NOTE: This is a digest of news features provided by United Methodist Communications for Feb. 17 - Feb. 21. It includes summaries of United Methodist News Service stories and additional briefs from around the United Methodist connection. Full versions of the stories with photographs and related features can be found at http://umns.umc.org.
The church and immigration
United Methodists arrested in D.C. immigration pray-in
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - After several uncomfortable hours under arrest, 32 people of faith, including two United Methodist bishops, gathered again in prayer after a peaceful demonstration against U.S. immigration deportations.
Bishops Minerva Carcaño and Julius Trimble, who are co-chairs of the denomination’s Interagency Task Force on Immigration, and Harriett Jane Olson, top executive of United Methodist Women, were released from the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operation facility along with other faith and labor leaders and undocumented immigrants.
The group was arrested by park police while kneeling or standing on the icy, hard concrete in front of the White House on President’s Day, Feb. 17, to call attention to the fact that nearly 2 million people have been deported during the Obama Administration.
In a prayer after all 32 were reunited with other protesters at the United Methodist Building, which houses the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, Trimble thanked God for everyone’s safe delivery.
“God you were present today and you are present tonight and you are present with all the thousands of our friends and neighbors and family members who remain detained as we have been released. This is a day that needed to happen, this is a day we will not forget but we count it only as a down payment of further action to end deportations,” prayed Trimble.
Melissa Bowe, who works with Justice for Our Neighbors, a United Methodist free and low cost legal clinic for immigrants, said she was nervous but felt privileged to stand up for immigration reform and to ask the administration to halt hurtful deportations that are tearing apart families.
“It was very powerful experience and it was incredible to stand with the group I was standing with and sing and to have a crowd in the distance sing back,” she said.
“I was a little bit nervous the whole time. It was physically uncomfortable, but it felt like a privilege to take a small part in a very growing and important need to put pressure on the administration to halt deportation and to have some accountability for our immigration system.”
Olson said United Methodist Women has collected thousands of postcards to ask the administration to stop the deportations. In a visit to Homeland Security after the 2013 United Methodist Women’s Assembly she said they were told deportations were only being used for violent offenders.
“That is false. They are conducting a policy of oppression and fear and that is not a way we think the United States should present itself in the world,” she said, adding that while there are many things the administration cannot do unless Congress will act, it can choose how to enforce the law.
UPDATE: 4:11 p.m. ET Feb. 17, 2014 — Thirty-two people, including two United Methodist bishops, were arrested as they prayed in the shadow of the White House on President’s Day to hold President Obama accountable for the nearly 2 million immigrants deported during his administration.
Harriett Jane Olson, top executive for United Methodist Women, started the vigil at 1 p.m. with a prayer, “God we are gathered in sorrow and in prayer … we need help.” She was in the group arrested.
After 90 minutes, police started handcuffing the protesters with zip ties and loading them into vans to be processed at the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operation. Many of the U.S. citizens in the group chose to be arrested without any identification to stand in solidarity with the undocumented immigrants.
Herminia Gallego Lopez, an immigrant who lives in Phoenix, cried as she talked about her 20-year-old daughter who has been in a detention facility for the last five months. She said six families in Phoenix are starting a fast until Obama agrees to stop the deportations.
“Two million are too many, it is always the right time to do the right thing,” said Bishop Julius Trimble of the Iowa Area.
UPDATE 2:40 p.m. ET Feb. 17, 2014 — Herminia Gallego Lopez, kneeling between United Methodist Bishops Minerva Carcaño and Julius Trimble, was arrested along with other United Methodist and faith leaders in an act of civil disobedience to call upon President Obama to stop deportations.
Lopez spoke tearfully of her 20-year-old daughter who has been in a detention center for the past five months.
Standing in the shadow of the White House, with bright sunshine reflecting off the snow, Pilar Molina pleaded, “Please stop deporting innocent people who have a right to a decent life.”
Her husband, Israel Resendiz-Hernandez, was arrested Jan. 27 as he left the grocery the couple owned in Norristown, Pa.
“I have two young daughters that ask me every night when is daddy coming home,” she said.
Carcaño said she is indignant over the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
“President Obama has asked us to speak up and stand up, and we have done that,” she declared. “Now he needs to do what is in his power. He needs to stop deportations.”
UPDATE: 1 p.m. ET Feb. 17, 2014 — More than 50 gathered at the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill this morning in preparation for the prayer vigil on immigration. As they arrived at Lafayette Park, chanting “not one more deportation,” about half that number planned to participate in civil disobedience.
EARLIER STORY — Supporters ranging from church executives to immigrants fearing deportation will join United Methodist Bishops Minerva Carcaño and Julius Trimble Feb. 17 in Washington to pray for an end to deportations.
Carcaño and Trimble announced Feb. 12 that they planned to be at the prayer vigil in Lafayette Park in front of the White House and expected to be arrested.
Since that time, Harriet Jane Olson, top executive of United Methodist Women, and Bill Mefford, director of Civil and Human Rights at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, have said they also plan to participate.
Other United Methodist leaders risking arrest will be Sung-ok Lee, and Carol Barton, executives with United Methodist Women; Sol Cotto, director of Immigrant Welcoming Congregations, Board of Church and Society; Melissa Bowe, program manager for Justice for our Neighbors; the Rev. Jacob Dhamaraj, pastor at Shrub Oak (N.Y.) United Methodist Church; the Rev. David Farley, pastor of Echo Park United Methodist Church, Los Angeles; and Sophia Agtarap of United Methodist Communications, Nashville.
“We are willing to be arrested in front of the White House to tell the president that compassion on immigration starts with the stroke of his pen,” said Bishop Carcaño on her decision to be arrested. “We know that the consequences will be minor for us compared to the grave reality undocumented people live with on a constant basis.
“Far too many families are being ripped apart by the injustice of our broken immigration system; a system that President Obama can begin to repair by turning his own policies around before he reaches the milestone of two million deportations. We’ll be praying that he does so.”
Mefford said it is his prayer that the action will bring an end to deportation — nearing 2 million under the Obama administration. But Mefford is also hoping the action will “pierce the hearts of those in the church who have chosen to sit idly by, to watch from a distance rather than to act.”
Also volunteering to be arrested are Sandy Sorenson, director of United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries office in Washington and Patrick Carolan, executive director of the Franciscan Action Network. Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and members of its Not1More Deportation campaign will take part.
Those risking deportation will join as well
The church leaders will be joined by Pilar Molina, whose husband, Israel Resendiz-Hernandez, has been in immigration detention since Jan. 27. Resendiz-Hernandez, a business owner, has been in the United States for 10 years. He is on a hunger strike at a Pennsylvania detention facility
Gerardo Torres, 41, of Phoenix is going to Washington because every day of the past 20 years, he said, he has lived in fear of being arrested. Torres was born in Mexico but has been living in Phoenix since 1993.
“I cannot be silent anymore there is injustice going on here in Phoenix that is hurting whole communities. We really need support. We really need the open minds, open hearts, open doors of The United Methodist Church.”
Active United Methodist involvement
Carcaño and Trimble co-chair the denomination’s Interagency Immigration Task Force.
Carcaño was among a small group of faith leaders invited by President Obama to a private meeting with 14 religious leaders on March 8, 2013.
In January 2013, Obama invited her to a high school in Las Vegas when he outlined his plan for immigration reform. She was also included in a conference call with Vice President Joe Biden on Feb. 28.
Carcaño has been the spokesperson for immigration reform for the Council of Bishops since 2006. The bishop, who speaks as a daughter of immigrants, is no stranger to media attention for her stand on immigration. She has faced foes from television host Lou Dobbs to well-known Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
In a column written on Feb. 9, Mefford said, “The good news is that the prophetic task in not reserved for a few, but is open to all in the Church. You don’t have to have a long, important title. Most prophets have no title at all. We just have to be willing to listen to our immigrant sisters and brothers, hear the devastation in the stories they tell us and be willing to risk our safety to gain safety for them. And it is time to risk. It is time to tell the truth. And it is time for deportations to end for good.”
*Gilbert is a multimedia reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615)742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Video of protest and prayer
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - United Methodist faith leaders, including two bishops, undocumented immigrants and labor leaders, were arrested on Feb. 17, Presidents Day, as they knelt and prayed for President Obama to stop deportations that are separating families across the globe.
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United Methodist Immigration Witness
On Feb. 17, 2014, United Methodist faith leaders, undocumented immigrants and labor leaders gathered in front of the White House to pray for immigration reform and the end to deportations that are separating families across the globe.
The pray-in was to call attention to the fact that nearly 2 million people have been deported during the Obama Administration. “Two million are too many, it is always the right time to do the right thing,” said Bishop Julius Trimble of the Iowa Area.
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News around the connection
Prayers requested from Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine (UMNS) - The Rev. John Calhoun, a United Methodist Board of Global Ministries missionary serving in Ukraine, has asked for continued prayers as violence in the region continues to grow. "For the past 24 hours, the center of Kiev has been the scene of violent clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police," he wrote.
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Mission Musings
Prayers Requested from Ukraine
Dearest friends of the UMC in Ukraine,
Peace to you all from Kyiv. It is midday on Wednesday, and for the past 24 hours the center of Kyiv has been the scene of violent clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police. The clashes began yesterday afternoon near the Ukrainian parliament, and by nightfall had spread to Independence Square, where protesters have been encamped since late November.
Since yesterday, at least 25 people have been killed, and over one thousand injured. The casualties include both protesters and the police. Many buildings surrounding Independence Square have suffered fire damage. At the moment, there is a uneasy standoff between hundreds of police and many thousands of protesters in the square, but the mood remains extremely tense. The government has placed the blame for the recent conflict on the opposition leaders, and has vowed to clear the square of all protesters.
Although the clashes are concentrated in the city center, daily life throughout the city has been disrupted: schools and most work places are closed, the entire subway system has been shut down, and most residents are remaining indoors (as are my family and I today). Clashes have also been reported in other parts of the country, with anti-government protesters having taken over government buildings in many regions of western Ukraine.
I've been in contact with the pastors of the two United Methodist congregations in Kyiv; they and their church members are safe and far from the conflict zone. Our United Methodist missionary in L'viv, who works with a United Methodist-related student ministry in western Ukraine, reports that some students are taking part in local demonstrations, but that the situation remains relatively calm.
Thank you for your messages of support in this difficult time. Please continue to pray for a peaceful end to this ongoing conflict, for the faithful witness of the United Methodist Church across the country, and for a better future for the people of Ukraine.
Yours in Christ,
John
The Rev. John Calhoun is a General Board of Global Ministries missionary serving in ministry with the United Methodist Church in Ukraine.
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What a horse can teach a pastor
DESCANSO, Calif. (UMNS) - It is called Equine Facilitated Learning and it does not officially qualify as therapy. But one California-Pacific Annual (regional) Conference pastor says working with horses "teaches you to be in connection with your people. And if you're truly connected with them, they'll follow you." Laurens Glass tells the story
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The horses at the far end of the pasture pick up their ears and look in the direction of the gate. As they watch, four people approach, talking softly among themselves. The horses shake their manes and begin picking their way toward the group; they are quite familiar with the exercises they will be participating in today.
But for The Rev. Doug Hodson, pastor of Glendora United Methodist Church in Glendora, Calif., and his wife, Kris, director of congregational loans for the California-Pacific Annual (regional) Conference, this is definitely a new experience.
“I had some trepidation doing it,” says Kris. “But when you stand out in a very open area and these animals just simply come up to you and you’re in the moment and you let go of the fear, you begin to develop this sense that they can communicate with us in ways we don’t understand.”
The workshop the Hodsons are attending, Equine-Facilitated Learning, is not classified as therapy, but its results have been called therapeutic. Facilitator Vickie Cottle has led Equine- Facilitated Learning sessions at her ranch in Descanso, near San Diego, for several years.
Working with those wrestling with drug addiction, searching for direction, or coping with grief and even terminal illness, she has many times seen “spiritual or emotional healing.” Being with horses, she says, helps people be with themselves, and that, in turn, helps them find the answers and strength that lie within. “Basically, I want people to be able to have an experience of focusing in the present, in the here and now, because that’s what has allowed horses to stay on the planet for such a long time.”
So, what can a pastor learn from a horse? Quite a bit, according to the Rev. Robert Wagener, a retired pastor. Wagener has attended several workshops with Cottle and has seen firsthand the benefits of Equine-Facilitated Therapy. It was his idea to ask Cottle to structure a session specifically for pastors and he is excited about the possibilities. For Wagener, working with horses “teaches you to be in connection with your people. And if you’re truly connected with them, they’ll follow you.”
Taking the lead
In fact, getting a horse to “follow” was one of the more enlightening activities of the day. As Cottle unlatches the gate, one horse, a large black stallion with a white blaze down his face, comes forward to meet the guests. Shadow is the horse Cottle has chosen to work with today — or, as she says, “he chose us.”
Cottle trained with author and facilitator Linda Kohanov, writer of “The Tao of Equus” and “The Power of the Herd," and founder of Eponaquest, educational workshops that employ horses for personal development and learning. She uses several different “horse exercises” when leading workshops, but today the group will focus on “Embodying the Goal.”
Working in the round pen, Shadow will walk, trot or gallop, around the perimeter guided by the commands of the person directing him. That is where the idea of leadership and communication comes into sharp focus. “A horse is a very obedient animal,” says Doug Hodson. “But as obedient as the horse was, at first I had a hard time getting it to do what I wanted it to do. I kept letting it go where it wanted to go.”
One by one, the three participants guide Shadow with a stick, which functions as an extension of the arm. They never actually touch the horse with the stick. They must indicate to the horse through gestures, body language and intention to move forward, pick up speed or stop. For Doug Hodson, the exercise was enlightening. “My take-away was, if, as a pastor, you’re unsure where you want your people to go —— they’re a little bit like a horse. They won’t know where to go.”
According to Kris Hodson, the individual experiences mirrored the unique personalities of the participants. “In my case, the horse would start going around and then suddenly stop. Sometimes it was the way I had placed my body. Sometimes it was the placement of the stick. Sometimes Vickie would say, ‘Your energy has just stopped.’” As a project coordinator, Kris says that although she gives clear and articulate directions when assigning a task, she now realizes she may be “dropping her energy” or not following up well with those carrying out the directions.
