United Methodists Church marks 6th year anniversary

The Immanuel United Methodist Church is celebrating its 6th year chartering anniversary on April 22 with a worship service at 10am. IUMC meets every Sunday at the Oleai House of the Marianas Resource Center in San Jose, behind the Dolphin Wholesale Store, as the English congregation of the Methodist Church in Saipan.

Church administrative council chairperson Pamela Mathis, will speak about the diversity in unity among the Methodists on island, in general, and the English congregation, in particular. In any given Sunday, there are at least 6 ethnic nationalities represented in the congregation.

IUMC’s membership comprises of families from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Philippines, Japan, Korea, India, and the United States. Occasionally, mainland Chinese nationals who relate to Immanuel UMC through its Resource Center also attend the worship service.

There are also many traditions within the Christian family that is represented in the congregation says Cyndy Tice, current congregational lay leader, and a contracted Nursing educator at the Nursing Department of the Northern Marianas College.

Started in 1992 by Rev. Barbara G. Ripple as the English language worship service of Korea-based Immanuel Methodist Church in Koblerville led by Rev. Myung Taek Lee, the congregation was chartered in 1995 as a local church of the California-Pacific Annual Conference, Hawaii District of the United Methodist Church.

Pastor Jaime R. Vergara said in the last two years Muslim Bangladeshis and non-Christian Chinese attend IUMC worship services. “In my first year, the chair of our Administrative Board was Roman Catholic. The year before that, the head of the Methodist Men was Jewish. When we identify ourselves as ecumenical in spirit, we do not just mean the circle of our Christian fellowship,” he explained.

Pastor Jaime also directs the weekday face of Immanuel UMC, the Marianas Resource Center (MRC) in Oleai. He said Methodists are spirit movement and social mobilization people. “We are passionate in our spirit care of individuals, and compassionate with our social mobilization towards social justice and welfare. You might say, we wear our hearts up our sleeves”.

Pastor Jaime revealed that the most common question Saipan residents asked is regarding Christianity and being a Christian. But he said he had to learn that the question is merely an inquiry on religion. “This is ironic because the person who most made me feel welcome on island when I first came was a Jesuit Roman Catholic Priest, the late Father Gary Bradley,” said Pastor Jaime.

It began as a spirit movement within the Anglican Church in England, the name Methodist was given to a group led by Anglican Priest John Wesley because of their disciplined ways in their spirit life. The group later appropriated what started as a derision, and focused on the element of disciplined intentionally as a qualifying feature of being a Methodist.

After the American Revolution, the Methodists in America grew with the nation so much so that the representative democracy and its rules of order that is a feature of US governance is not unlike that of the United Methodist Church. Most recent occupants of the White House, the Clintons, attended a Methodist Church in Washington DC. George Bush, though raised an Episcopalian, and his family are members of a Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas

Saipan’s Immanuel UMC mission statement that is printed weekly in their worship service bulletin reads: Gathered from all corners of the earth to worship God in the traditions of the Christian Faith; Sent out to serve those with unheard voices, including children, elders, guest workers, the homeless, those with addictive behaviors, those who hunger for knowledge of the Christian faith.

Pastor Jaime and IUMC members are quietly active in community affairs which include such issues as women’s rights, domestic violence, family mediation, contract workers’ rights and welfare, special education, conflict resolution, emergency food and shelter, backyard food production, nutrition, parenting, interfaith fellowship and alliances, environmental protection and conservation.

On April 22, IUMC will hold an anniversary worship service, to be held in conjunction with Earth Day celebration. It will be followed by a potluck brunch to be hosted by the members of the Congregations Filipino fellowship.