connectional Table. Much of what the leaders are doing is going through Part VI’s paragraphs one by one to see what can be adapted in local contexts. Whatever they deem adaptable, they propose moving to a new Part VII in the Book of Discipline. This new part of the Discipline would still be required in the United States should regionalization not be ratified. But if regionalization is ratified, Rückert suggested the standing committee might ask General Conference not to include the new Part VII in the Discipline. Instead, the Part VII would become simply a blueprint for regional conferences’ own Regional Books of Discipline. “The question of whether or not the adaptable portions that we identify will be part of a global Book of Discipline or not, we can decide a little bit later,” Rückert told the standing committee. “The work still is very important.” A new committee Even if regionalization does not pass, last year’s General Conference approved a change in how the church deals with matters that relate solely to the U.S. The Discipline’s new Paragraph 507 details a new United States Regional Committee, which will act as a legislative committee during General Conference reviewing all petitions that pertain to the U.S. The committee will consist of all U.S. delegates elected to

UMNews photo by Heather Hahn The United Methodist Church’s Committee on Faith and Order met alongside the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters. The Faith and Order Committee, whose members include United Methodist scholars and ecumenical leaders, is responsible for guiding the denomination in informed theological reflection and discernment. It also is helping the standing committee in developing a General Book of Discipline that includes the essentials for the denomination.

The committee is particularly eager to complete its work on “Sent in Love,” a project of more than 16 years. General Conference last year asked the committee to revise the Sent in Love document to better reflect the worldwide nature of the church and make the writing more accessible to people without seminary degrees. “‘Sent in Love’ is our basic understanding of the church,” Bard said. “We want all of the other pieces to be consistent with that, so we don’t have a statement about unity that somehow doesn’t fit.” During its recent meeting the committee also sent a book — what leaders are calling a General Book of Discipline. “It helps us to better understand the worldwide nature of the church,” Germany’s Bishop Harald Rückert said. “So even if the structures cannot follow at this point — because ratification fails — the thinking has changed to be a worldwide connection.” Rückert is the chair of the 2025-28 Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, which spent much of its organizing meeting Jan. 26-29 focused on reinvigorating its work on the Discipline overhaul. The meeting took place at the headquarters of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in Atlanta. Ultimately, Rückert and other church leaders hope United Methodists ratify regionalization — which the standing committee developed alongside the Connectional Table and a grassroots group called the Christmas Covenant. They also hope the 2028 General Conference will approve the standing committee’s recommendations for the General Book of Discipline. Without regionalization, the portions deemed adaptable will still apply in the United States. The Rev. Nelly W. Wright, a new standing committee member from Liberia, said she felt blessed to be part of the discussion. “People from all around the world are part of this group,” she said. “They have different understandings, different educational backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds. We are gathered together to come up with decisions that will lead our church.”

letter of support to Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, whose Jan. 21 sermon at Washington National Cathedral has drawn attention worldwide. The sermon has prompted both vitriol and praise after she urged President Trump to show mercy to vulnerable people. “You inspired and encouraged us,” the committee wrote. “As a committee we found your sermon profoundly rooted in the prophetic tradition of our shared Christian faith, while being delivered with gentleness and respect.”

EFFORT TO REIMAGINE DISCIPLINE MOVES FORWARD

How the project began

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General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking body, in 2012 assigned the standing committee to identify what in the Discipline truly applies around the globe. The committee is the only denomination-wide body where a majority of members live outside the U.S. The goal is to make the policy book — and United Methodist Church governance in general — less U.S.-centric. Since 2012, the standing committee has been working with members of other denominational leadership bodies to comb through the Discipline. Both in 2016 and last year, the standing committee provided drafts to General Conference delegates and sought feedback from annual conferences across the connection. Last year’s General Conference gave the mandate for the effort to continue. The legislative assembly also gave the standing committee permission to propose changes to the Discipline’s language where needed for more global resonance. Retired Bishop Patrick Streiff, who was the standing committee’s chair when the work began, told the church leaders meeting in Atlanta that their job is to decide what in the Discipline deals with matters that are “distinctively connectional.” “General Conference has the authority on everything that is distinctively connectional,” he said. “But what does that mean? Is it the whole book that General Conference edits? Really? Or is there a way that some of these things are adaptable in different regions?” Determining what is really connectional and

applicable worldwide, he said, will require “a lot of listening to each other and our different cultures and situations.” Streiff’s hope is that the work will result in a General Book of Discipline that is much slimmer and easier to understand and translate than what The United Methodist Church has now. He also hopes the new Discipline will contain fewer redundancies and repeated requirements using the word “shall.” “It will create a covenant of who we want to be together instead of all these detailed rules and innumerable ‘shalls,’” he told those gathered in Atlanta. What’s under discussion General Conference already has determined that certain parts of the Discipline absolutely are not adaptable. Changing these provisions requires at least General Conference action and possibly annual conference action, too. The non-adaptable parts, listed in the Discipline’s Paragraph 101, are: • The Constitution • Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task • The Ministry of All Christians • The Social Principles. Altogether, that makes the first 147 pages of the new 2020/2024 Discipline non-adaptable. That still leaves the Book of Discipline’s Part VI, Organization and Administration. At 663 pages, Part VI is

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