Robert Wagener had reservations the first time he worked with Shadow because of the horse’s size. Today he found the “humbling aspect” of having a “thousand-plus-pound being” follow his commands to be a profound metaphor for leading a congregation. Watching horses at Vickie’s ranch and near his own home, he has seen how the lead horse guides rather than dominates the herd, and, for Wagener, that concept applies to pastors. “I am your leader and I want you to follow me. And as you follow me I want you to trust me that I would never harm or hurt you.”
Learning to listen
The concept of non-verbal communication became another focal point of the day’s activities and discussions afterward. According to Cottle, horses have a strong sense of what a person is feeling compared with what the person is saying. She calls it being emotionally congruent. “In other words, their insides and their outsides are the same.”
As an example, if a person is an addict and pretending to be in control, the horses will avoid them and consider them dangerous to the herd. On the other hand, if a person is honest about feeling upset, the horses will focus on that person, pointing their ears forward and often moving near as if to protect.
Because counseling is such an important part of a pastors’ vocation, learning to key in to the non-verbal cues a client may be giving — and that they may be giving to a client — is extremely beneficial. Cottle says Kohanov’s book says experts believe 90 percent of communication is non-verbal. “Am I standing up straight or am I slumped? Are the knees locked or are they relaxed? Is the person holding their breath? If a person’s holding their breath the horses will look around like, ‘Is there something we should be scared of?’”
Horses, as animals of prey, have learned to survive by using these powers of observation and as Doug Hodson says, “being very intuitive.” “They have a way of communicating with each other in the herd that is even true in domesticated horses.” Wagener, who brought the scriptural passage of the lion and the lamb to share at the beginning of the day, asks the group how one’s communication style might impact another person’s sense of trust. For Doug Hodson, it’s pretty clear that a predatory leadership style is not going to work well with horses – but it’s “probably not going to work well with people either.”
In between formal learning sessions, the three guests spend time just being with the horses and interacting with them. For Kris Hodson, it underscores the idea that good communication involves taking enough time to listen. “My ‘take-away’ is that I jump to creating solutions too quickly. Let’s say I’m conversing with a pastor and they’re feeling overwhelmed with a situation. Let’s just be in that moment. And then when the time is right, let’s allow God to lead us into focusing on solution.”
“My sense of Jesus was that he had a connection with people; that if he was talking to you, he was talking to just you,” says Cottle. In her observation, working with horses helps people make a connection with themselves that they may have lost and that in turn can increase their ability to connect with and have compassion for others.
Awe
As the day comes to a close, the horses are led back to the pasture and the four people gather to reflect on an experience that they admit can’t be fully put into words. “Of the three of us,” Kris Hodson says, “I am probably the least competent around horses. But there was nothing to be concerned about. Only my own vulnerability. And that’s part of what you’re facing. You’re facing your own vulnerability.”
For Wagener, who has faced physical threat and emotional anger as a pastor, it was “an extraordinary opportunity to learn about danger and how to manage that and how to assess it so that we didn’t put ourselves in harm’s way. That’s self-care.”
Although horses are not aggressive by nature and the horses that Cottle work with are very gentle, a horse could hurt you unintentionally simply because of its size. So, there is an element of faith for Doug Hodson that is not only about being able to trust the horse, “it’s about being able to trust yourself.”
“It can be compared to our approach to God. The Hebrew word can sometimes be translated as 'fear' and sometimes as 'awe,' and you very much have that experience with these horses because they are huge.”
For the Hodsons, it is an experience they expect to “process,” as Kris puts it, for a long time. “It’s hard to put it into words,” she explains, “and I’m still having insights about what I learned. But it was definitely spiritual.”
“You bond with these horses,” observes Doug, “and you become, I can’t explain it in any other way, a part of their herd. That’s a hugely, deeply theological thing, to be a part of the family, a part of the group. It’s almost a kind of an embodiment of God’s grace.”
As to the impact of the day? “Good Lord,” he laughs. “It happened on Friday. On Sunday it showed up in the sermon!”
The next Equine-Facilitated Learning workshop for clergy is scheduled for February 28, 2014 in Descanso, California. For more information, contact Vickie Cottle at Vickie@DiscoveringEquus.com or Robert Wagener at cmem@flash.net
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Remembering Gayle C. Felton
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Daniel Benedict remembers Gayle C. Felton as a practical theologian who could "make complicated, thorny issues accessible to the rank-and-file of the church, doing so with grace and humor." Felton died Jan. 25.
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Editor’s note: The Rev.Gayle C. Felton died Jan. 25 at her home in Rougemont, N.C., at age 71. Through her writings and teaching, Felton, a scholar and ordained elder, played a key role in articulating the United Methodist understanding of baptism and Holy Communion. Here’s a colleague’s fond remembrance of her.
Gayle C. Felton trained as a church historian. She also was a practical theologian, one who could take the long and wide view and make complicated, thorny issues accessible to the rank-and-file of the church, doing so with grace and humor.
I first met Gayle in 1994, as a new member of the Baptism Study Committee. The committee had reported its statement to General Conference 1992. General Conference, the denomination's top legislative assembly, received it and charged the committee to keep working. The committee came back to the 1996 General Conference with a revision. There were significant rifts in the committee over the place of the divine initiative in the sacrament and the human response. I watched Gayle take all this in with a mix of gracious understanding and occasional bemusement. She never attacked one position or another, knowing there were ways to hold both in creative tension without rejecting our catholic and evangelical roots.
As a good historian, she had perspective. The committee asked her to draft the work and to bring it back to each meeting for our review and revisions. Since she was the writer, she took many notes and listened intently. In the end, her digest and statements won acceptance in the committee and adoption of “By Water and the Spirit” as an official teaching statement on baptism for The United Methodist Church.
Creating interpretive and educational resources
I served as the United Methodist Board of Discipleship’s director of worship resources from 1993 to 2005 and worked closely with Gayle. I had come to trust her wisdom and teaching skills, so with approval of the general secretary, I asked her to create interpretive and educational resources to help the church engage with “By Water and the Spirit.” She responded with a six-session study edition titled “By Water and the Spirit: Making Connections for Identity & Ministry.”
Gayle also helped craft legislation on membership in light of the theological understandings of “By Water and the Spirit.” Again in 1996, our new United Methodist commitment to both catholic and evangelical frameworks made for tensions that had to be worked out in the Book of Discipline. Gayle’s work was key to the Baptism Committee bringing legislation to General Conference, anticipating adoption of “By Water and the Spirit.” Some delegates adamantly opposed infants and children being members of the church. Gayle shuttled in and out of legislative committees answering questions and interpreting the proposed legislation. The resulting adoption of the legislation points to her skills in winning reconciliation and acceptance of some starkly new wording concerning membership.
The 2000 General Conference mandated that the Board of Discipleship, the Board of Higher Education and Ministry and the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns conduct a study of the sacrament of Holy Communion. Among those selecting the committee to do that work, there was a clear sense that Gayle should serve. Knowing her talent for listening and writing and her capacity to reconcile divergent points of view, the committee asked her to bring drafts of components of the paper to each meeting and to write the final paper. The committee asked Gayle to present the paper to General Conference 2004 and to answer questions as she had so ably done in 1996 when the baptism document was presented. Not surprisingly, “This Holy Mystery” was adopted by General Conference 2004.
“Giftedness and grace”
Both the baptism and communion study committees were convinced that there needed to be strategies to ensure that the documents not be relegated to the shelf. Gayle rose to the challenge, and, working under contract for the Board of Discipleship, traveled, spoke, wrote, taught and represented the new sacramental teaching of the church. Her giftedness and grace put official teaching statements into the thinking of The United Methodist Church and offered the wider church clarity about our sacramental understandings and practices that aided ecumenical bilateral conversations.
My other experience of working with Gayle was a follow up on “By Water and the Spirit.” Questions were coming in from western conferences, particularly the Rocky Mountain Annual (regional) Conference, about whether formerly members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who wanted to join The United Methodist Church should have their “Mormon baptism” recognized. Gayle and I organized a consultation in Salt Lake City. She and one of the Latter-day Saints’ “70” leaders were primary presenters. The work of the consultation led to a statement titled “Sacramental Faithfulness: Guidelines for Receiving People from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” by E. Brian and Jennifer L. Hare-Diggs and edited by Gayle. She wrote the accompanying study guide. The paper was received by General Conference 2000.
Gayle had strong academic credentials and she devoted that knowledge not so much for a career track in the academy as for facilitating education and formation of the laity and clergy for the work of ministry. She was a teacher who loved teaching. She taught regularly in lay pastors’ schools. When she would share her teaching intentions for the coming summers, I could tell she was looking forward with relish.
As the church says “Absent from us; present with the Lord.” We can give thanks that Gayle Carlton Felton was one of us and for us: an illuminator of sticky wickets, writer, teacher, witness and reconciler, both gracious and courageous.
*Benedict is a retired elder in the California Pacific Annual Conference and he served for twelve years as director of worship resources for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship. He was a Discipleship staff member on both the Baptism and Communion Study Committees. He serves as abbot of the Order of Saint Luke and lives in Hawaii.
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Many U.S. presidents have Methodist ties
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodists have a long history of ties to U.S. presidencies. In fact, Methodism began its relationship with the presidency when Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury approached George Washington twice about different issues.
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They escorted Abraham Lincoln's body to his burial in Illinois. They served lemonade to guests at the White House in an age of temperance. They had roles in inaugurations and extended spiritual advice to presidents on justice issues, ranging from slavery to war.
United Methodists have a long history of ties to U.S. presidencies. In fact, Methodism began its relationship with the presidency through the general who would become the nation's first elected leader.
After the Revolutionary War, Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury approached George Washington (1789-97) twice, first presenting an anti-slavery petition from Methodist bishops, and later to assure the new president of Methodist support for the new republic.
It would be more than a century after the nation's birth, however, before a Methodist would be in the White House as president. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-81) attended Methodist schools and, as president, attended Foundry Church, a Methodist church in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lucy. One of the founders and the first president of the Home Missionary Society (a precursor of United Methodist Women), Lucy was known affectionately by White House guests as "Lemonade Lucy" because she did not serve alcohol at White House functions, following Methodism's commitment to temperance.
Less than two decades later, another Methodist, William McKinley (1897-1901), was elected president. Early in life, McKinley had considered the Methodist ministry, but later became a lawyer. He remained active at the Methodist Church of the Savior in Canton, Ohio. He served as Sunday school superintendent and trustee.
McKinley's assassination in 1901, after election to his second term in office, left an impact on the Methodist denomination, according to Dale Patterson at the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History. "It touched the hearts of church members in a lot of places," he said. "I've personally seen windows dedicated to President McKinley inside churches in Kansas and Oklahoma."
McKinley death touched many hearts
Funeral services were held at McKinley's home church in Canton, where reminders of the assassinated president still can be found. On the west wall of the sanctuary are four stained-glass windows, given to the church by his widow in memory of her late husband. The flag that draped his casket is displayed in the church library.
A century later, George W. Bush (2001-09) entered the office as the nation's first United Methodist president. Raised in Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, Bush became a United Methodist after marrying his wife, Laura, a lifelong Methodist, in 1977. Both attended and taught Sunday school at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.
After he was elected governor of Texas in 1994, Bush worshipped at the Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin. Today, his presidential library is on the Dallas campus of Southern Methodist University, the alma mater of his wife.
Other presidents also have Methodist connections.
James K. Polk (1845-49) had a conversion experience at a Methodist camp and considered himself a Methodist, though he continued to attend Presbyterian services out of respect to his mother and his wife. Shortly before his death, Polk was baptized and confirmed into the Methodist church by the Rev. John B. McFerrin, the same pastor who was present at his conversion years before.
While in the White House, Andrew Johnson (1865-69) accompanied his wife, Eliza, to services at Foundry Church. Almost 125 years later, Bill Clinton (1993-2001), a Southern Baptist, would do the same with his wife, Hillary, a lifelong Methodist.
'God bless the Methodist church'
Although never baptized into any church, Ulysses S. Grant (1869-77) regularly attended services at Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. "Grant was very sympathetic with the Methodists," said Patterson, noting Grant was friends with Methodist Bishop John P. Newman, who was present when Grant died of cancer in 1885.
Visits from presidents, no matter their denomination, continue to be points of pride for United Methodist congregations across the nation such as First United Methodist Church, Jasper, Ala., where a funeral in 1940 for House Speaker John Brockman Bankhead brought President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45), along with future president Harry Truman (1945-53), to its sanctuary. Today, a large brass plaque marks the pew where Roosevelt sat.
United Methodists also have had a role in high-profile ceremonies related to the presidency. Most recently, when President Barack Obama was inaugurated into office in 2009, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a United Methodist pastor and civil rights activist, delivered a prayer. Lowery has served churches in Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; and Montgomery, Ala.
Even Abraham Lincoln (1861-65), who frequently spoke of Christian principles but had no specific church ties, was touched by Methodism. His parents were married by a Methodist minister in Washington County, Ky. Later, at Lincoln's White House, a frequent visitor was Methodist Bishop Matthew Simpson. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Simpson traveled with the president's body back to Springfield, Ill., and delivered the eulogy.
The presence of a Methodist bishop for Lincoln's funeral was no surprise given his respect for the Methodist church. In 1864, shortly before his death, Lincoln offered this praise for the young denomination:
"It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church. Bless all the churches and blessed be God, who in this our trial, giveth us the churches."
*Aldrich is a freelance writer from Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Barbara Dunlap-Berg, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5489 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
This story was first published Feb. 21, 2011.
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UMCOR builds health near Sochi Olympics
SOCHI, Russia (UMNS) - Not far from the site of the Olympic Winter Games, the United Methodist Committee on Relief works to increase access to health care for vulnerable people in the region. Julia Kayser reports for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
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Building Health Bridges in the Caucasus by Julia Kayser*
January 16, 2014—Just five miles south of Sochi Olympic Park, where the 2014 Winter Games will be held, is a disputed territory with a bloody history. Abkhazia is one of two de-facto independent administrative regions located in the Caucasus; South Ossetia is the other. Historically part of Georgia, they separated from that country with the support of Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Although each of the regions is ethnically and politically distinct, most in the international community recognize them as part of Georgia and not as independent states. But their independence remains contested.
