Title: Disciples challenge Cuba embargo, call for welfare reform monitoring
Date: August 4, 1997 Disciples News Service Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
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DENVER (DNS) -- Nearly 8,500 members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) descended upon the Colorado Convention Center here July 25-29 as its General Assembly debated a number of international and domestic issues, including the Cuba trade embargo and welfare reform.
The 8,411 registrations represented the highest number of Disciples present for the biennial gathering since the contentious 1991 assembly in Tulsa. There, the anticipated election of a controversial nominee for general minister and president, in part, attracted nearly 9,000 persons.
A near-record number of youth -- 1,160 -- also took part in the Denver assembly. While here they helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity, painted and repaired park benches, and tackled other volunteer service projects.
The youth focus continued with a July 27 speech by children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman. She challenged the denomination to take a stand for healthy children by supporting legislation aimed at providing insurance for children of poor families. Health care is a solvable problem, said the Children's Defense Fund executive. No parent should have to face the "two-front battle of dealing with their child's disease and health care poverty in our wealthy nation."
The assembly continued its opposition to the U.S.-led Cuba trade embargo, called for removal of U.S. military from Okinawa and emphasized the importance of Jerusalem to Christian, Moslem and Jewish faiths.
On the domestic front, the decision-making body demanded more accountability in cases of police abuse, asked congregations and members to monitor welfare reform, and lobbied for improved job training and employment opportunities for African American males.
In other action, the assembly affirmed the multilingual nature of the Indianapolis-based communion and encouraged to the church to reassert its role in sex education. Voting representatives also accepted a call for reflection on the participation of gay and lesbian persons in the church's life.
This issue may become a "discernment" topic, meaning the church will use traditional Christian disciplines of prayer, Bible study, repentance, worship, witness, discussion and deep listening. The aim is to help the whole church to listen for God's will on the matter.
A plan to downsize the assembly's chief planning bodies was defeated, with voters citing concerns that some groups would be under represented. The proposal would have reduced the 240-member General Board to 126, and the 44-member Administrative Committee to 24.
A Lexington, Ky., pastor was elected to preside over the assembly and its committees for the next two years. The Rev. Michael Mooty, senior minister of Central Christian Church, Lexington, was installed July 29 as moderator. Zola Walker, a college administrator from Hawkins, Texas, was elected first vice moderator. Donald Lucey, M.D., a Chapel Hill, N.C., physician, is the second vice moderator.
In a first-time event called a "MissionFest," the assembly focused on the outreach ministries of congregations. Some 60 churches shared their success stories, ranging from an ecology project in a Lexington, Ill., church to a feeding program for the homeless sponsored by a suburban Cleveland congregation.
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