By Father James Maciejewski

The General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which convenes only every four years, has been meeting in Atlanta for the past two weeks. About 20,000 Methodists from all over the world have been attending the conference, first ever in Atlanta.

Highpoint of the opening days of the conclave was the traditional ‘Episcopal address,” which Bishop Gerald Ensley of Ohio delivered in the name of all the Methodist bishops.

In this state-of-the-church message, Bishop Ensley pointed to “decline of Christian belief” as the greatest concern of the bishops: “Attendance is down because we are not so sure as in other days that anything significant really happens at church…Most men want to believe in something worthy of belief, but they do not seem to find it in Christianity. Probably the urge to love one’s human neighbor is as strong as ever, but for hosts of church members the vertical dimension (man to God) has all but dropped out…In our busy-ness and this-worldly concern we simply have let belief fade out.”

As an antidote the bishops called for personal commitment to Christ and renewed faith in the saving and forgiving power of god. Like the Catholic bishops who met in Atlanta the week before, the Methodist bishops looked to participation in “Key 73,” and interfaith program of evangelism slated for 1973, as a means of awakening Christian faith. The bishops added: “This does not mean that we resign from the social emphasis…Traditional evangelism was right in its strategy of changing the individual. Its fault was that it did not change him enough. It made him, perhaps, reader of the Bible, a faithful attendant at church and a more loving husband and father. But it did not always change his views as a citizen, or his practices as an employer, or as an investor of wealth or as a neighbor. It is fatuous to talk about redemption of men unless we can save them from the wars that destroy them, from the ghettoes that fetter them, from the ideals of mammon that seduce them.”

Manifesting their continued social concern, the bishops issued a special statement, “Peace and the Self-Development of Peoples,” that was sharply critical of the arms race, “nation worship,” and racism. They also took a somewhat different approach to population growth than had the Catholic bishops the week before:

“Population explosion is an enemy of peace…Human congestion, linked with poverty, hunger and filth, give rise to frustration, despair and violence. In affluent societies, an increasing population intensifies the ecological crisis as wealth multiplies industrial waste, pollutes air and water and jeopardizes the delicate balance of nature…Concerned and adequate population control programs must be developed if the planet is not to be crowded beyond its capacity to support human life.”

The Methodist bishops also spoke strongly about the war in Vietnam, calling the recent intensification action “immoral” and “tragic.”

They said: “In spite of the claims that the war is winding down it is not…Very few Americans are dying in Southeast Asia today, but Asian people, our brothers and sisters in God’s love, continue to die as before. Once again villages on both sides are being leveled, civilians are being slaughtered and the war is being escalated. This we deplore; our hearts go out to the innocent victims of what seems to be endless, senseless carnage. We call upon the United Methodist Church and its members to acknowledge our complicity in the Indo-Chinese War, to repent and to seek God’s forgiveness.”

On Thursday, April 20, Catholic Bishop James Malone brought greetings from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to the Methodist conferees.

The Youngstown, Ohio bishop said: “I am an unabashed optimist about ecumenism. I believe that our prayers for Christian unity will one day be answered…Whatever the route, and however long the journey, Christ will be finally our point of convergence.”