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umportal org Green power


Powerhouse garden helps church survive | 4B


Calling on God


A pastor shares his ups, downs with prayer | 6B


United Methodist Year of the UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO BY MIKE DUBOSE


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won re-election this year as president of Liberia, and also shared in the Nobel Peace Prize. A faithful United Methodist, she’s seen here speaking to the 2008 General Conference of the UMC, in Fort Worth, Texas.


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf leads Liberia, wins Nobel


BY MARY JACOBS Staff Writer


For her work in peace-building


and championing women’s rights in Liberia—and in turn, inspiring women around the world—Liberian president and Nobel Peace Prize- winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the Reporter’s 2011 United Methodist of the Year. “She is, in my view, an illustration


of what God can do through the United Methodist Church, in terms of making a disciple of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” said Boston Area Bishop Peter D. Weaver.


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became


Africa’s first democratically elected female president in 2005, and is widely credited with helping Liberia to emerge from a brutal civil war. Ms. Sirleaf was one of three women who received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December. “We are celebrating her achieve-


ments and consider it an achieve- ment of the entire church and the Liberian people,” said the Rev. Jerry Kulah, superintendent of the Mon- rovia district in Liberia. Raised in the United Methodist


faith and educated at a United Methodist-affiliated high school, Ms.


Sirleaf is an active member of First United Methodist in Monrovia, Liberia. Many who have met her say her faith deeply informs her leader- ship. “She has a sense that her life and


her talent ought to be given to trying to make this world look a little like the kingdom of heaven,” Bishop Weaver said.


Destined to lead Ms. Sirleaf was born in Monrovia,


the granddaughter of a Liberian chief. In her autobiography, This Child Shall Be Great (2009), Ms. Sir- leaf relates a family story about an


old man who visited shortly after her birth, took one look at the infant and proclaimed, “This child shall be great. This child is going to lead.” For years, Ms. Sirleaf wrote, the


comment seemed like a cruel joke. Married at age 17, later the mother of four sons, she felt trapped in an abu- sive marriage and struggled to pur- sue her education. However, Ms. Sirleaf was able to


eventually complete her education. She attended high school at the United Methodist-affiliated College of West Africa in Monrovia, and later studied at Madison Business College  See ‘Liberia’ page 8B


Wesleyan Wisdom


Once upon a time UMC wasn’t ‘vanilla’ | 7B


Section B January 6, 2012


Christianity holds share, expands reach


BY SAM HODGES Managing Editor


Back in 1910, Christians accounted


for about one-third of the world’s pop- ulation, and that’s the case today, a new study by the Pew Forum on Reli- gion & Public Life shows. But Pew researchers also found


that the geography of Christianity has changed profoundly. Christianity has become truly global, showing rapid growth in Africa and Asia, remaining strong in North and South America, and losing ground in Europe. “The Pew Forum study gives spe-


cific numbers to a phenomenon United Methodists know well—the Christian church looks very different today than it did 100 years ago,” said Bishop Scott Jones of the Kansas Area, who chairs the Committee to Study the Worldwide Nature of the United Methodist Church. As world population has grown, so


has the number of Christians. They now total about 2.18 billion, the study found, making Christianity easily the world’s largest religion, followed by Islam. But in 1910, about two-thirds of


the world’s Christians lived in Europe, the center of the faith for centuries. Now only about one-quarter do.


 See ‘Expands’ page 2B


Bishop Scott Jones


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