I would like to offer an unsolicited suggestion. Why not have a special day and time set aside for each AME Bishop to respond to questions from the AME Today online community? What better way for the Bishops to touch base with their constituents. Since we have nearly twenty Bishops on the bench this could be done monthly and allow folks like me to get to know their leaders a little better and vice versa. I have no idea who Bishops McKinley Young or Charles Ingram are but I'm sure they are very interesting individuals. This special one hour chat would have Rev. Fisher as the moderator and after he concludes a 20-30 minute interview he could open it up for the rest of us to "jump in" with our questions. I believe this "Larry King Live" type format would be great for each Bishop as well as each online member. Do you think this idea makes any sense or am I getting too sleepy at the keyboard since as I look at my clock its 11:12PM?

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2000

Answers

You must very tired. We don't know Charles Ingram either but we have heard of Bishop Gregory Gerald McKinley Ingram.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2000

I like your suggestion Bill. You must be wearing your "creative thinking cap" even though you are sleepy. Pastor John Fisher has opened the door to cyber space for the whole of African Methodism. Such an open forum that permitted each Bishop of our Zion to "face the nation" of Arfrican Methodism so to speak, in such an open format would give instant access to the Spiritual Leaders of our Church regarding their thinking, their views and their personalities and above all, THEIR concerns that interest the people over whom they have been placed by election. I say GO FOR IT!!

sHALOM Rev. Harold L. Turner, Pastor ZION AME CHURCH, Delaware, Ohio hturner641@aol.com

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000

Bill what a great idea! Perhaps the first step would be to contact Rev. Fisher privately with a proposal such as time, date, format etc. Then if he agrees contact several of the Bishops and see if they are interested. I know the Bishops are very busy, your idea of limiting the questions is an excellent one. Perhaps you can begin with your bishop. Keep us posted, and keep those good ideas coming. Rev. Denise Rogers

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000

Actually, I like Rev. Rogers' suggestion. Since Bishop Adams is the Senior Bishop, it will establish an orderly progression through the bench. Through these conversations we can perhaps learn how the issues of the AME chruch have evoled, and what the leadership direction of the various generations views for these issues.

This is Annual Conference season in a number of places, (4, 5, 10, 11), so availability may be a porblem, but we should ursue the concept.

Has anyone received an issue of the Christian Recorder since Issue 15?

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000

This sounds like an interesting idea...and one that should be pursued. The reason for the live chat on site was for implementation of such concepts...however...before we put a Bishop on the spot, the technology should be tested either using someone else of interest or of note or perhaps just in a round robin live chat to make sure the technology as in place would support the concept.

As for the Christian Recorder...I got an issue two days ago...with a new columnist on page one a chaplin, who gave his read on General Conference, and a lot more coverage of Hillary Clinton making her New York run and the involvement of the AME Church. Guess you should be getting yours shortly.

Next week, or perhaps this weekend, all things being equal I will announce a site wide chat ... the software off of the navigation rail supports both voice and type chat...the voice module does also support typing so I would suggest that to be the most likely candidate on which to conduct it but then will make a final decision after we give it a work out.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000