2 FAITH focus FAITH WATCH
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BISHOPS Continued from page 1B Bishops were reminded during a
Pastor helps Dems with voter outreach The Democratic National Committee has named the Rev. Derrick Harkins, senior pastor of Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washing- ton, D.C., to lead the Demo- cratic Party’s religious outreach effort. President Obama, who will lead the Democratic ticket in 2012, worshipped at the church just before his inauguration.
Faith leaders press ‘Voice’ on website Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist leaders signed an ad in the New York Times, asking that Village Voice Media drop the adult section of
BackPage.com, claiming the section abets child sex trafficking. Religion News Service reported that the ad ran Oct. 25 in the Times, and that it lists 14 states in which news media have re- ported arrests of adults for selling minors for sex through
BackPage.com. A spokesman for the site said safety measures have been introduced.
Muslim group wants Patriot Act revisions Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group, has released a 56-page report recommend- ing legal and policy changes to enforcement of the Patriot Act, Religion News Service reported. The report’s re- lease was timed to the 10th anniversary of the anti-ter- rorism law. The FBI is ac- cused in the report of religious profiling.
Atheists’ billboard misquotes Jefferson An atheist group in Califor- nia is getting some heat for a billboard that quotes Thomas Jefferson as highly critical of Christianity. Jeffer- son experts say there’s no evidence that he said “I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology.” The sign in Costa Mesa, Calif., was paid for by a group called Back- yard Skeptics, and one member acknowledged he should have done more re- search before ordering it, the Orange County Register re- ported.
—Compiled by Sam Hodges
video presentation this week of the UMC’s downward spiral in the United States, having gone from 10.7 million members in 1968 to 7.7 million in 2009. Worship attendance dropped 20 percent in that time, while average age of membership climbed to 57.
Stark realities The denomination is not only
smaller but less racially diverse, de- spite population growth and increas- ing diversity in the United States. In recent years, bishops have
pushed for change, helping to initiate the Call to Action effort that led to two major outside studies of the church, including one that found only 15 per- cent of UMC congregations in North America are “highly vital” by various measures. Key responsibility for enacting
change rests with General Conference. That quadrennial gathering of roughly 1,000 clergy and lay delegates ap- proves the UMC budget (projected to be cut by 6 percent in 2012) and has overall governance. Bishops preside at General Conference but don’t vote. Early in their meeting, the bishops
overwhelmingly approved a letter ti- tled “For the Sake of a New World, We See a New Church: A Call to Action,” and it asks General Conference for
various reforms. “We see a new church,” the letter
says. “It is a church that is clear about its mission and confident about its fu- ture. . . .” Specifically, the bishops called for
giving annual conferences freedom to organize for “greater fruitfulness,” and reallocating up to $60 million in church funds for the vital congrega- tions effort. In a straw vote, bishops made clear
that they want $50 million of that to come under the control of annual con- ferences rather than general agencies. “The annual conference is in a bet-
ter position to implement these adap- tive challenges,” said Kentucky Conference Bishop Lindsey Davis, using the term that has come to sum- marize the need to redirect resources to boosting the number of vital con- gregations. The bishops also backed creating a
Center for Connectional Mission and Ministry under one 15-member board that would combine functions of the Connectional Table and nine general agencies. And the bishops reiterated that
they want as their council president a “set aside” bishop who wouldn’t have a conference to oversee, instead devot- ing full time to implementation of re- forms and other church-wide work.
UMNS PHOTO BY RONNY PERRY
Bishop Charles W. Jordan (left) and Bishop Elias G. Galvan have a discussion at the Council of Bishops meeting.
Already, racial/ethnic caucuses
and the Methodist Federation for So- cial Action have expressed concern that restructuring agencies under one board will concentrate power and could minimize minority input. During the meeting bishops had
considerable discussion about reform, and even went through an exercise of anonymously writing their hopes, fears and questions about key propos- als on “post-its” that were placed on posters around the conference room. Ultimately, they overwhelmingly voted for approving the letter.
One dissenter was Bishop Elaine
Stanovsky of the Denver Episcopal Area. Earlier, she failed to get the bish- ops to take straw votes on various proposals within the letter. She said she was concerned about
“not being able to give that nuanced response” but agrees reform is crucial. “The status quo is not working
and we really need to change it,” she said. “I will not go home and speak against this [letter] in my conference. I’ll represent it positively.”
shodges@umr.org Retired Bishop Duecker dies at age 85
BY KATHY GILBERT United Methodist News Service
Retired United Methodist Bishop
Robert Sheldon Duecker died Oct. 28 in Fort Wayne, Ind., after a long battle with cancer. He was 85. The Rev. Roy A. Eaton of Fort
Wayne said he and Duecker became good friends after the bishop retired. “From 1995 to today we spent every week together. There was a group of us who had lunch every Friday,” Mr. Eaton said.
“He was a good preacher, adminis-
trator and a tremendous friend,” Mr. Eaton said. “He knew he was dying, and the last time I saw him he said, ‘I don’t mind dying, but I dread the process.’” Bishop Michael Coyner, who leads
the denomination’s Indiana Confer- ence, said Duecker had an “even more amazing ministry after his retire- ment.” Bishop Coyner said Duecker
served as interim pastor, headed a drive to raise funds for Africa Univer-
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sity and was honorary chair of the conference’s camping ministry. A resi- dence hall at United Methodist-affili- ated Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, was dedicated in his honor. “I visited him a number of times
and recently in hospice,” Bishop Coyner said. “He was ready to go, and we are grateful he had a peaceful pass- ing.”
The UMC’s North Central Jurisdic-
tion elected Duecker a bishop in 1988 and assigned him to the Chicago Area. Duecker was ordained an elder in
the former North Indiana Conference by Bishop Richard C. Raines in 1953. He served as an associate pastor of Kokomo Grace and as pastor at Dyer, Muncie-Gethsemane, Hartford City, Warsaw-First, Fort Wayne-Simpson and Muncie-High Street United Methodist churches. He also served as North Indiana Conference council di- rector from 1973 to 1977 and as Fort Wayne District superintendent from 1977 to 1982. Duecker was an elected delegate to
four sessions of General Conference, the denomination’s lawmaking body, and to six sessions of the North Cen- tral Jurisdictional Conference. He was the author of several arti-
NOVEMBER 11, 2011 | UNITED MET HODI S T REPORTER
cles and of one book, Tensions in the Connection (Abingdon, 1983). Duecker was named a “Sagamore
of the Wabash” by Indiana Gov. Robert Orr in September 1988. The award recognizes Indiana citizens who have made outstanding contributions to the state. He and Marjorie
Louise Clouse were married in 1948 and celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary this year. Other sur- vivors include a daughter, Cristine Holman of Fort Wayne; and three brothers: Heyman of Marion, Ind.; Ronald of Wooster, Ohio; and Dennis of Medina, Ohio; three grandchildren, Carrie Haney of Atlanta, Robert Haney of Morristown, N.J.; and Lori Haney of Fort Wayne; and a great-granddaughter, Jaden Housman of Fort Wayne. He was pre- ceded in death by a son, the Rev. Philip Lee, in 2000, and by two broth- ers, Sherrod and Victor. A memorial service was held Nov.
Bishop Duecker
5 at First Wayne Street UMC in Fort Wayne, where he served as bishop-in- residence after his retirement.
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