The result is continued conflict and isolation, with hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced. For more than twenty years, communication across the Administrative Boundary Lines has been limited at best. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has been working in the region since 1993 to increase access to healthcare for vulnerable people generally and improve maternal and child healthcare outcomes specifically. Last year, UMCOR marked its twentieth year in Georgia with a new project to promote peaceful and healthy living.
The Building Health Bridges project, which ran through September 30 and was supported by funding from the US Embassy in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, fostered communication and cooperation among medical professionals across the Georgia-Abkhazia Administrative Boundary Line (ABL). It brought doctors together, face-to-face, for professional training in neutral locations. This strategy is recommended by USAID, and Building Health Bridges was welcomed and supported by other implementing agencies, including UNHCR, UNICEF, and Médecins Sans Frontières. The project also relied on rich partnerships with local health organizations.
The first wave of training events reached ninety-nine doctors along the Georgia-Abkhazia ABL. Trainings covered topics in maternal and child health, cardiology, oncology, gastroenterology, and, for nurses, in emergency medicine. Afterward, one doctor called colleagues from the other side “new friends.” Another wrote, “This program grants us a unique opportunity to… jointly address health problems.”
UMCOR also launched a virtual health platform that the doctors could access online. Eighty percent of the trainees still use it to collaborate, discuss case studies, and share resources. At the same time, fourteen public awareness campaigns were launched in the doctors’ home districts of Zugdidi and Gali, hosting workshops for more than five thousand community members.
The second phase of the project began in September where the first phase left off. Expanding Health Bridges also is being implemented with funding provided by the US Government, through the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. In November, Nicholas Jaeger, UMCOR program manager, traveled to Istanbul for an event that gathered ten doctors from the communities of Shida Kartli and Tskhinvali, both located along the Georgia-South Ossetia ABL. With the help of a translator, he welcomed them and reiterated UMCOR’s commitment to healthcare and peace building.
Some of the topics covered in this training event were telemedicine, maternal and child healthcare, and management of cardiovascular diseases. The schedule also allowed for fellowship through shared meals and sightseeing in the old city of Istanbul. On the last day, all of the doctors showed signs of increased trust in each other—even those who had been most reserved at first.
Jaeger says, “A great deal of the peace-building work… took place on the sidelines, in private conversations during coffee breaks, during formal dinners, and in sightseeing excursions. During these activities, it was evident that the group was forming a community of practice regardless of ethnic or national identity.”
Training doctors has an exponential positive affect, because it benefits each doctor’s patients. UMCOR estimates that the Expanding Health Bridges project will indirectly benefit 44,000 people, more than half of them internally displaced. Because people tend to trust and respect doctors, tolerance in the medical profession can help bring the region one step closer to peace.
You can support this and other development work in Georgia with your donation to Georgia Emergency Advance #250305.
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Memorial service set for Lois Dauway
NEW YORK (UMNS) - A memorial service for Lois Dauway is planned at 3 p.m. March 2 at the United Methodist Church of the Village, 201 West 13th St. Dauway, a longtime denominational and ecumenical staff executive, died Feb. 4 at the age of 65.
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Resources and educational opportunities
Women's History Month resources available
CHICAGO (UMNS) - Inclusive/expansive-language prayers, calls to worship and liturgies that can be used in March (Women's History Month) are available now through the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women. All the worship elements are Revised Common Lectionary-based.
Resources
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Webinar on 'Means of Grace, Means of Growth'
NASHVILLE (UMNS) - Following their 2013 "Lord, Teach Us to Pray" collaboration, Interpreter magazine, a publication of United Methodist Communications, and The Upper Room are launching a new series of articles and free webinars. They will explore the means of grace, practices in which Christians have traditionally engaged to grow in relationship to God. The first webinar, "Means of Grace, Means of Growth," will be at 7 p.m. CT, Thursday, Feb. 27. Deadline for registration is 12 noon CT, Wednesday, Feb. 26.
To register
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Special offer to stream church services
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Be ready to stream your services over the Internet during Lent and Easter through a special offer from United Methodist Communication's Techshop. The offer enables your church to enjoy a bonus three months at no additional cost when you sign up for 12 months of live-streaming service. Sign up today at myUMClive.com. Use discount code, Lent, on the Contact Us form. The offer ends March 15, 2014.
For more information
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Register for clergywomen leadership seminar
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Registration is open for the United Methodist Clergywomen Leadership Seminar, which offers theological reflection on women's leadership and for the cultivation of women's leadership skills. The May 5-7 event to be in Palm Beach, Fla., is sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry and is open to all United Methodist clergywomen.
For more information or to register
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Peace conference deadline extended
LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS) - Because the inclement weather has affected many in the Southeast, the early registration deadline for the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference has been extended until March 1. The 2014 Lake Junaluska Peace Conference: Faith, Health, and Peace: Seeking the Basic Right to Good Health for All God's Children will be March 27-30 at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center.
To register
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Event focuses on ethics, criminal justice
COLUMBUS, Ohio (UMNS) - "Christian Ethics and the Crisis in U.S. Criminal Justice" will be the focus of this year's Sprague Lecture Series from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 8 ET at the University Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus. Speakers include Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," James Logan, author of "Good Punishment? Christian Moral Practice and U.S. Imprisonment," and Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer.
Learn more
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News around conferences
Wood ministry brings warmth to those in need
ANDERSON, S.C. (UMNS) - James Morrison, 70, spends at least three days of every week chopping wood from trees into firewood that people in need can use to heat their homes. Jessica Connor of the South Carolina Advocate has the story of this 38-year-old ministry.
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Building Health Bridges in the Caucasus by Julia Kayser*
January 16, 2014—Just five miles south of Sochi Olympic Park, where the 2014 Winter Games will be held, is a disputed territory with a bloody history. Abkhazia is one of two de-facto independent administrative regions located in the Caucasus; South Ossetia is the other. Historically part of Georgia, they separated from that country with the support of Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Although each of the regions is ethnically and politically distinct, most in the international community recognize them as part of Georgia and not as independent states. But their independence remains contested.
The result is continued conflict and isolation, with hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced. For more than twenty years, communication across the Administrative Boundary Lines has been limited at best. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has been working in the region since 1993 to increase access to healthcare for vulnerable people generally and improve maternal and child healthcare outcomes specifically. Last year, UMCOR marked its twentieth year in Georgia with a new project to promote peaceful and healthy living.
The Building Health Bridges project, which ran through September 30 and was supported by funding from the US Embassy in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, fostered communication and cooperation among medical professionals across the Georgia-Abkhazia Administrative Boundary Line (ABL). It brought doctors together, face-to-face, for professional training in neutral locations. This strategy is recommended by USAID, and Building Health Bridges was welcomed and supported by other implementing agencies, including UNHCR, UNICEF, and Médecins Sans Frontières. The project also relied on rich partnerships with local health organizations.
The first wave of training events reached ninety-nine doctors along the Georgia-Abkhazia ABL. Trainings covered topics in maternal and child health, cardiology, oncology, gastroenterology, and, for nurses, in emergency medicine. Afterward, one doctor called colleagues from the other side “new friends.” Another wrote, “This program grants us a unique opportunity to… jointly address health problems.”
UMCOR also launched a virtual health platform that the doctors could access online. Eighty percent of the trainees still use it to collaborate, discuss case studies, and share resources. At the same time, fourteen public awareness campaigns were launched in the doctors’ home districts of Zugdidi and Gali, hosting workshops for more than five thousand community members.
The second phase of the project began in September where the first phase left off. Expanding Health Bridges also is being implemented with funding provided by the US Government, through the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. In November, Nicholas Jaeger, UMCOR program manager, traveled to Istanbul for an event that gathered ten doctors from the communities of Shida Kartli and Tskhinvali, both located along the Georgia-South Ossetia ABL. With the help of a translator, he welcomed them and reiterated UMCOR’s commitment to healthcare and peace building.
Some of the topics covered in this training event were telemedicine, maternal and child healthcare, and management of cardiovascular diseases. The schedule also allowed for fellowship through shared meals and sightseeing in the old city of Istanbul. On the last day, all of the doctors showed signs of increased trust in each other—even those who had been most reserved at first.
Jaeger says, “A great deal of the peace-building work… took place on the sidelines, in private conversations during coffee breaks, during formal dinners, and in sightseeing excursions. During these activities, it was evident that the group was forming a community of practice regardless of ethnic or national identity.”
Training doctors has an exponential positive affect, because it benefits each doctor’s patients. UMCOR estimates that the Expanding Health Bridges project will indirectly benefit 44,000 people, more than half of them internally displaced. Because people tend to trust and respect doctors, tolerance in the medical profession can help bring the region one step closer to peace.
You can support this and other development work in Georgia with your donation to Georgia Emergency Advance #250305.
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Hoosiers assemble 155,520 food packets
HAGERSTOWN, Ind. (UMNS) - Each day more than 14,400 children die of starvation around the world. With this in mind, 625 volunteers - including members and friends of 17 United Methodist churches - came together Feb. 8 to assemble 155,520 one-pound food packets that eventually will feed 933,000 adults and children in Indiana and Guatemala. The Rev. Dan Gangler of the Indiana Annual (regional) Conference shares the story and photos from the event.
Read story
HAGERSTOWN, Ind. – Each day more than 14,400 children die of starvation around the world.
With this reality in mind, 625 volunteers – including members and friends of 17 United Methodist churches* in East Central Indiana, the East District of the Indiana Conference, area Future Farmer of America chapters and community residents – came together Saturday, Feb. 8 to assemble 155,520 one-pound food packets that will eventually feed up to 933,000 adults and children in Indiana and Guatemala.
The food-packing event was held at the Hagerstown Elementary School gym and orchestrated by Kids Against Hunger of Greenwood, Ind., a nonprofit corporation and one of 30 satellites of Kids Against Hunger in the United States and Canada (www.kah-greenwood.org) dedicated to the mission of alleviating hunger around the world.
Ron Pierce, Kids Against Hunger Event Manager, provided the 50-pound bags of food totaling more than 70 tons used during the event.
Teamwork
The Rev. Rodney Frieden, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Hagerstown, led the event with seven team members. Other sponsors beside The United Methodist Church included Harvest Land Co-Op and District 9 of the Future Farmers of America. DuPont and Pioneer corporations provided t-shirts for each volunteer. Reid Hospital and Health Care Services of Richmond provided hospitality.
Decked in hairnets and beard nets (for men who wore beards) the volunteers worked in three two-hour shifts at up to 14 assembly lines each with 15 volunteers to put the 13.3-once packets together.
Each packet contained meals to combat starvation and contained fortified soy, textured vegetable protein, long-grain rice and 21 essential vitamins and minerals. When cooked with six cups of water, each packet will feed up to six people with a simple but sustainable meal.
During the three orientation sessions held in the school cafeteria, Frieden told group of volunteers, “How thankful we are for the abundance we have (in America). We are doing good as an expression of God’s love to us.”
Frieden also expressed his gratitude to members of the community who were not United Methodists and invited those who had no contact to a church to seek him out during the event to talk about the Christian faith and The United Methodist Church.
Recipients
Each packet contained fortified soy, textured vegetable protein, long-grain rice and 21 essential vitamins and minerals.
The first 40,000 meals assembled went to local food pantries in Greenfield, Connersville, Winchester, Middletown, Muncie, Richmond and Hagerstown. The remaining packets will be shipped to Mission Guatemala, an Indiana-based United Methodist mission headed by the Rev. Tom Heaton, founder and executive director.
Heaton came to Hagerstown from Guatemala to be part of the event.
He said, “Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of malnutrition in the word and the highest rate in Latin America and the Caribbean…
“The organization’s philosophy is based on John Wesley’s teaching (founder of Methodism) to ‘do all the good you can,’” he said.
Heaton explained to volunteers during the orientation session that Mission Guatemala collaborates with parents of children in individual communities to provide more than 1,500 children with a lunch that is healthy and nutritious at their schools. The food will be used in the feeding program in Nueva Esperanza, which provides more than 100 children with a health and nutritious lunch five days a week. Another feeding program in Pacaman provides lunches to an additional 60 children. Mission Guatemala hopes to feed 500 children each day this year.
According to Pierce, the cases bound for Guatemala would be placed on pallets and stored at Celadon Logistics warehouse in Indianapolis until a 40-foot shipping container could be attained for shipment to Guatemala.
Third year
The day yielded 720 cases of food with 40,000 meals going to Indiana food pantries and the rest going to Mission Guatemala.
This is the third year for the Hagerstown event. Frieden said the idea began two years ago with 15 people wanting to do something about hunger in a big way. Their goal was feeding 3,000 people. Their first event was in May 2012 when 75 volunteers packed 48,000 meals.
This past year in May 2013, 200 volunteers assembled 53,000 meals.
This year, Frieden said the group wanted to do something on a grander scale so they invited more churches, the FFA, plus community groups and area corporate sponsors to make contributions. The project cost $48,000, which includes the cost of the food, event costs and the cost of shipping a container of meals to Mission Guatemala. They also shifted the dates to February to eliminate many conflicting events during May.
For more information about the event, contact Frieden at Rodney.Frieden@inumc.org or call 765-489-4558.
*United Methodist churches participating included: Middletown, Middletown Honey Creek, Richmond First, Economy, Greens Fork, Fountain City, Milton, Cambridge City, Winchester, Muncie College Avenue, College Corner, Hagerstown First, Connersville First, Connersville Grace, Columbia Park, Richmond Central and Straughn Salem.
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Author of book on Methodism, slavery dies
ATHENS, Tenn. (UMNS) - Durwood Dunn, a history professor at United Methodist-related Tennessee Wesleyan College, late last year published his fourth and final book," The Civil War in Southern Appalachian Methodism." In the early morning hours of Feb. 15, he died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 70 years old. Annette Spence shares a remembrance of the historian and his research.
Read story
ATHENS, Tenn. – In January, Durwood Dunn was too sick to meet an interviewer in person, nor was he able to talk or eat.
However, he responded quickly and thoughtfully to emailed questions about his fourth and final book, “The Civil War in Southern Appalachian Methodism,” published in late 2013.
“Bishop Asbury warned Methodists to separate their faith from politics,” Dunn said in an email, “but few Methodists on either side heeded this warning.”
