Daily Digest - November 28, 2012

"He served in Mississippi at an important time. He brought to that task not only a pastoral sensitivity but also a deep theological grounding for reconciliation." - Retired Bishop Kenneth Lee Carder talking about the late Bishop Mack B. Stokes.

Bishop Stokes, scholar and reconciler, dies

PERDIDO KEY, Fla. (UMNS) - Bishop Mack B. Stokes, who taught thousands of preachers and desegregated Mississippi United Methodists, died Nov. 21 in Perdido Key. He was 100, just a month shy of his 101st birthday. Before his election to the episcopacy, he taught for 31 years at Emory's Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, holding its first named chair. From 1972 to 1980, he was bishop of the Jackson (Miss.) Episcopal Area, where he took on the task of merging African-American and white annual conferences into two integrated conferences.
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45 United Methodists in diverse Congress

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Forty-five United Methodists will serve in the 113th United States Congress, three fewer than in the 112th. The new Congress, which will convene on Jan. 3, 2013, will be the most religiously diverse in the nation's history with the first Hindu in either chamber, the first Buddhist in the Senate and the first member describing her religion as "none."
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Mugabe speaks at Africa University

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe addressed a Distinguished Public Lecture on Nov. 16 at Africa University, thanking The United Methodist Church for promoting education and building a pan-African institution of higher education. Mugabe's lecture, attended by more than 3,000 people, officially launched the university's 20th anniversary celebrations slated for 2013.
"This institution teaches us a great lesson. Thank you, United Methodist Church," he said. "We benefited immensely from the support we got from other countries during our liberation struggle. &ellipsis; Therefore, in exchange, let us reciprocate what Africa University has done for us; we thank you for this generosity."

Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, and Bishop David Yemba, the school's chancellor, thanked the president for honoring the university's anniversary celebration. Vice Chancellor Fanuel Tagwira thanked Mugabe for giving the church "the first charter to open a university."
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Lon Morris endowment funds controversy

JACKSONVILLE, Texas (UMNS) - The Wall Street Journal reports that the legal battle over access to the endowment funds of the now-bankrupt United Methodist-related Lon Morris College has touched a nerve within the nonprofit community.
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Dreaming of a Malaria-free Christmas

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (UMNS) What would you do to see your bishop in bright red flannel pajamas at annual conference? Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton is challenging Illinois Great Rivers Annual (regional) Conference congregations to raise the remaining $141,000 needed to meet the $2.3 million goal for Imagine No Malaria by Dec. 31. If they succeed, Keaton will wear red pajamas for a session of the 2013 annual conference.
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Tribute to late Chinese church leader

GENEVA (UMNS) - The Rev.Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, has issued a statement of tribute to the late Bishop K.H. Ting, who was a bishop of the Anglican church and became a church leader of modern China. Bishop Ting died Nov. 22 at 97.
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