Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
October 2005 |
Welcome
Have we forgotten Africa?
Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have flooded newspaper headlines and crowded TV screens with images around the clock. Meanwhile, news from the continent of Africa has virtually disappeared from Indiana's newspapers.
The
turnout for the Interfaith Prayer Vigil on Darfur, Sept. 21 was small enough to
hold on the front steps of Christ Church Cathedral as lunchtime passersby asked
what or who Darfur was. The positive sign of the vigil was 20 concerned and
vocal citizens jammed the Indianapolis office of U.S. Senators Richard Lugar and
Evan Bayh, and asked the United States government to take actions against the
government of Sudan to end the genocide. (See story.)
Violence has increased this past month in south and west Darfur, with humanitarian convoys regularly ambushed, civilians robbed, and villagers forced to flee. Two weeks ago refugee camps were attacked again and the cycle of violence that many Darfurians tried to escape followed them into the camps. There is no peace for the Darfurians - only death.
Few Americans can see themselves in the face of the Darfurians who are being murdered daily and forced to flee their homes by the terror of the janjaweed militias supported by the Sudanese government. Americans cannot identify themselves with these people because our culture is radically different from their culture.
For the sake of the Darfurian people and the humanity of the world, now is the time to act.
Those who did not attend the prayer vigil and witness, can join with whose who did and write to Senator Lugar, a fellow Hoosier United Methodist, asking him to co-sponsor the Darfurian Activity Act (Senate Bill 1462) now before Congress. Senator Bayh has given his support to this bill.
Also contact President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking that the U.S. government - which played an important role in the establishment of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - encourage the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army to remain firm in their commitment to peace and to the peace agreement.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot tolerate any government on the face of the earth which knowingly participates in rape, violence and genocide. Such actions become a threat to all humanity as they cheapen the value of human life.
Despite our own perils caused by the devastating hurricanes that ravaged the homes and livelihoods of our Gulf State cousins, we cannot forget Africa and the missions of reconciliation and renewal that we are committed to there. As we give sacrificially to rebuild Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Texas, we need to continue to supply schools and build hospitals and clinics in Liberia and Sierra Leone, provide scholarships for students at Africa University and support the economic and spiritual development of our brothers and sisters in Christ across Africa.
Welcome to the October issues of Together. May you be blessed and challenged by the words and pictures of United Methodists making a difference in Indiana and around the world. Read and pray your way through the pages that follow.
- Daniel R. Gangler
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008