In the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2014, the Tennessee Wesleyan College history professor died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as A.L.S. or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 70 years old.
Colleagues say he was ready to pass on, although his illness had been diagnosed less than a year ago in April 2013.
“A.L.S. is a terrible disease – he said ‘the sooner the better,’” said the Rev. William McDonald, chair of religion and philosophy at the United Methodist-related college where Dunn taught for 39 years. “But Durwood was also ready because he had a firm, abiding faith. He was Methodist down to his boots.”
Dunn said something similar in his January emails, when asked about his faith:
“I am a devout Christian and have always believed Methodism’s particular grace lies in the lives of its members – fine people I have known throughout my life.”
BEST SELLER
Dunn did not have immediate family but was close to his niece’s family in Florida. He was the son of Charles Dunn, the first ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
His ancestors were early settlers in an isolated Tennessee valley that inspired Dunn’s first book, “Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937.”
Published in 1988, the book is now in its 12th printing and is the best-selling book in University of Tennessee Press history, according to Scot Danforth, director.
“The Cades Cove book is really considered to be a foundational work for Appalachian studies,” Danforth said.
Danforth worked with Dunn on his next three books, but it was the fourth and last book the author anticipated most – after researching since the 1990s and completing it before his diagnosis.
“The hardest book to write was the last one,” the award-winning author responded in January. “I had to search high and low for local records, quarterly meeting minutes, or journals to see what was happening in Holston Methodism at the grassroots level.”
McDonald describes the Civil War book as a “painful part of our history.”
“He really zooms in on the people and events and how it played out in Holston when the Methodist church split over slavery,” said McDonald. “I once said the subtitle could be ‘Sinners and Saints.’”
While local pastors in the pre-Civil War 1800s tended to be abolitionists, the more educated, professionalized clergy identified with the Confederate cause and supported slavery, the book shows.
“The church was making concessions to the gentry and wealthy, and it becomes a rather tawdry tale,” McDonald said.
According to Danforth, Dunn’s extensive research will be controversial for some. “People in general want to identify with the more progressive side,” he said. “But Emory & Henry will be sort of shocked to find that they have Confederates in the attic.”
Emory & Henry College’s president from 1852 to 1879, Ephraim Emerson Wiley, was a “strident Confederate” who taught southern nationalism and approval of slavery to Holston’s students and future leaders, Danforth said. (Emory & Henry is a United Methodist-related college in Emory, Va.)
Dunn dedicated the book to the “memory of the antislavery local preachers of Holston Conference who remained fiercely loyal to the Union.”
LAST WISH
Friends and colleagues remember Dunn as a private, scholarly man who cared deeply about his church and students.
“He never missed a Sunday, until last summer when he got sick and could no longer sit,” said the Rev. Steve Brown, pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church in Athens, where Dunn was a member since 1984.
A self-described “fifth-generation Methodist,” Dunn served three years as a lay delegate to the Holston Annual Conference and 12 years on the Holston Conference Commission on Archives and History.
He grew up in Chattanooga, Tenn., where his father served as superintendent of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. When Dunn was 17, his father retired and the family moved to Townsend, Tenn. The teenager transferred his membership to Tuckaleechee United Methodist Church.
Dunn’s parents are buried at the Tuckaleechee cemetery, according to his long-time friend and retired Tennessee Wesleyan professor, the Rev. Sam Roberts. Every December for the past 15 years, Roberts and another friend, Susan Buttram, accompanied Dunn to place a wreath on his parents’ grave.
“On our last trip in December, we vowed that we would continue to do that,” said Roberts, who was with Dunn in his last hours.
Dunn completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He taught at another United Methodist-related college in Holston – Hiwassee -- for five years before beginning at Tennessee Wesleyan in 1975.
The history teacher was committed to Tennessee Wesleyan and believed it had a mission to provide a liberal-arts education to students from the region, especially first-generation college students, his friends said.
Dunn’s last wish was to “live long enough to see my book published,” Brown remembers.
In November, after a few tense weeks when Dunn’s illness was progressing and the publishing process “wasn’t happening as quickly as I wanted it to,” Danforth was finally able to deliver advance copies to Dunn's home in Athens.
It was a very happy day for the author and history teacher, Roberts remembers.
“Everyone takes different lessons away from history,” Dunn wrote in January through email. “Abraham Lincoln said both Union and Confederates believed God was on their side during the war.
“History is an ongoing process to discover the whole truth, and I hope future historians will go beyond what I have uncovered to find even more answers.”
A memorial service for Dr. Dunn will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 20, at Trinity United Methodist Church in Athens, Tenn.
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Oklahoma church grows with multi-site
OKLAHOMA CITY (UMNS) - In 2013, St. Luke's United Methodist Church went multi-site, adding what had been two independent churches. The multi-site approach is bearing early fruit, reports Holly McCray of the Oklahoma Conference's Contact newspaper. St. Luke's now includes Fuente De Vida and Asbury congregations as well as the downtown home.
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In 2013, OKC-St. Luke’s UMC branched out as three locations. The multi-site approach is bearing early fruit.
This church family established in 1889 now includes Fuente De Vida and Asbury congregations as well as the downtown home.
"We have definitely seen an increase in worship attendance and an increased excitement among the people," said Bob Long, St. Luke’s senior pastor.
The same vision drives all three: Share Christ. Grow in faith. Serve the community.
"If you are sharing the love of Christ well and lives are being changed, people want to come," said Rev. Dr. Long.
One administrative council, one personnel committee, etc., oversee church life for all. Representatives from all campuses serve on those boards.
Long knows too well the denomination’s ominous statistics about the Great Commission to make disciples. He serves on the UM General Board of Pensions.
Almost 32,000 UM churches operate in the United States. About 24,000 of those report fewer than 100 people in worship.
Only 182 churches report more than 1,000 worshippers. St. Luke’s is among those.
Its 2013 membership totaled 6,469, with average worship attendance of 1,464.
Long spoke plainly. "The General Board looks at statistics. It’s easy to see [the denomination has] thousands of churches that are going to be closed over the next 10 years. Should they have to be closed? Is there anything we can do about that?"
St. Luke’s Asbury
St. Luke’s Asbury completes a circle-of-life story. Long has learned that OKC-St. Luke’s contributed to a building fund for OKC-Asbury in the 1950s.
As the smaller congregation began declining in recent years, Asbury’s members worked hard to take care of the facility. Pastor Dawn Richards said the members’ "heartfelt desire" was to avoid closing the doors. She described the people as spiritually mature, willing to adapt so ministry there could continue.
Long concurred. "The pastor wanted to try new things, and the congregation said, ‘We’re willing to try.’ We kind of both felt led together."
St. Luke’s Asbury welcomed 16 new members in 2013. Rev. Richards said worship attendance averaged 55 in January, and Sunday School had risen from 30 to 44 people.
She listed "wonderful" changes at Asbury since becoming part of St. Luke’s: Excellence in worship, lower administrative costs, more resources available to people in the neighborhood. A mobile health program was enhanced.
"Partnering enables us to do ministry at a higher level," Richards said.
Sunday worship features video preaching by Bob Long. Richards is the on-site leader at 1320 S.W. 38th. She describes the service as family-oriented and heartily endorses the video preaching.
"Good worship is No. 1 if we are going to grow this church," she said.
Richards named pastoral care as one of her spiritual gifts. "This plays to my strengths. I have access to specialists. I can really focus on making disciples for Christ."
St. Luke’s Asbury now offers Studio 222 South on afternoons, Monday-Thursday. It’s an extension of the acclaimed Studio 222 after-school arts program for children at St. Luke’s Downtown. After an art show and dance performance, "the kids were so excited that their parents came. You should see the difference in their lives," said Richards.
English as a Second Language and Financial Peace University are offered.
"There are so many stories of the children and youth we minister to, and now we’re reaching out to their parents," Richards said.
St. Luke’s Fuente De Vida
For the bilingual, multicultural congregation that is St. Luke’s Fuente De Vida, "Sunday morning attendance has gone up by 40 percent since we became an official satellite campus," said Pastor Wendi Neal.
Worship averaged 50 to 60 people at the close of 2013 for the church at 5801 S. Pennsylvania Ave.
"Now we’re confident about our future and the direction we’re going. We have access to resources; we have the same mission.
St. Luke’s mission, "Share–Grow–Serve," is printed in Spanish and English on T-shirts.
"All of it together has created a very positive environment," said Rev. Neal. "Our members are inviting others."
OKC-St. Luke’s and OKC-Hillcrest Fuente De Vida had been in relationship since 2009. Unification was celebrated on June 30.
The majority of members are "early 30s and twentysomethings with children," Neal said. Worshippers sing bilingually. The children’s sermon is presented in English only.
Neal preaches in Spanish, and her husband, clergyman Carlos Ramirez, simultaneously translates for English-speaking worshippers wearing earpieces.
"It challenges preconceived notions about Hispanic ministry," Neal said.
Video preaching by Dr. Long is not used. But Neal uses the same Scripture and theme.
"All of us are striving to provide excellent worship," Neal said.
"We are the only United Methodist congregation [in the metro] that offers worship and Bible study in Spanish, so we reach people all over the area."
Fuente De Vida offers Financial Peace University, and some parents bring their youths to learn alongside them, the pastor said.
This year, the church plans to start small groups in other locations, perhaps at a school or restaurant. A Confirmation class will meet.
"Don’t be afraid to try," Neal advised any congregation. "Try different things. How else are people going to connect and grow?" — Holly McCray
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St. Luke's plans new satellite by Holly McCray
OKC-St. Luke’s United Methodist Church will open a satellite campus in Edmond on March 30, as one of Oklahoma Conference’s largest churches expands to a fourth location in the metro.
The new worshipping community will meet at Edmond’s Sequoyah Middle School, with video preaching by Bob Long, St. Luke’s senior pastor. On-site leaders will be Josh Attaway, Drew Haynes, and Tisha Tate, according to the Feb. 2 announcement.
The church also has under contract about 12 acres at the Edmond intersection of Interstate 35 and Second Street (Route 66), confirmed Rev. Dr. Long.
In 2013, St. Luke’s became a multi-site church in Oklahoma City. Two existing United Methodist churches, OKC-Asbury and OKC-Fuente De Vida, officially closed, then affiliated as satellites.
The main campus now is referred to as St. Luke’s Downtown, at Northwest 15th and Robinson. Dawn Richards is campus pastor of St. Luke’s Asbury, and Wendi Neal pastors St. Luke’s Fuente De Vida.
The new campus is named St. Luke’s Edmond.
Although there’s ample and ongoing history in Oklahoma of two or more individual churches sharing one pastor (i.e., "a two-point charge"), satellite churches appear to be a new concept for the Conference.
This worship style typically includes video preaching, using big projection screens at the satellite sites. This is the format now used at St. Luke’s Asbury. Rev. Richards leads on site, with video preaching by Dr. Long.
The Edmond satellite also will use this format.
More than 5,000 satellite churches operate in 47 states, according to Long. Two-thirds of those are in mainline denominations, rather than nondenominational.
And United Methodism ranks No. 2 among mainlines with the most satellite churches, Long noted.
"I really think a lot of churches should be doing this in the Conference. There is a 90 percent success rate among multi-site churches," he told the Congregational Development committee in September as he spoke about St. Luke’s research and plans.
During one era, eager Methodists were starting a U.S. church every week, noted Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.
"We have to back up our [United Methodist] rhetoric about making disciples. I’ve prayed over this many nights and days," the bishop said in a February interview.
He is a sower of the seed now sprouting as St. Luke’s Edmond. He wants innovation in reaching people for Christ and believes the multi-site model can succeed for Oklahoma United Methodists.
"Come dream with me so we can keep our Church alive. Catch, cast, and stand up for the vision," he invited. "I want more dreamers and visionaries. This is part of the Strategic Plan."
He pointed out that Edmond has one of the fastest-growing populations in the state.
The Conference’s newest church plants, Connect and Summit, are taking root there. Existing UM churches in Edmond are expanding their facilities. Paying its own way, St. Luke’s joins these ministries in the Edmond mission field.
"St. Luke’s is willing to put themselves on the line," the bishop said. "This is can-do attitude."
Chuck Nordean is the Conference’s director of Clergy and Congregational Development. He said the new satellite has the affirmation of Congregational Development.
"This is bold. The Spirit is at work in this," said Rev. Nordean.
"St. Luke’s model is a good one because they understand both quality worship and being in mission daily. I believe we have incredibly strong churches in Edmond, [and] St. Luke’s is confident they’ve done their due diligence."
St. Luke’s also has studied the effective satellite ministries of UM Church of the Resurrection in Greater Kansas City. Long gained knowledge from senior pastors of similar churches in Georgia, Mississippi, Philadelphia, and Ginghamsburg (Ohio). He has opportunities to draw on their expertise when pastors of the nation’s 100 largest UM churches meet together. St. Luke’s is one of those.
Oklahoma’s bishop acknowledged some tension among Church leaders about St. Luke’s Edmond. "I understand," Hayes said.
"I understand also that you’ve got churches of all denominations heading to Edmond."
He continued, "We cannot become territorial. Each church has its appeal in the community. When one person is won for the Kingdom, we all win."
Both the bishop and the senior pastor described meeting with various groups as St. Luke’s proposal was processed by the Conference. Across months, they sat down with district superintendents, pastors and church planters in the Edmond area, and the Bi-District Board of Church Location, as well as the September Congregational Development meeting.
"There has been a real sensitivity to others," said Long in a recent interview. "Nothing would make me sadder than to think we hurt another Methodist church. Our worship service will be very different. We’re happy to help and work with anybody.
"I believe our [collective] presence helps each other, so that all together it gets people to talk about and come to Methodist churches."
He offered Church of the Resurrection as an example. After the opening of Resurrection West, a satellite with video preaching by Adam Hamilton, two established UM churches nearby also grew, Long said.
He also has deep respect for church planters. Long’s first appointment after seminary was to start a new church in Houston.
He said, "They dropped me off in the neighborhood and said, ‘Good luck and God bless.’"
Sharing Christ is foremost for Long. He went to work, without land or a building, without knowing if anyone was even interested. But he did know a lot of people lived there, with more arriving. Long planted and grew that church.
