| Summit explores urban challenges by John W. Coleman Jr.UMConnection Staff We stand on the threshold of health and wholeness or chaos, Bishop Felton Edwin May told about 200 banquet attendees, July 25, during the United Methodist National Urban Summit in Washington, D.C.  He was introducing the guest speaker, U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) of Baltimore. But his words summed up the thrust of four days of speeches, sermons, workshops, and lobbying efforts that addressed issues of public policy on behalf of struggling cities.
More than 140 clergy and laity working in urban ministry attended the full summit, July 23-26, which was cosponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries Office of Urban Ministries, the National Urban Strategy Council, the General Board of Church and Society and the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Attendees represented conference and district urban and metro ministry, agencies, church-based community development projects, Communities of Shalom, and urban churches with nonprofit 501(c)3 mission agencies. Drawn by the theme Proclaiming Holy Boldness on the Hill, they came seeking insights and influence on federal spending priorities that can help or hinder their work among poor residents of urban communities. Those priorities included key congressional bills, such as establishment of a national affordable housing trust fund, reauthorization of the 1996 welfare reform law and a proposal to shift Head Start funding from federal to state control. Also addressed was President Bushs Faith-Based and Community Initiative, which promises to make federal funding for social services more available to religious groups. Participants received briefings on these legislative concerns, a primer on the federal appropriations process and training in how to properly lobby ones congressional leaders. They then dispersed to visit their respective senators and representatives on Capitol Hill. There is an attack on the poor, but also an attack on America, said Cummings. The four-term Congressman and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus lamented a lack of understanding among his fellow lawmakers of the daily struggles of poor people who suffer from inadequate food and health insurance. He criticized the proposed changes in Head Start allocations, rising college tuition and reductions in Pell grants for needy college students. Cummings denounced post-Sept. 11 homeland security measures, including increased public surveillance, as a threat to the basic civil rights of U.S. citizens. The very thing Bush and others said about the terrorists, trying to take away our rights and freedom, he said, is what we are doing to ourselves. Other speakers spoke of facing thresholds as both the government and the denomination make decisions about where to apply limited resources. Caleb Rosado, a professor at Eastern University in Philadelphia, Pa., said todays leaders and agents of social change must discard an obsolete, fragmented view of the world as city versus suburb, rich versus poor, and different races, religions, political parties and nations in opposition to one another. Citing Jeremiah 29:7 Seek the welfare of the city, for in its welfare you will find your welfare Rosado called for a new holistic paradigm that borrows from Scripture and quantum physics in seeing all things as united and part of one another. Its no longer the old Newtonian thinking that the whole is the sum of its parts, said Rosado. It is knowing now that the whole is within its many parts. James Towey, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, defended Bushs efforts to make federal funding more available to churches and religious agencies. He also defended the Presidents position on allowing churches to discriminate in hiring based on the religious views of applicants. A lot of poor people dont trust the government for many reasons; so its beneficial for us to partner with faith groups that they do trust, said Towey. He said hiring discrimination for religious purposes has been allowed for decades, since the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Towey also responded to complaints about obstacles and restrictions in receiving federal aid for programs, and he disagreed with the claim that faith groups critical of Bushs policies are being barred from receiving support. Several speakers warned that the denomination and many of its conferences are neglecting urban ministry in favor of supporting new and growing churches in suburban areas. Bishop May suggested a plan to put urban ministry at the top of the agenda of the 2004 General Conference. I cannot tolerate seeing the agenda of the poor and suffering being set aside because of those who are only concerned about their lives and their lifestyle, the bishop said during the banquet. He recalled getting reactions when wearing a favorite T-shirt given to him by an urban ministry practitioner. Emblazoned on the front was a screaming Jesus Christ and the words Help the poor or go to Hell! | 
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