Another Pro-homosexuality UM Bishop Elected |
|
To:
UMNS-ALL-NEWS@UMCGROUPEMAIL.ORG Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:54 AM Subject: [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 04306-Hee-Soo Jung elected a bishop of the United Methodist Church Hee-Soo Jung elected a bishop of the United Methodist Church
Jul. 15, 2004 News media contact: Linda Green * (615) 7425470* Nashville {04306} DAVENPORT, Iowa (UMNS) -- The Rev. Hee-Soo Jung of Appleton, Wis., has been elected a bishop by the North Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church. Jung, superintendent of the Nicolet District of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, was elected Thursday, July 15. He will fill one of the vacancies created in the denomination's North Central Jurisdictional College of Bishops by the retirements of three bishops. A consecration service for the new bishops will be held at 9:30 a.m. July 17 at St. John's United Methodist Church. An episcopal assignment committee is already considering where Jung and other active bishops will serve for the next four years. Their assignments will be effective Sept. 1. Endorsed by the Wisconsin Annual Conference, the North Central Jurisdiction Urban Network and Town and Country Ministry Association, the National Federation of Asian-American United Methodists and the National Association on Korean-American United Methodist Churches, Jung was elected on the third ballot, receiving 174 votes of 328 votes cast. The number of votes needed to elect was 173.
A jurisdictional conference has the following power and duties: · To elect bishops. · To determine the boundaries of annual conferences.
******************** United Methodist News Service Statement of United Methodists of Color For A Fully Inclusive ChurchWe are United Methodist men and women, who love God and know that we are loved by God. We are United Methodists who celebrate the God-given gifts of our ethnicity, our gender, and our sexuality. We are United Methodists who not only acknowledge the historic racism of the church, but also the subtler present day forms of racism and division in our midst. We know this to be true, for we have experienced it as people of color in the church we love. Indeed, our love for the promise of the church has placed us on the forefront of moving the United Methodist Church to a more inclusive place. We are people who have experienced the biblical story of the anawim, "those who have been silenced." Our struggle has been to claim our voice and to transform the church we love into a place where the silenced are heard. We affirm that it has been through this struggle, when the church has lived out the gospel of love and inclusion, that the realm of God's justice has been made manifest. We remember all too well those voices who said racism was not present in the church. We remember those voices who wielded scripture as a support for division and inequality. We remember the voices who pled patience to inequality by claiming that justice was gradual. We remember the time when silence in the presence of racism was the church's greatest sin. As persons of color and diverse ethnic backgrounds, we can never forget our long history of struggling to not be erased by a beloved church where silence and spiritual dismemberment were theologically institutionalized. Scripture is the Word of Life, but we intuitively know the history of its use as the Word of Death, to support the sins of colonialism, slavery, racism, and sexism. We all know Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people. Seen or unseen, they are vital members of our communities. For many of us, they have been our invisible neighbors, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, cherished members in the community of life. Indeed, we recognize that throughout history, our church and our communities have benefited from the gifts of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender people. But in return for their gifts, we have given these brothers and sisters silence or scorn. When they have asked for their name and acknowledgement of their place as worthy members in the family of God, they have been answered with continued overt or subtle forms of spiritual and physical violence. We can not and will not deny that we recognize in the experiences of our Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender brothers and sisters the resonance of our own journeys as people of color in the church. We see the truth in the words of Coretta Scott King when she says that the struggles for inclusion of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people are part of the "continuing justice movement" for which Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life, a movement that "thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion." We are called to bear witness to the need for our beloved church to do good by its Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender brothers and sisters. Remembering the voices that told us to be silent or passive, to give up our culture and history in order to be accepted by the dominant white society and church, we reject the idea that Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender people need to reshape