He has led St. Luke’s for 22 years.
"I think we have DNA here, even before I came, that we are open to new ideas and trying new things that line up with our values, our mission," he said.
More of St. Luke’s current members live in Edmond than any other area.
"It’s nice to have a core group to start," Long said, "but our goal is to win people to Christ. It’s very exciting."
Frankye Johnson turned to Scripture to express her support for St. Luke’s Edmond. She is South Oklahoma City District superintendent.
"I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks directly to this situation actually before we get to the Great Commission in Matthew’s Gospel. I further believe Bob Long, his team, and the congregation of St. Luke’s are taking seriously that mandate of our Lord to make disciples of all people," she stated.
From Matthew 9:37-38 (RSV): "Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore [to] the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers...’"
Rev. Johnson wrote, "I believe the harvest is so plentiful in Oklahoma City, Edmond, and throughout our Conference that there is room for all of us to send out laborers. I pray that we re-focus our attention on reaching the mission fields that are right in our backyards. Recognizing that we are taking a risk, I support this adventure!"
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Louisiana church reaching kids with reading
ST. MARTINVILLE, La. (UMNS) - A book club for area kindergartners through fifth-graders has become a popular community outreach for Mallalieu United Methodist Church in southern Louisiana. The Louisiana Annual (regional) Conference explains the ministry and shares pictures.
Read story
A book club for area children has become a popular community outreach for Mallalieu United Methodist Church in St. Martinville. The “Neighborhood Literacy Book Club” is a monthly ministry for kids in the community in grades K-5. Children work in groups with church volunteers to build reading fluency and comprehension skills. The kids make new friends while having fun playing reading and vocabulary games.
Each day, participants get a snack, sing a song and join in a circle of prayer. As an added bonus, area high school seniors are now offering tutoring in Math to the book club participants.
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The church and homosexuality
Sister believes in Jesus' love for lesbian sibling
MOUNT WASHINGTON, Pa. (UMNS) - Jane L. Bonner, president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Evangelical Connection and a strong advocate for The United Methodist Church's position that "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," firmly believes that her late sister, Amy Lamb, who was a professional photographer and filmmaker, is in heaven right now. But, Bonner is also certain God did not want a gay lifestyle for her sister.
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Born five years apart, they grew up together in a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania “at the tail end of a large family.” They loved playing with dolls and riding bicycles. In high school, Jane was a majorette and Amy was a cheerleader.
They both went away to college. Jane got married and decided to stay home and raise her children. Amy co-founded a film production company and was in a loving, committed relationship with another woman.
Amy died of cancer in 2011, and Jane is certain she is in heaven. Just as certain as she is that a “gay lifestyle” was not what God wanted for her sister.
Jane L. Bonner is president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Evangelical Connection and a strong advocate for The United Methodist Church’s position that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and that God intends marriage to be only between a man and a woman.
Her sister, Amy Lamb, was a professional photographer and filmmaker known in Pittsburgh as a godmother to struggling artists.
“I know my sister is in heaven because she trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus for her salvation,” Bonner said.
Do not condemn
One thing Bonner always wanted her sister to know was that she did not condemn her. “I think that is sort of a myth that people carry around thinking we must condemn if we don’t agree — that is the biggest fallacy in our society today,” she said.
Bonner is in a leadership role in the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference and an active member of Bethlehem United Methodist Church. When Bishop Peggy Johnson announced dialogues between groups with differing opinions on human sexuality, Bonner was eager to join in the conversation.
“We need to keep talking, we need to understand we can still love one another without capitulating,” she said.
Eastern Pennsylvania’s conference has been in the spotlight recently for defrocking a pastor who performed a same-sex wedding for his son and because of a high-profile wedding of two men in Philadelphia at Arch Street United Methodist Church, which was officiated by more than 50 United Methodist pastors.
Bonner attended both days of the trial of Frank Schaefer, the pastor who performed his son’s wedding ceremony. She also helped write a letter sent to Johnson calling for her to hold the pastors who officiated at the Arch Street same-sex wedding “accountable to their ordination vows.”
“I am openly engaged in trying to keep our church from making the mistake of changing our position on marriage. And I don’t mean just same-sex marriage, multiple marriage or anything that might come down the pike,” she said.
Abundant life
The two sisters often had long talks, and, at one point, Amy asked Jane if she would support her if she decided to marry her partner.
“I looked at her and said, ‘I will have to pray about it,’” she said. “I never had a chance to find out what my answer to that question would be.”
One of her regrets is that her sister and her partner did not make better preparations about dealing with their estate. Bonner, whose husband is an attorney, is working to see that her sister’s partner gets the house and property she shared with Lamb.
In the last days of her illness, Bonner was able to talk to her sister about a funeral. Lamb wanted Bonner’s daughter, a United Methodist pastor, to officiate, and she wanted her funeral to be in a United Methodist church near her home in Mount Washington.
“I contacted the pastor (in Mount Washington), and she was so phenomenal,” Bonner said. “She made arrangements, came to the hospital and met Amy and her family. It was so evident that God was in all of it.
“Wow! Did we have a celebration,” Bonner said about her sister’s funeral. “I felt really blessed that God honored her commitment to him because she was committed to the Lord.
“Jesus said he brought life abundant. I think there are so many things in this world that can rob us of the many blessings God has for us,” she said.
Bonner believes the church has failed those who identify as homosexual by failing to give them love and options that Jesus offers to all sinners.
“I think of my sister and how rich she was in talent and a big heart, and I love her partner as a sister. I know she meant the world to her and yet I just think that there was maybe a better way for each of them.”
*Gilbert is a multimedia reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615)742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Bishop denounces Kansas bill on gays
WICHITA, Kan. (UMNS) - In a letter addressed to Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, United Methodist Bishop Scott Jones of Great Plains Annual (regional) Conference suggested that state House Bill 2453 be killed, as to not legitimize discrimination against gay and lesbian individuals. The bill sought to allow public or private employees to refuse service based on religious views about marriage. The state Senate leaders decided Tuesday, Feb. 18, to not bring the bill to the floor, but will explore the issue of religious liberty in March hearings.
Read news release
Bishop Scott Jones speaks out against discrimination
Letter from United Methodist bishop denounces HB 2453
WICHITA, Kan. – In a letter addressed to Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, Bishop Scott
Jones, bishop of the Great Plains United Methodist Conference, suggests that House Bill 2453 be
killed, as to not legitimize discrimination against gay and lesbian individuals.
House Bill 2453 seeks to allow public or private employees to refuse service based on religious
views about marriage. In his letter, Bishop Jones, commends Senator Wagle’s statement
expressing her concerns about the measure.
“It is hard to imagine how this bill can have a compromise that still gives equal protection of the
law to all persons in our state,” said Bishop Jones in the letter. “We Kansans helped end slavery
and segregation — we do not need to legalize discrimination.”
Bishop Jones went on to mention that the debate seemed to be missing the fact that Kansas is
more religiously diverse than in the past. Giving legal license to any religious opinions opens the
door to several possible actions.
“I believe that House Bill 2453 represents values that are un-American, un-Kansan and un-Christian,” said Bishop Jones in closing. “Please do whatever you can to make sure that no
further action is taken in this matter.”
House Bill 2453 passed the House on Feb. 12, with a 72-49 vote. Supporters of the measure say
the intention was to protect religious liberty. Opponents say the bill’s wording allows it to have
a much broader ramifications than what the House considered during two full days of hearings
preceding the vote. Wagle said the bill goes beyond protecting religious freedom and potentially
discriminates against the LGBT community. Wagle raised concerns about how the bill could
affect the business community. The Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senate Vice
President Jeff King of Independence, Kan., will make the final decision whether to consider a
modified version of the bill or kill it.
Bishop Jones’ letter to Senator Susan Wagle [PDF] Great Plains United Methodist Confe
Methodist congregations with more than 220,000 members in Kansas and Nebraska. Learn more
about the conference and their local churches at www.greatplainsumc.org.
The United Methodist Church has 12.5 million members globally and is in mission in more than
135 countries. It is the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., with about 33,000
churches. Our mission is making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Our tagline "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors." embraces who we are and how we seek to
put our faith in action. Learn more at UMC.org.
Media Contact:
Cindy Kelly, communications coordinator for Great Plains United Methodist Conference
1 (866) 915-3638
ckelly@greatplainsumc.org
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Bishop's statement to clergy on denomination's same-sex union debate
Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace
Presentation to the Orders of Elder and Deacon and
Fellowship of Local Pastors and Associate Members
Great Plains Conference
Bishop Scott J. Jones
January 15, 2014
For this meeting of the orders and fellowship in the Great Plains Conference, we have asked ourselves two key questions: “How do we live in the tension of upholding our covenant to follow and
uphold the discipline of the United Methodist Church while disagreeing with some positions of the Discipline?” and “How do we respond with grace and love, both corporately and personally, when a colleague decides she/he can no longer live within that covenant?” The starting point for my answer is Ephesians 4:1-3: “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Unity is God’s will for God’s people. Ephesians continues “There is one body and one Spirit, just
as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Connectionalism is our Wesleyan way of embodying that unity. There are three fundamental, non-negotiable and basic characteristics of our unity. The first is our doctrine. We are a body of clergy—elders, deacons, associate members and local pastors—bound together in a covenant whose purpose is the saving of souls. Elders have all made a sacred promise to preach and maintain our doctrines. Compared to other churches, we have a pretty broad understanding of the way of salvation which I have characterized as the extreme center—original sin, repentance, justification, sanctification, social justice, and the means of grace. The second is our mission. “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.” We have been extraordinarily successful during the last 274 years since Wesley launched the revival on April 2, 1739. We are a world-wide church embodying greater diversity in our unity than almost any other Christian church except the Roman Catholics. Third is our discipline. We are bound in a connectional, missional covenant that focuses on four aspects: conference, episcopacy, itinerancy and the holiness of our clergy. We are a church where power is lodged in our conferring together. Decisions are made at church conferences, district conferences, annual conferences, jurisdictional conferences, central conferences and General
Conference. Both clergy and laity are members of those conferences. I spent 10 years in an international dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church where I argued strongly that our democratic process of listening to God’s will and discerning it in conference is far better than the Catholic pattern of
governance. Conference should be a means of grace, where the people of God worship, pray, learn, and discern God’s will for their lives and the ministry of God’s church. We think the people of God have the ability to hear God’s directions and discern it. We believe the clergy should be equally represented with the laity. We make our decisions in conference. That is who we are. There will inevitably be disagreements, but we are loyal to the decisions we make together. We also are an episcopal church. Bishops are given great power and responsibility. A bishop’s
calling is to lead the church in its mission, to strengthen the local churches, appoint clergy to their places of service, and to guard the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine and discipline of the Church. Some people in more congregationally-oriented denominations are amazed at how much power we are given. Others
are amazed at how the office of bishop has been weakened. Many times people expect me to do things or fix things for which I simply do not have either the authority or responsibility. When people write me letters assuming I can settle the question of homosexuality or abortion in the church, they often do not
understand what I can and cannot do. Yet I am convinced that the quality of episcopal leadership does continue to matter greatly to our overall vitality. We are also a church characterized by itinerancy. When elders are ordained, they promise to go wherever the bishop appoints them. Local churches are committed to receiving whoever the bishop appoints to serve as their pastor. I have told Presbyterian and Baptist friends they would be much better off as both clergy and local churches if they had a bishop. When disagreements occur people can safely blame the bishop which then minimizes conflict within the congregation.
We are also a church committed to the holiness and competence of our clergy. When I send a pastor to serve a church, that church expects that this person will preach the faith of the United
Methodist Church, lead according to our discipline, and will have the character and behavior that fits our understanding of the Wesleyan way of discipleship. What I have just described to you should not be news. But it is worth repeating today because
there is a lot of tension within our denomination and many people testing the boundaries and limits. In such a situation, we need to remind ourselves of our fundamental values and commitments. We have for most of our history as a denomination reflected American culture. In the larger context of the culture wars in our country, we have been debating abortion and homosexuality since
1972. As America has become more polarized, we have become more polarized. As mutual respect and mutual understanding have diminished, so United Methodists have lost much of our ability to talk with each other in constructive ways. We are a diverse, worldwide church. We are a diverse conference. In the Great Plains Conference we have some congregations and clergy who are fully supportive of the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer persons and who believe that we should ordain self-avowed practicing homosexual persons and perform ame-gender unions and marriages. We have congregations and clergy who support expanding a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
In the Great Plains Conference we have some congregations and clergy who are fully supportive of the Church’s current teaching that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching and that we should not ordain self-avowed practicing homosexual persons or perform same-gender unions or marriages. We have congregations and clergy who believe that our Church’s statement on abortion needs to be more restrictive. All of these persons are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We need each other. We are called to love each other. I am proud to live in a church with that kind of diversity because when I get to heaven I think a lot of those folk from both groups are going to be there as well. One way I typically teach about that diversity is to say that the United Methodist Church is a church where both George W. Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton are active, faithful members, and I am glad to belong to a church like that. What do you do, when over time, you realize you can no longer support the essential aspects of being a United Methodist Christian? First you have to decide how important it is to you. All of us have things that we disagree with, but some are more important to us than others. When you disagree with the church’s teaching or its discipline, you can work to change it. On these issues, people have been
working for decades. If, a disagreement with the Church’s teaching or discipline is highly important to you and if you
have given up hope of changing the church’s doctrine or discipline, you have to decide either to live with it or to leave and find another church that better expresses your understanding of the Christian faith. Over my years as a United Methodist elder, people I know have left because they do not like the power of bishops to appoint elders. Some have left because we are too liberal. Some have left because we are too conservative. Some have left because they no longer believe in the divinity of Christ. Such departures usually make me sad. I seek the unity of our church. When people make a decision of conscience, though, I respect that and wish them well. We must understand that such decisions of conscience are not taken lightly, and we must respect and care for those led to take those steps. Over the years, even going back to 1784, The United Methodist Church has developed rules by which we live together and we continue to conference about them. We have been talking about these two particular issues for 40 years and we will continue the conversation. I believe that we must conduct the conversation according to our rules. Our missional effectiveness, both individually and as a denomination, requires boundaries and agreements about how we live and work together. In that process, I will exercise my role as bishop to protect the diversity of our church. I will seek to protect the unity of our church. I will exercise my role as bishop to protect the integrity of our
connectional covenant by enforcing the boundaries. Someone asked me “Bishop, what if 100 of us do same-gender unions?” My answer is this: “Then there will be 100 suspensions from ministry during the supervisory response followed by 100 trials.” The right to a trial by a jury of your peers is fundamental to our connection and goes back to at least the Restrictive Rules of 1808. It is an important protection for the individual and the conference of clergy against the power of the bishop. But you should know that
holding a trial is a major drain on our leadership and resources. In addition to the distraction from other priorities and the conflict they cause within the conference, trials are expensive. I am told that some conferences spend $100,000 on just one trial, and that the defendant may be spending up to $50,000 of personal money. Yet, not to hold a trial when a chargeable offense occurs and a just resolution cannot be achieved is to violate our United Methodist identity. I want to do everything I can to avoid trials. But that is primarily in the hands of the clergy who
should remember and abide by their sacred promises to live by the discipline of our church. How do we live together in this tension? Ephesians 4 gives us important guidance: the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace, with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love. That means mutual respect, conversation and genuine love. But another answer is that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. If you believe that abortion (on either side) or same gender marriage (on either side) is the main thing, you are going to be disappointed in the United Methodist Church. For us, the main thing is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. I am convinced that our extreme center approach to doctrine, our diversity of social justice opinions, our diversity of theological opinions within our doctrinal commitments, our global nature, our balance of democratic governance and episcopal leadership, our commitment to biblical authority while interpreted by tradition, reason and experience and our focus on the mission of making disciples, when all put together give us everything we need for God to use us effectively in the 21st century. When we are faithful to who we are in all of these respects, we are simply amazing. God is doing great things
through us. There is a saying which I have heard attributed to several other persons who are not United Methodist but I cannot confirm the source. While it is not original with me, I am happy to pass it on. “If genuine revival is ever going to come to America, it will come through the United Methodists. They have
done it before if they will only remember it. They have the right doctrine if they will only preach it. They have the right organization if they will only use it.” God has great things in store for the Great Plains Conference, and I am deeply honored to be your bishop as we move forward together including the tensions we face now.
