LAKELAND — The bulk of the New Testament is made up of open letters written by early church leaders addressing crucial issues within the church. Written on scrolls, those letters sometimes took months to reach their destinations.

Today, the Internet has made it possible for news and personal greetings to be sent across the globe in mere seconds. Although the technology has changed, church leaders are still writing epistles to Christians to share their views on crucial issues facing today’s church.

Most recently, the church’s debate over homosexuality and the fate of Elián González has evoked emotional responses from Florida United Methodists, and many of the conference’s clergy are using Internet e-mail to offer their views, advice and admonitions to a wide-reaching audience.

On April 7, Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson sent an e-mail to the nearly 630 Florida clergy who have e-mail addresses offering his pastoral response to the Elián crisis and the General Board of Church and Society’s decision to collect funds for Juan Miguel González’s legal defense.

Within days, clergy from across the conference had written their own personal response to the bishop’s letter and offered their feelings about the situation and the conference’s and denomination’s response. Those messages reached active and retired clergy in the Florida Conference and serving appointments throughout the world. Some forwarded the messages via e-mail to laity within their churches.

In response to Henderson’s letter, the Rev. Jacque Pierre, pastor of Lakeland’s Highlands United Methodist Church and a Haitian-American, wrote in an open letter to clergy, district superintendents and conference staff that he empathized with the Cuban exile community, but asked why they did not empathize with the plight of other Caribbean people facing similar situations.

"As an immigrant in the United States and a native of Haiti, I can understand the position of the Miami relatives of Elián and appreciate the cry of the Christian community to be in solidarity with them," he said. "However, I cannot understand why the same brothers and sisters who are expressing their outrage and concerns for Elián did not show any compassion and sympathy…when a Haitian mother was separated by force by the immigration authorities from her two small children (the woman who was pregnant was allowed to stay in Miami to receive medical attention and her two small children were sent back to Haiti, the land from which they were fleeing)."

A cyberspace discussion on the issue of the church’s stance on homosexuality was begun April 19 by the Rev. Bill Payne, pastor of Parrish United Methodist Church in Sarasota, and has involved at least 50 Florida clergy. Some messages were brief statements of encouragement or agreement with another’s point of view, while others included multi-paragraph scholarly reviews of scripture.

In his open letter to the Florida Conference’s delegates, Payne said the United Methodist Church is "laboring under a false unity" and is compromising its stand on social and personal holiness in order to avoid any further membership drops. Arguing with the scientific evidence of people being "born gay," Payne asked delegates to "maintain our present position or make it tighter."

The Rev. Jorge Acevedo, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Cape Coral and a clergy delegate to General Conference, responded that he is "embarrassed for our church…not…by who we are, but by how people both within and outside the church perceive who we are." Acevedo said he would "vote to maintain, if not strengthen, our convictions about homosexuality."

The Rev. Kelly Dahlman-Oeth, a Florida clergyman appointed to Browns Point United Methodist Church in Tacoma, Wash., said the study of the human brain and genetics, especially as they relate to a person’s sexual orientation, are not definitive. He also called on the church to "go back to Wesleyan principles of grace."