With his inauguration in Washington today, Mr George W. Bush will become the third Methodist to hold office as president of the United States. He is a member of the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, though originally of American Episcopal background. Previous Methodist presidents were William McKinley and Rutherford Hayes. Following the controversial nature of the election, President Bush faces a formidable challenge to unite the country.
The president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Kenneth Todd, has based his New Year message on the link between peace and trust. He describes peace as a gift to be received as well as a goal that is achievable. He goes on to say:
"Peace and trust go together, and before you can have trust, offending parties need to say `Sorry'. I firmly believe that in Ireland as elsewhere the time is coming when we will all say `Sorry' together. The repentance will include governments, political parties, factions, communities, churches and neighbours. I recall a South American mother who wanted to forgive the killer of her son but first she wanted to see him and to know that he was sorry. Saying `Sorry' is already the beginning of trust."
The Rev Dr Joe Hale has announced his retirement after 25 years as general secretary of the World Methodist Council, which has its administrative centre at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina. Dr Hale has given distinguished service to the council through those years and has been a visitor to this country. His designated successor is the Rev George H. Freeman.
In an interview with the Methodist Recorder, the Rev Dr John Barrett said of Mr Freeman: "He is a man of wide vision, but with a careful attention to detail. I believe that he has the gifts and graces that we need in our new general secretary as we enter a very important phase in the life of the World Methodist Council."
Mr Freeman is a graduate of Emory University and was ordained in 1972. He has held several important appointments under the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church in the US. Tomorrow morning the president, Mr Todd, will preach in the Methodist church at Ballinafeigh in Belfast, and in the evening he will visit Moira in Co Armagh. On the morning of Sunday, January 28th, he will preach at the Donegall Road Church in Belfast, and in the afternoon participate in the Leprosy Mission Service at St Anne's Cathedral. In the evening he will be at Blackwatertown, where the church is being reopened after renovation.
The Irish School of Ecumenics and the Irish Council of Churches are combining to arrange a public meeting and a one-day conference on "The Environment: The Endangered Species". These will examine the subject from Christian and Islamic perspectives and will take place in the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh on February 1st and 2nd.
For people who are born deaf it is often quite difficult to acquire a large vocabulary because of the way in which they have to learn language. Some years ago a special Bible translation in simple English, with footnotes to explain words which the deaf may not fully understand, was published in the US.
The Bible Society of South Africa in 1997 began a similar project in Afrikaans, and when this is completed in about 2005 it will be the second translation with such readers in mind. Already the Gospel of Mark and parts of the Old Testament have been published.