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Bishop says pain remains in pastor's removal
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (UMNS) - Philadelphia Area Bishop Peggy Johnson did not let the Frank Schaefer case and her views on homosexuality define her, but in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, she emphasized that continued conversation is the only way to try to close the divide. "I'm not turning my back to the pain," she said. "I want to head straight into it. Let the chips fall where they may."
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Tricia L. Nadolny, Inquirer Staff Writer
NORRISTOWN On a muggy summer night in 1976, at a Christian festival where recovered addicts, ex-gang members, and fresh-faced believers worshiped under the Western Pennsylvania stars, Peggy Johnson asked a group of elders to heal her.
Johnson had been partially blind since birth. That night, she removed her prosthetic left eye, placed it on an altar and let the leaders lay their hands on her.
Nothing changed. If she had more faith, she remembers being told, it would have been different.
Johnson, now a bishop in the United Methodist Church, recalled that night last week as she spoke about the greatest controversy during her six-year tenure leading 900 area churches: the defrocking of Lebanon's Rev. Frank Schaefer for officiating at a gay marriage.
The December ruling, which drew a national spotlight, came after Schaefer refused a church tribunal's order that he recommit to the discipline or give up his ministry.
But as the public face of church leadership, Johnson took the heat. Hundreds of vitriolic e-mails flooded her inbox.
The attention has faded but not died, even after she declared that she thought her church's laws on homosexuality were discriminatory and that she personally believed sexual orientation was not a choice - just as her blindness is beyond her control.
"A thing we think is broke and not right can often be the very thing that God wants to use for some good purpose," she said in an interview at her Norristown office last week.
During more than 90 minutes, in one of her first extensive interviews since Schaefer's trial, Johnson, 60, was hesitant to let the case and her views on homosexuality define her and take time away from her other missions.
In the same breath, she stressed that continuing to talk about the divide is the only thing that might one day close it.
"I'm not turning my back to the pain," she said. "I want to head straight into it. Let the chips fall where they may."
When Johnson shares a story, she becomes breathless, remembering moments of shock with gasps that send her back in her seat and reliving conversations, only faster. She speaks so passionately that she out of habit grasps at another way to share, her fingers fluttering at her face as she uses sign language to punctuate the occasional phrase.
Johnson learned to sign in her late 20s after seeing a deaf choir perform near her home in Baltimore and being captivated by their billowing white sleeves and expressive faces. They taught her that music had nothing to do with hearing; it's about the soul, she said.
In 1988, she was appointed pastor at the Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf in Baltimore, the oldest all-deaf congregation in the country. She would end up staying for 20 years, working throughout that time, she said, to translate and advocate for congregants who were denied rights because of their disability.
She likens their fight for passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 to the current push for an antidiscrimination law in Pennsylvania, legislation she has publicly supported.
"Just to imagine someone not being able to get an apartment because they're gay just rang my little deaf bells," she said. "Of course you have every right to get an apartment. What's the problem?"
She hasn't always detoured from her church's position on homosexuality.
A group of gay congregants who joined her church in the late 1980s, many who were suffering from AIDS, slowly challenged her beliefs, she said.
While others at the church judged and said that they deserved the disease, Johnson prayed beside hospital beds. When many died, she attended the funerals: one for family members who said only that their loved one had passed from cancer and a second for members of the gay community who mourned deeply for yet another loss.
"I just got aware of this community," she said. "And it sort of transformed me into thinking they were regular people and not monsters."
Schaefer's case became a national story.
He had questioned the church's doctrine since he was in the seminary. His son Tim, who in high school told his parents that he was gay and that he had considered suicide due to confusion over his sexuality, offered him proof that homosexuality is not a choice.
In 2007, Schaefer officiated at Tim's wedding in Massachusetts. He told his superiors but not his congregants at Zion United Methodist Church of Iona, he said.
Then last year, just days before the church's six-year statute of limitations for breaking the discipline was set to expire, a member of his church who had heard about the ceremony filed a complaint with the church's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
As the leader of the conference, Johnson played a pivotal role in the ensuing months, trying to negotiate a resolution between the two men.
When one couldn't be reached, she said, she was forced by church law to forward the complaint to a higher office that ultimately charged Schaefer.
Some say she had another choice: to throw out the complaint if she believed it was motivated by a personal grudge.
Johnson said that's not the case and called it "tremendously painful" to be blamed for the trial and its outcome in the letters that flooded her inbox.
"I'm a people person," she said. "To be in a position where I'm perceived as the one who's charging this man and taking away his orders, it's been very difficult."
Since the trial, Johnson has continued to be in the hot seat as some LGBT activists urge her to take a more active role and advocate for changing the church's laws now that she has said they are discriminatory.
Schaefer is among those who say her words are not enough.
"Here are your convictions - you're saying this is discrimination . . . ," said Schaefer, who is appealing the trial verdict. "But you're not doing anything about it. You're the leader. You're the bishop."
Johnson repeats often that she is "bishop to all." She has said she would like the church to be more progressive but cites a long list of obstacles and a belief that the denomination "is big enough that people can find where they're comfortable."
Rather than putting her voice at the forefront, Johnson has stressed that conversations - not to debate but to find common places of connection - have the power to transform opinions.
That's why as much as she would like to move past Schaefer's trial, she is continuing to talk about the experience.
"I'm just nuts," she said, recalling a recent request to talk at a seminary in Washington.
"I [asked them] what do you want? Oh, we want you to talk about the trial. Well, I knew that," she said, letting out a long sigh. "But I'm going to do it. Because I just want to talk."
tnadolny@phillynews.com
610-313-8205
@TriciaNadolny
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United Methodists in the news
Humanizing the homeless
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Ingrid McIntyre, a United Methodist in Tennessee, was featured on CBS's "60 Minutes" in February. She is a founder of "Open Table Nashville," an ecumenical group working to end homelessness.
Watch the "60 Minutes" story
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/100000-homes-housing-the-homeless-can-save-money/
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Short life of pastor filled with service
BAY MINETTE, Ala. (UMNS) - Carrie Chandler Reece found her relationship with God and her purpose in life as a United Methodist pastor. In her 36 years on earth, she never wavered from her mission to help others. Al.com tells the story of the woman that "the Lord chose to take...home to be with him" on Dec. 26.
Read story
She had the voice of an angel, but Carrie Chandler Reece found her life’s work in ministry as a United Methodist pastor, welcoming broken souls and preaching at a small rural congregation in Summerdale.
The Bay Minette resident’s life was cut short by a rare form of a rare illness, Cushing’s disease, on the day after Christmas. She was 36.
“From the time she was a teenager, she loved people, and loved helping people,” said her mother, Cathy Chandler of Bay Minette.
Carrie’s husband, Ben Reece, said his wife had a gift for relating to young and old alike in the congregation at Summerdale United Methodist Church, where she served as pastor for three years. She welcomed people who were hurting, especially women. She wanted everyone to know the love of the Lord, he said. “She would just sit and listen to people.”
'Born again' at 16
Reece was raised attending First Baptist Church in Bay Minette, where she came to faith as a teenager. “Into her teenage years, she started to realize that she had a form of religion and not a relationship with the Lord,” her mother said. “When she was 16, that’s when she was born again.”
Reece embraced her faith and was eager to share it with others. She joined a Christian Club at Baldwin County High School, went on mission trips to Mexico and New Orleans, and traveled regularly with a group to the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola.
She also sang with her mother and sister, Michelle, at various churches in the area. It was her extraordinary soprano voice that drew Ben Reece to her when the two were in their 20s and Carrie was serving as minister of music at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Bay Minette. Both had been married young and had been divorced.
The effect on the young man was instantaneous. “It was like no other person singing in worship I’d ever heard in my life,” said Ben Reece, who is a violinist and teaches music at Christian schools. “You could always feel the presence of the Lord with my wife. It was there.”
The chemistry between the two was also there, though Reece didn’t ask her for a date until he saw her at Wal-Mart one day. He was shopping for supplies for his cat, and Carrie was picking out a leash for her dog, a Chow-Golden Retriever mix.
“She had a huge ball of keys and pulled something from the shelf. There was this huge, loud crash,” Reece said. “I asked her out right there, helping her put the stuff back together.”
They were married in August 2003.
“Carrie was just a special person,” he said. “It was more than just a physical attraction I had to my wife. Her personality was totally different from anybody I’d ever met. It’s hard to sum it up in words.”
He said that her faith in God was apparent well before she entered full-time ministry, when she worked for Alfa Insurance. “You really know a person is with God; you had that understanding whenever you talked to her,” he said.
Reece was serving as minister of music at Spanish Fort United Methodist when the Rev. Will Baker suggested that she consider full-time ministry. Although she was raised Baptist, a denomination that did not ordain female ministers, Carrie had an example to follow in the Rev. Janie MacBeth, who mentored her at Spanish Fort. She began studying for a divinity degree online through Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky.
Puzzling symptoms
In 2011, Carrie Reece was appointed pastor at Summerdale UMC, a small congregation in Baldwin County. That was about the time she began to experience puzzling symptoms, including significant weight gain. She saw a series of doctors, who considered Cushing’s disease, which involves a tumor on the pituitary gland and presents itself with high levels of cortisol. Treatment, though, was postponed when her cortisol levels fell.
The mysterious symptoms also included excessive edema, a buildup of fluid in the body, which can be associated with Cushing’s in rare cases. Before long, Carrie was confined to a hospital bed, requiring full-time care.
A friend who had undergone a liver transplant, Ab Abercrombie, urged the family to take her to Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, saying, “You have nothing to lose. Take her there and see if they can help her.” He also offered an apartment where the family could stay.
The trip turned out to be more than they expected. “We had no idea that at 3 a.m., the next morning, she would crash,” said her mother. “She was put in an induced coma and on a ventilator for five days.”
Carrie rebounded, though. Ben Reece said his wife hid her symptoms as her health failed, sometimes sitting while preaching a sermon. “Every joint in my wife’s body constantly hurt,” he said. “The disease attacks the joints and the bones in the body and deteriorates them slowly.”
Through it all, Carrie’s faith and trust in God remained strong, her mother said. “There’s a lot at stake here. People are going to be looking at our faith,” Carrie told her. The young pastor wanted everyone to know that her trust was in the Lord to bring her healing, her mother said.
Doctors ultimately diagnosed Cushing’s disease in 2013. Carrie was sent to the University of Virginia for surgery the week before Thanksgiving. The surgery involved cutting through the nasal cavity to the pituitary gland, located dangerously close to the spinal column and optic nerve.
Pilots for Christ, based in Monroeville, came to the young woman’s aid, flying her to and from Charlottesville, Va., for the surgery. The pilot, Tommy Lee, prayed with the family before, during and after the flights.
The surgery was a success, but the fluid in Carrie’s body continued to cause problems.
At Christmas, she was able to attend a special program at her church with the help of a wheelchair. In the past, Reece had organized the program; this time she watched as several young women she had mentored sang and narrated the Christmas story.
“We always pictured her turning the corner and getting well, but the Lord chose to take her home to be with him,” Chandler said. “God always answers your prayers, but not always in the way you might expect.”
Reece died in the early-morning hours of Dec. 26. Her funeral was held at First United Methodist Church of Bay Minette to accommodate a large crowd. The family included her favorite praise and worship songs – “We Shall Behold Him,” “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name,” “Come to Jesus” and “Just As I Am.”
“Now she is completely transformed and has a brand new body,” her mother said. “She isn’t suffering anymore. We miss her so much, but because of our faith in Christ, we know that we will see her again.”
Carol McPhail welcomes your suggestions for coastal Alabama Life Stories. Know an ordinary Alabamian who lived an extraordinary life? Contact Carol at cmcphail@al.com.
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He's trying to bring a younger face to church
KOKOMO, Ind. (UMNS) - In the year since Anthony Schuh, 25, moved from Wisconsin, he has been actively trying to engage more young people in his church and others. The Kokomo Tribune tells the story of this young man who started a chapter of the Epworth League and who says, "You've got to be swimming in a direction. You can't just tread water. The nature of the church is that it has to grow."
