Release # 024 {2888} April 20, 1996
DENVER (UMNS) -- A salsa beat filled the United Methodist General Conference plenary hall April 20 here as the 998 delegates from around the world reviewed their church's work with Hispanics and adopted a new Hispanic hymnal.
The Rev. Rebecca Youngblood, Vicksburg, Miss., introduced a video that brought up to date the achievements recorded in the first three years of a Hispanic ministries plan adopted in l992. Included was the establishment of 66 new congregations, revitalization of 59 congregations and creation of 799 outreach ministries.
Bishop Joel Martinez, Lincoln, Neb., chairman of the plan committee, urged the delegates to renew the program for the l997- 2000 quadrennium.
Bishop Elias G. Galvan, Phoenix, Ariz., introduced the proposed new hymnal with the aid of a lively Hispanic choir from New York City and a mariachi and salsa band from Denver. Delegates, some of them eyeing warily the Spanish texts, tried out a number of the hymns and other worship materials.
Galvan said the first edition of the new hymnal, Mil Voces Para Celebrar, already was subscribed. The worship resource was adopted formally without dissent.
At a more sedate pace the conference took up the first of hundreds of calendar items that will be handled before final adjournment on April 26. By substantial margins, the delegates declined to terminate annual conference commissions on the Status and Role of Women and encouraged Gideons International to open their membership rolls to women, among other items.
Plenary sessions then were adjourned until April 22, but the standing legislative committees faced a busy weekend perfecting the more than 3,000 proposals asking for changes in church law.
An estimated 600 people, attending a Higher Education banquet April 19, heard Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education, call for advances in education as the "touchstone for a new spirit of optimism for our people." Riley, a United Methodist from South Carolina, said John Wesley, founder of Methodism, believed that education forms faith and "is the essential stepping stone" to spirituality.
Resounding applause greeted his call for United Methodists once again to make Wesley's passion for education the focus and commitment of the church.
Delegates and visitors contributed $3,579 in a special offering April 20 for Native American ministries.
--Robert Lear
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