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I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.

As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

-- John 17:20-21, NRSV

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Learning From the Past, Living Into The Act of Repentance

Bishop Melvin G. Talbert

Is an act of repentance by United Methodists for the treatment of indigenous people a waste of time?

That question was posed early on by Bishop Melvin G. Talbert as an advisory group began to plan for a mandated act of “Healing Relationships with Indigenous Persons” at the 2012 General Conference. The denomination’s top-legislative body of nearly 1,000 delegates from around the world will meet in Tampa, Fla., in April. The Act of Repentance is scheduled for April 27.

COMMENTARY: The Price of Repentance

by Anita Phillips

Anita Phillips

The 2012 General Conference will be a turning point for The United Methodist Church. I'm not referring to budget discussions or organizational changes but to the planned “Act of Repentance to Indigenous Peoples” that will test the fragile relationship between the denomination and Native peoples.

As a Native American United Methodist I view the Act of Repentance as a double edged sword. On the one hand, it will be a time when delegates to the top decision-making body of the denomination will stop and listen and, I pray, engage seriously in the reflection and self examination that repentance requires.

A personal journey leads to the 2012 Act of Repentance to Indigenous Peoples

Harry Askin, East Ohio

(New York, NY) -- Harry Askin is taking part in a monumental journey to seek repentance for horrific crimes against indigenous peoples. He is a board member of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (GCCUIC) of The United Methodist Church that is planning an Act of Repentance to Indigenous Peoples at the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Fla.

Harry, a Caucasian layperson from the East Ohio Annual Conference, says he started his journey three years ago with an intellectual idea of repentance. According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, repentance means to regret, to be sorry, to apologize, to ask forgiveness, and to be remorseful. Harry thought he understood all these emotions - until he met and heard the stories told by two Northern Cheyenne descendants of 1864 Sand Creek Massacre survivors.

Bishops to change ecumenical agency

By Heather Hahn*

7:00 P.M. EST May 3, 2011 | ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (UMNS)

United Methodist bishops have voted overwhelmingly to support folding the denomination's ecumenical agency and its work into the Council of Bishops.

The Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak Jr. (left) speaks with retired Bishop William B. Oden. Oden, a member of the bishops' Ecumenical Task Force, presented to his fellow bishops the recommendation to fold Sidorak's agency into the Council of Bishops. A UMNS photo by Heather Hahn.

The May 2 vote came at the urging of the Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak Jr., the top executive of the agency, the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Under the proposal, the agency would cease to exist as a separate entity, and its staff members would work for the council as part of the newly created Office of Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships. The proposal also calls for transforming the commission's 38-member board of directors into a 15-member oversight group that includes laity and clergy.

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