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Lindsey Ziliak
Kokomo Tribune
Anthony Schuh moved to Kokomo a year ago from Wisconsin and was shocked by just how few young people attended the Methodist churches here.
When he was new in town, he attended both Main Street United Methodist Church and St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. In each congregation, he noticed only one or two people his age.
He decided to start a Kokomo chapter of the Epworth League, which is designed to help young people in the Methodist church work on community building, spiritual growth and missions.
The group has five regular members and one or two who come when they can. Twice a month they meet to plan missions and community service projects and study their religion and other religions.
Recently, Schuh reached out to other churches to offer the resource to them.
The idea is to grow the group so people in that 18 to 35 demographic feel like they have a network of peers to meet with and grow with, he said. Perhaps young visitors at a church won’t immediately leave if they know the group is available to them, Schuh said.
Main Street United Methodist Church Pastor Nancy Blevins said all mainline denominations are struggling to attract this demographic.
Schuh said he’s trying to do his part to help the church grow.
“You’ve got to be swimming in a direction,” he said. “You can’t just tread water. The nature of the church is that it has to grow.”
It will just take a little momentum to make an impact on the church community, he said.
Some of the area pastors like his initiative and ideas.
“I spoke with one, and he said this was an answer to some of his prayers,” Schuh said. “He was really encouraged by it.”
Lindsey Ziliak, Tribune Life & Style editor, can be reached at 765-454-8585, at lindsey.ziliak@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter @LindseyZiliak.
WANT TO HELP? Anyone with questions about the Epworth League and how to get involved can reach Anthony Schuh at schuhmt@gmail.com.
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Omaha clergy try new ways to reach people
OMAHA, Neb. (UMNS) - The Rev. Bruce Davis of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church preached on a recent winter morning while a church band played the Eagles song "Desperado" as he wove the lyrics into his sermon. The Omaha World Herald explains how local clergy are using innovative ways to capture the attention and hearts of people.
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COVINGTON — When a church stops being a church, what happens to the building?
That’s the question in the historic Licking Riverside neighborhood, where a local college has enlisted the help of the community in a unique partnership to decide the future of the former First United Methodist Church at Fifth and Greenup streets.
“We’re not afraid of any idea,” said Ed Hughes, president of Gateway Community & Technical College, whose foundation owns the building.
The historic 147-year-old Gothic Revival structure has been all but vacant for nearly a decade, in use only as an outpost for urban outreach by Immanuel United Methodist Church in Lakeside Park.
A year ago, the Gateway Foundation bought the building for an undisclosed sum as part of the college’s plan to weave its new Urban Campus into the fabric of the city.
No classrooms are planned for the building. The only occupant is an area health education center, but its offices don’t nearly fill the 23,000 square-foot complex.
So Gateway enlisted the help of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Partners for Sacred Places, the national expert on restoring vacant churches to community use.
“To our knowledge, the is the first time in America that a college has involved a community like this in deciding the future of a church,” said Bob Jaeger, the group’s president. “Other colleges have repurposed churches, of course, but this process is unique.”
For months, Jaeger and his associates have been meeting with civic, political, business and community leaders to tour the facility and hear their ideas for its future.
They’ve held community-wide brainstorming sessions.
Local architects from the American Association of Architects have donated weeks of their time to assess and map the building and develop ideas for what is structurally feasible.
Partners for Sacred Places will compile all that input into a set of recommendations for the Gateway Foundation, which will then choose the best ideas and decide how to pay for them.
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Community works on future of church building
COVINGTON, Ky. (UMNS) - A year ago, the Gateway Foundation of Gateway Community and Technical College purchased the former First United Methodist Church. Now the school has enlisted the community to help decide the future for the historic building. Nky.com tells the story.
Read story
COVINGTON — When a church stops being a church, what happens to the building?
That’s the question in the historic Licking Riverside neighborhood, where a local college has enlisted the help of the community in a unique partnership to decide the future of the former First United Methodist Church at Fifth and Greenup streets.
“We’re not afraid of any idea,” said Ed Hughes, president of Gateway Community & Technical College, whose foundation owns the building.
The historic 147-year-old Gothic Revival structure has been all but vacant for nearly a decade, in use only as an outpost for urban outreach by Immanuel United Methodist Church in Lakeside Park.
A year ago, the Gateway Foundation bought the building for an undisclosed sum as part of the college’s plan to weave its new Urban Campus into the fabric of the city.
No classrooms are planned for the building. The only occupant is an area health education center, but its offices don’t nearly fill the 23,000 square-foot complex.
So Gateway enlisted the help of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Partners for Sacred Places, the national expert on restoring vacant churches to community use.
“To our knowledge, the is the first time in America that a college has involved a community like this in deciding the future of a church,” said Bob Jaeger, the group’s president. “Other colleges have repurposed churches, of course, but this process is unique.”
For months, Jaeger and his associates have been meeting with civic, political, business and community leaders to tour the facility and hear their ideas for its future.
They’ve held community-wide brainstorming sessions.
Local architects from the American Association of Architects have donated weeks of their time to assess and map the building and develop ideas for what is structurally feasible.
Partners for Sacred Places will compile all that input into a set of recommendations for the Gateway Foundation, which will then choose the best ideas and decide how to pay for them.
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University and seminary news
Evansville students learn to engage other faiths
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (UMNS) - The Rev. Tamara K. Gieselman, university chaplain and director of religious life since 2009, hopes that undergraduate students at the United Methodist-related University of Evansville will have the chance "to engage with other world religions." She is doing her best to make that happen.
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Rachael McGill admits she “knew pretty much next to nothing” about other religions before enrolling at the United Methodist-related University of Evansville.
Raised in a Roman Catholic family and educated at a Catholic high school in nearby Newburgh, Ind., she had little exposure to other major faith groups, including Protestants.
But an introductory class on world religion at Evansville changed her perspective and life. “I’m really big into other religions,” she told United Methodist News Service. “The one thing I love doing most is learning what they believe.”
That’s the kind of opportunity the Rev. Tamara K. Gieselman, university chaplain and director of religious life since 2009, hopes that undergraduate students at the University of Evansville will have. She is a clergy member of the United Methodist Indiana Annual (regional) Conference.
Gieselman said she and her husband, the Rev. Mitchell Gieselman, lead pastor at Aldersgate United Methodist Church and a 1978 graduate of the University of Evansville, have discussed the fact that people “in the pews” often don’t have the chance “to engage with other world religions.”
Many students are or will be members of local congregations so providing interfaith experiences, Gieselman noted, will make them more open to others. The increasing presence of international students at the University of Evansville also “creates a richness on our campus.”
She witnessed the effect of such interactions while pastoring at a small church in southern Indiana for six years. When she invited a group of Muslims to come to the church after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, “it totally changed their (the congregation’s) attitude, just this one small dialogue,” she explained.
University-wide support
Support for the interfaith initiatives starts with University President Thomas Kazee and filters through faculty and staff, students and the wider Evansville community. “Given all the collaborative efforts over the last three years, it is clear to see that the university as a whole supports our interfaith initiative,” Gieselman said.
Interfaith activities over the past few years include
A panel discussion on Islam in September 2010, in response to the controversy over a planned Islamic Center in lower Manhattan, which drew hundreds.
Religious forums on Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, with invited members of those faith groups, during the 2011-2012 academic year, followed the next year with forums on specific rituals and practices.
Interfaith worship services each fall semester since 2011, including the commissioning of the university’s newly formed interfaith council in 2012.
Informal monthly forums allowing faculty to reflect on their own faith traditions during the 2013-2014 academic year.
The bread connection
Another initiative, the International Bread Festival, grew out of a conversation with Jennie Ebeling, an archeology professor who has participated in digs in Israel and Jordan. “A lot of her emphasis is around the history of bread-making in Jordan and the Middle East,” Gieselman explained. “For all cultures and many religions, bread is a staple.”
Connecting with religious communities in Evansville resulted in the participation of two vendors, a local bread company and a Middle Eastern restaurant, in the festival, part of homecoming activities last fall.
“All the religious cultures who came each had a table,” she added. “Even individual faculty members came and brought the bread they make weekly as a tradition passed down in their own families. We heard a lot of great stories out of these traditions.”
Another recent interfaith and hospitality-related effort is a new dining option for Islamic and other students. The “Harmony” food station offers the Halal food options that are permissible under Islamic law.
“Our international students and many domestic students are thrilled with this new dining option which has invited them to the table at UE,” Gieselman said. “Even students who have no dietary restrictions because of their religious tradition are choosing the halal food.”
Interfaith pilgrimage in England
Last year, Gieselman and Douglas Reed, professor emeritus of music and the university organist, used a small grant from the Indiana United Methodist Foundation to develop an interfaith pilgrimage experience for students planning to go to Harlaxton College, the university’s British campus.
They took 11 students and several faculty members to Leicester, one of the most religiously diverse cities in the United Kingdom, where Imam Ibrahim Mogra arranged for them to visit a synagogue, cathedral, mosque and religious cemetery. The connection with the imam, who also spoke to the students on the Harlaxton campus, was facilitated through a mutual friend, the Rev. Leslie Griffiths of Wesley’s Chapel in London.
Nik Fahrer, a junior and double major in accounting and management information systems, had never had contact with Islam or Judaism before his visit to Leicester. He was struck by the camaraderie of their Muslim tour guide and the rabbi at the synagogue.
But the Evansville native did have an inkling of how a religious divide can be bridged. With a mother who is United Methodist and a father who is Roman Catholic, he has been immersed in both traditions.
“On Sundays, I would go to mass with my dad at 8:30 and, at 9:45, I would travel 5 minutes down the road and go to my mom’s church,” explained Fahrer, who now considers himself nondenominational but still attends the Methodist Temple United Methodist Church. “It’s been kind of a blessing to understand both sides of the Christian church.”
Three days before their visit, a killing in London was blamed on Islamic extremists. But their guide, he said, “really showed me and several of the other students what Islam is all about. It’s not what you hear on the news every day about people taking it to the extreme and killing people. It’s just like any other religion.”
Fahrer said he returned to the United States with “a much deeper respect for people who practice Islam.” Now, when he meets persons of different religions, he added, he simply wants to know more to understand what they believe.
Now a junior majoring in theological studies and creative writing, McGill also studied at Harlexton, has become a member of the interfaith council and served as a worship leader during last November’s interfaith service on campus.
Interfaith dialogue offers a way “to understand each other and understand the world around us,” McGill said. Active engagement in dialogue, she believes, can prevent fear of the unknown and, perhaps, lessen possible acts of terrorism.
*Bloom is a writer and editor for United Methodist News Service based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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White House honors 8 from UM schools
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Eight students from historically black colleges and universities supported by The United Methodist Church's Black College Fund were among 75 students named 2014 HBCU All-Stars by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
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Eight students from historically Black colleges and universities supported by The United Methodist Church through the Black College Fund were among 75 students named 2014 HBCU All-Stars by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
These students, who are in enrolled as undergraduate, graduate, or professional students, have been recognized for accomplishments in academics, leadership, and civic engagement. The 75 All-Stars were selected from 445 students who submitted completed applications for this program.
“The magic that happens every day at our 11 United Methodist-related historically Black colleges and universities is deliberate, and I am absolutely delighted to know that our schools and students continue to be at the top of their game,” said Cynthia Bond Hopson, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s assistant general secretary of the denomination’s Black College Fund.
Over the next year, these All-Stars will serve as ambassadors of the White House initiative by providing outreach and communicating the value of education with their fellow students, as well as using the initiative as a networking resource. Social media and relationships with community-based organizations will help All-Stars to share promising and proven practices that support opportunities for all young people to achieve their educational and career potential.
The students from BCF-supported schools who were named to the first class of All-Stars are:
Shantel Braynen, Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Larrance Carter, Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss.
Jasmine Everett, Bennett College, Greensboro, N.C.
Chelsea Fox, Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Ark.
Lillian Harris, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.
Jessica Mong, Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C.
Ciera Scales, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.
Nicole Tinson, Dillard University, New Orleans, La.
To learn more about the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and to see a full list of the 75 All-Stars, visit www.ed.gov/edblogs/whhbcu.
To learn more about the Black College Fund, visit www.gbhem.org/education/black-college-fund.
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Stronger partnerships for schools, agencies urged
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - An effort to develop stronger partnerships among the 119 United Methodist-related schools, colleges, universities, and theological schools and the general agencies of the church was affirmed by those attending a Feb. 2-3 meeting of the National Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities of The United Methodist Church. The effort has been under way for two years.
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Stronger, deeper partnerships between the 119 United Methodist-related schools, colleges, universities, and theological schools and the general agencies of The United Methodist Church could benefit the denomination, students attending UM-related institutions, and the world, agreed those attending a Feb. 2-3 meeting of the National Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities of The United Methodist Church .
David Rowe, president of Centenary College of Louisiana, urged members of NASCUMC to consider what they bring to the conversation, reminding them that reconnecting the general church and local churches with colleges and universities must involve give and take from both sides. “Think about how we can invest in helping the church,” said Rowe, who is NASCUMC’s chair of Program Planning.
Jim Winkler, the former general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society and now president of the National Council of Churches, told the presidents of UM-related institutions that partnerships could include providing students with internship and study opportunities. And GBCS could benefit from faculty research in areas such as healthcare policy.
One of the major activities of GBCS is grassroots organizing. That organizing work could benefit from closer connections with college students, who are at a time in their lives when they believe they can change the world, Winkler and GBCS staff said.
NASCUMC members recognized two retiring presidents, Patricia N. Long, president of Baker College, and Vivian Bull, who has served as president of Drew University. The group also approved a resolution honoring Myron McCoy, former president of Saint Paul School of Theology for his years of service with NASCUMC.
To learn more about NASCUMC, visit www.gbhem.org/nascumc.
NASCUMC has focused for two years on renewing and strengthening the connections between church-related higher education institutions and agencies of the church, searching for partnerships that will further the work of both. The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry organized the meeting with GBCS staff this year. Last year, NASCUMC met with staff of the General Board of Global Ministries.
"We Methodists have always understood a holistic ministry goes beyond the four walls of the local church, and so today here we are faithful to our heritage and our mission," Winkler said in the keynote address at the meeting in Washington, D.C.
Winkler spoke of giving the commencement address at Southwestern University and telling the students that they had been shaped in a Wesleyan institution of higher learning that marries personal and social holiness.