themselves or be "cured" in order to fit in to the dominant heterosexual society and church. Our own experience of silence and erasure has taught us that abandoning identity is spiritual violence. Remembering the voices who have told us to wait on justice, we dispute the notion that issues of race and nationality are so overwhelming that to fight for another issue of injustice is to water down the movement. For the storehouses of God's justice do not run low, and we must recognize the interconnectedness of all forms of oppression if we are ever to achieve the Kindom. The realm of God is at hand. We acknowledge that there may be differences of opinion among us, but this does not require that we wait on justice. We will not wait on racism. Inaction is impossible. For in the current climate, where difference is often answered with death, the church is either an instrument of peace, or an instrument of violence. The United Methodist Church must act boldly to end further injury to the Body of Christ. In the spirit of Justice that has historically called us to move towards wholeness, we prayerfully call the church to accountability. Rev. Gil Caldwell, African AmericanDan Vera, Cuban-American Rev. Taka Ishii, Japanese-American Inday Day, Filipina-American Mark Miller, African American Nestor Gerente, Filipino Rev. Eun Sang Lee, Korean-American Rev. Minerva G. Carcaño, Hispanic Rev. Ted Lockhart, African American Jorge Lockward, Dominican Republic Barbara Ricks Thompson, African American Rev. Dean S.H.Yamamoto, Japanese American Scott E. Manning, African American Rev. Ariel Ferrari, Hispanic Rev. Carol Youngbird-Holt, Native American Christine L. Rembert, African-American/Caucasian Rev. Yvonne Lee, Korean-American Rev. Eric Smith, African American Rev. Edwina Burton, African American Rev. Sione Tukutau, Tongan American Rev. Stephen Koc Jan Lee, Chinese American Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka, Japanese American Rev. Alpha Goto, Japanese American Rev. Lydia E. Lebròn Rivera, Puerto Rican Rev. Wesley Yamaka, Japanese-American Rev. Hidemi Ito, Japanese American Rev. Willard A. Williams, African American Rev. Charlotte Pridgen-Randolph, African American Rev. Wesley Williams, African American Rev. Benjamin Abrahams, African American Rev. Luis S. Reyes, Puerto Rican Bob Smith, African American Rev. Gel Samson, Filipino Rev. Traci West, African American Lori M. Magistrado, Filipina-American Rev. Estan Cueto, Filipino Rev. Keith Inouye, Japanese American Rev. Amy C. Wake, Japanese American Rev. Lloyd Wake, Japanese American Rev. Toshi Yamamoto, Japanese American Rev. Renae Extrum-Fernandez, Hispanic Rev. Eddie Lopez, Jr. Puerto Rican (Boricua) Rev. Douglass E. Fitch, African American Rev. Donna M. Butts, African-American Toni Victoria Lambert African American/Native American Rev. Ben Silva-Netto, Filipino American Bruce Baker - Native American/Mexican Lisa Gay Santiago, Filipino American Paul Extrum-Fernandez, Hispanic Rev. Youtha C. Hardman-Cromwell, African American Jay J. Vega, Mexican American Rev. Teresa Santillana, Peruana-Americana Rev. Dr. Fernando Santillana, Peruano-Americano Rev. Dr. Donald F. Guest, African American Ki Han, Korean Laura Tucker, African American Enid Fyle-Taylor, West African American Christina Cansler, African American, Mexican American and Filipina American Darren Zane English, Aboriginal/Native American Claudia Perry, African American Rev. Sherman W. Harris, American Indian/African Matthew M. Downing, African American Hugh Blackman, Afro-Caribbean Anita Sarah Jackson, East Indian American Rev. Dr. Raponzil Drake Stockard Aaron Chan, Chinese American Mary Sacred Heart, Native American Indian Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, African American Rev. Dr. James Lawson, African American Rev. José Orlando Rivera, Puerto-Rican Virginia Phoenix, African American Rev. Noah Reyes Panlilio, Filipino Rev. Hee-Soo Jung, Korean American Rev. Elizabeth S. Tapia, Filipina Elbis Santana, Dominican/Latino Sidney Sadio, African American Randy Miller, African American Phil Lawson, African American Eddie Kelemeni, Pacific Islander Beverly J. Shamana, African American Marisa Villareal, Mexican American Shirley White, Native American Rev. Kathy W. Reeves, African American Mary Padilla, Puertoriqueña Jos‚ Santoyo, Hispanic American Noe C. Valderama, Filipino Gladys P. Mangiduyos, Filipina Edgarde de Jesus, Filipino Marie Sol Villalonn, Filipina Carmelita L. Matias, Filipino Thomas Kimball, African American Danilo Fernandez, Filipino Chita R. Millan, Filipino Corazon T. Factora, Filipino Manuel Rapisura, Filipino Lina D. Villanueva, Filipino Anita Sarah Jackson, East Indian American Rev. Annalise Fonza, African American Deborah Balentine-Crose, African-American Patricia A. O. Unubun, African-American Ressie Mae Bass, African American Roger Green, African American Adrienne Fong, Chinese-American Shirley Readdean, African American Marian B. McCray, African American Neal Christie, Asian Indian-American Reverend Lily M. Villamin, Filipina-American Rev. Lily M. Villamin, Filipina-American Rev. Franklin Sablan, Guamanian, Pacific Islander Ian Joseph Kaili Hu, Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Japanese American David Scott Lubbers, Mexican-Spanish American |
|