"Our Social Principles say that we seek an end to war, economic inequality, racism and sexism, and environmental degradation. I told them I wanted them to be a part of the great struggle for social justice exemplified by Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day," Winkler said. “I told them I wanted them to go forth and shake the gates of hell, the systems of power and domination that seek to control ordinary people.”
The years ahead will be difficult for our churches, our schools, colleges, and universities, and for the world, with global warming, disease, environmental degradation, religious conflict, the rise of fundamentalism in the world's major religions, the growing gap between the rich and poor, the doctrine of presumptive or preemptive ward, and the spread of nuclear weapons, Winkler said.
"I still believe we have made progress, and we who follow Christ are a principle reason for that. But if our children and grandchildren have a decent future, it will be because we changed the very direction of the United States to one committed to cooperation, justice, and peace," Winkler said, calling on UM-related higher education to join in that effort.
Colleen Perry Keith, the president of NASCUMC and of Spartanburg Methodist College, said she believes the meetings with other general agencies of the UMC and the heads of UM higher education institutions are making a difference.
"I think we will start to see more student internships with general agencies. It's raising awareness of what's possible. I think a lot of our presidents were unaware of what the agencies did,” Keith said, adding that she expects educators to start calling on GBCS as a resource for training and information.
After Winkler's address, the presidents divided into groups led by other GBCS staff to discuss possible partnerships. The groups discussed partnerships including bringing a group of schools together to work on a particular issue or to host seminar programs offered by GBCS.
Other proposals included one college trying to host a larger group of colleges, Wesley Foundations, local churches, and annual conference staff so that GBCS could conduct seminars and training for a larger group. Ted Brown, president of Martin Methodist College, suggested one college hosting a large group of interested people would make the travel and time more worthwhile for GBCS staff.
Lawrence Czarda, president of Greensboro College, said the group that discussed the United Nations was especially interested in seeking internships for students and also trying to link faculty with particular knowledge with general agency staff who might need research or other expertise.
Larry Earvin, president of Huston-Tillotson University, said the grassroots organizing discussion was mostly made up of presidents of colleges with 70 percent to 90 percent of their students Pell grant eligible. He said that is an indication those colleges have a mission of serving low income students. Earvin said the group was most interested in working with GBCS on improving service learning.
Gerald Lord, GBHEM's associate general secretary of the Division of Higher Education, said he sees clearly that the missions of GBHEM, GBCS, and NASCUMC overlap and that they should be working more closely together.
“Our campuses can be agents of social change," Lord said, agreeing with Winkler that the direction of the United States must change if future generations are to have a chance.
Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
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Theological education grants to be chosen
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The 74 applications for grants from the $5 million fund for theological education in Africa, Europe and the Philippines will be evaluated and awards granted Feb. 20-22 when the Commission on Central Conference Theological Education meets in Atlanta. The commission estimates it will be able to disburse grants for $1 million a year for the next four years.
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Proposals for solar electrification of a rural theological school and training teams of pastors to mobilize people for mission work to improve their communities were among the 74 applications for grants from the $5 million fund for theological education in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines.
Applications came from theological institutions, Boards of Ordained Ministry, Bible colleges and pastors’ schools, said the Rev. Rena Yocom, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s assistant general secretary for Clergy Formation and Theological Education.
“I think we’re off to a great start,” Yocom said. “I think we are seeing some proposals for innovative projects that are looking at sustainability, such as solar electrification.” She added that other proposals included developing online classes, particularly in the Philippines, where travel is so difficult.
“We in the United States may take online education for granted, but it is innovative in many parts of Africa and the Philippines,” Yocom said.
The Commission on Central Conference Theological Education, elected by the Council of Bishops to oversee the use of the fund, will review the grant requests and make awards at a Feb. 20-22 meeting in Atlanta, Ga. The commission estimates it will be able to disburse grants totaling $1 million a year from the fund for the next four years.
Once the grants are disbursed, the commission requires progress updates in six months and again in a year.
Yocom said other applications included purchasing e-readers, improving libraries, and developing contextual materials for use in training and study. For instance, she said one proposal is for developing a class for pastors on Christianity and polygamy in a culture that still accepts polygamy as a way of life.
Amounts requested range from $6,000 to $263,000.
The fund was approved by the 2012 General Conference. Half of the funds, or about $500,000 a year, will be distributed to grant applicants based on the number of episcopal areas in a Central Conference. However, these grants are not guaranteed and will go to the best proposals. Regional screening committees will review the proposals and make recommendations to the commission of which proposals show need, feasibility, and possibility for the future, and should be accepted if funds allow. The regional committees are composed of one representative from each episcopal area in that central conference.
The commission agreed that 25 percent of the funds (about $250,000 a year) would be distributed based on the number of churches and active clergy. The delegates from Europe asked that their portion of this 25 percent be distributed to the other Central Conferences because they believe the needs are greater in Africa and the Philippines.
The remaining $250,000 a year will be available for proposals that go beyond a conference. Examples would be proposals by language groups, production of contextual materials, or new and innovative proposals that might affect more than one region.
While General Conference approved the fund at $5 million, the money comes from the World Service Apportionment Fund. That fund is expected to pay out at 85 percent, which would mean the actual dollars would be reduced to $4.2 million, or about $1 million a year for each year of the 2013-2016 quadrennium.
Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
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Student journalist sues Otterbein
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (UMNS) - A student journalist at United Methodist-affiliated Otterbein University has filed suit against the school, seeking to open records of arrests by campus police. "It's an issue of transparency for us," said Anna Schiffbauer, news editor of Otterbein360.com, a student-run news website.
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After repeated, unsuccessful requests for campus police records, an Otterbein University student journalist is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order the private school to turn over arrest reports and other records.
The action filed yesterday says that the police department of the Westerville college is a public office performing a governmental function and is required to make records available under Ohio’s public-records laws.
Student journalists at the liberal-arts college have battled Otterbein over its refusal to release records since the campus security force became a full-fledged police department of state-certified officers in 2011.
“This is many, many denials later. It’s an issue of transparency for us. They are a public entity associated with a private university. Their records should be public,” said Anna Schiffbauer, news editor of Otterbein360.com, a student-run news website.
Schiffbauer, assisted by a $5,000 grant from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Legal Defense Fund, filed the claim against campus police director Larry Banaszak and Robert Gatti, a vice president and dean of student affairs.
The 22-year-old senior’s latest request for the records of 47 people arrested by campus police and referred to Westerville mayor’s court since the beginning of 2013 was denied last month by school officials.
School spokeswoman Jennifer Pearce said that Otterbein University is private and exempt from public-records laws, and she said that federal law requires it to protect certain information about students from release, including victims of sexual assault.
Numbers about crime on campus are available on the university website and information about arrests is available in the courts in which cases are filed, she said.
A pair of Ohio House members introduced a bill to make private police forces subject to the state’s public-records laws in response to a story published by The Dispatch last month. Attorney General Mike DeWine also called for the change.
The Dispatch reported that 814 state-trained police officers with arrest powers work for 39 private-sector employers, mainly private universities and hospitals. But unlike government police, they are not required to make records public.
In the suit filed against Otterbein, Cincinnati lawyer John Greiner says the university police department is a public office created by state law to perform a government function.
“The records relating to OPD’s uniquely public function are public records. That fact does not change simply because Otterbein University pays their salary,” the suit states.
In addition to its on-campus duties, the university’s police are authorized by Westerville to write tickets and make arrests on city streets bordering and running through campus.
The action seeks payment of court costs, attorney fees and damages, which are capped by law at a maximum of $1,000.
rludlow@dispatch.com
@RandyLudlow
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Adrian College's fight against human trafficking
ADRIAN, Mich. (UMNS) - The Rev. Chris Momany, chaplain and director of church relations for United Methodist-related Adrian College, explains why he is so passionate about social justice issues, especially the fight to end human trafficking.
Read the lensconnect.com story
This article first appeared in the winter 2014 issue of Lenawee magazine.
Ask the Rev. Chris Momany, Adrian College's chaplain and director of church relations since 1996, why he is so passionate about social justice issues, especially the fight to end human trafficking, and the answer comes instantly: intrinsic worth.
Momany is a 1984 graduate of Adrian College and went on earn his master's in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and his doctor of ministry degree from Drew University. He has authored numerous journal articles and other works, including a recent book, "Doing Good: A Grace-Filled Approach to Holiness" (Abingdon Press, 2011), that focuses on the relationship of holiness to the moral law, to freedom and to the very being of God.
Human trafficking has been a focus of yours for quite some time now. You've done a lot of work in this area including being the adviser for Adrian College's work with the Not For Sale Organization. Why is this issue so important to you?
Asa Mahan, the first president of Adrian College, was a noted abolitionist. I was always drawn to his combination of spiritual depth and social justice. He wasn't someone who was either/or. He was both/and. The part of me that connects with God likes that, and so does the part of me that connects with social justice.
Mahan's theme, which shows up in his writings, was "intrinsic worth," that human beings have intrinsic worth that's God-given and part of one's identity, not based on things like wealth or social class.
It concerns me that this is a very underrated truth in this culture, and people are not always treated as though they have intrinsic worth.
The idea actually comes from Immanuel Kant. In the 1780s he wrote about the distinction between a person and a thing. Now, you hear that people are not things, and you go, "well, yeah." But Kant was saying that things can be used, but people should never be used. Mahan basically said the same thing.
Intrinsic worth is a way of looking at humanity. God's love is comprehensive, so what gives me the right to treat others as subhuman? What gives me the right to say that this person has less worth than me?
Treating people like things is part of a very crass economic calculation. In American culture, we have become so fixated on measuring ourselves by things, that it becomes easy to treat people like things.
And that's what human trafficking is all about?
Yes — treating people as a means to get things.
Is there a perception that trafficking happens "somewhere else" — not right here in our own backyards, so to speak?
There is. But it can happen anywhere. It happens in the economically depressed parts of Michigan and in the most picturesque parts of Michigan. The common denominator is a really crass willingness to do anything for money.
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Clark Atlanta selected for entrepreneurship effort
ATLANTA (UMNS) - United Methodist-related Clark Atlanta University has been selected to join the inaugural cohort for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative. Funded by The Lemelson Foundation, the cohort of 15 HBCUs will participate in a multi-year collaboration to foster innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship on their respective campuses.
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ATLANTA (Feb. 14, 2014) – Clark Atlanta University (CAU) has been selected to join the inaugural cohort for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative (IEC). Funded by The Lemelson Foundation, the cohort of 15 HBCUs will participate in a multi-year collaboration to foster innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship on their respective campuses.
Forty-four HBCUs submitted competitive applications for the limited number of spaces in the cohort. Institutions were rated on institutional commitment, institutional capacity, federal research engagement, intellectual property engagement, faculty innovation potential and cross-disciplinary impact. The cohort will be able to access current and future funding available only to cohort members.
CAU President Carlton E. Brown said, “Entrepreneurship and innovation across all disciplines are an important focus for us at CAU, and we are honored to be included in this initial cohort after such a competitive display from the HBCU community. We welcome the opportunities this collaboration will bring to our students, faculty, staff and the broader community.”
The 15 institutions that were selected are:
· Clark Atlanta University
· Fayetteville State University
· Florida A&M University*
· Hampton University
· Howard University
· Jackson State University*
· Morehouse College
· Morgan State University*
· North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University*
· Prairie View A&M University*
· Tuskegee University*
· University of Maryland Eastern Shore*
· University of the Virgin Islands*
· Virginia State University*
· Xavier University of Louisiana
*Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) member institutions
The above institutions will kick off their participation at the 2014 HBCU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative Symposium in conjunction with OPEN 2014 -- the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance 18th Annual Conference that will be held in San Jose, Calif., March 21-22. This pre-conference symposium is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and is being hosted jointly by APLU, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), the United Negro College Fund, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Several partnering organizations will also be working on this initiative.
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Blogs and commentaries
'Nones' and the common good
CHICAGO (UMNS) - "Where would the United States be without its Quaker high schools, its Methodist universities, its Lutheran hospitals, its Jewish social service agencies, and its Southern Baptist disaster relief organizations?" asks Eboo Patel in Sojourners Magazine. He writes about the importance of religion in civil society, and his worry about the growing number of "nones," those who say "none" when asked for religious affiliation.
Read column
THIS IS NOT a column full of hand-wringing about the moral decay of U.S. society. Nor is it about my concern for the souls of my fellow citizens who are atheists, agnostics, or some other stripe of nonbeliever. I am worried about the growing number of religious “nones” in the United States, but not for those two reasons.
Let me be clear about something before continuing: Many of the people I love and admire most are religious “nones”—those who indicate “none of the above” on religious preference surveys. They include people of high intellect, great sensitivity, and deep character. In fact, many of them could give lessons in such areas to some of the religious people I know.
What they do not do is build hospitals, schools, colleges, or large social service agencies. Such institutions (when not built by the government) have generally been founded and supported by religious communities in the United States. This is not so much because religious people are always better human beings; it’s because religious communities value and organize such work at significant scale.
Religious communities play a profound role in U.S. civil society. About one out of every six patients in the U.S. is treated by Catholic hospitals. Most, if not all, have some sort of explicit commitment to serving the poor because of their faith identity. There are nearly 7,000 Catholic grade schools and high schools in the U.S., and more than 260 colleges. This is to say nothing of the refugee resettlement, the addictions counseling, or the services for homeless men and battered women provided by Catholic social service agencies.
Every faith community in the U.S. has similar institutions. Where would the United States be without its Quaker high schools, its Methodist universities, its Lutheran hospitals, its Jewish social service agencies, and its Southern Baptist disaster relief organizations? As Muslims establish themselves in this country, we are building the same network of faith-inspired service-to-all organizations.
According to Harvard social scientist Robert Putnam, half of U.S. social capital is religiously driven. Three-quarters of our philanthropy goes to a religiously affiliated group of some type or another, many of which do important work in our civil society.
Right now, one out of every five checks “none of the above” on U.S. surveys of religious identity. For those ages 18 to 29, that number is closer to one in four. Further studies by people such as Robert P. Jones at the Public Religion Research Institute show that a sizeable portion of these “nones” believe in God, but very few of them are regular in the pews. They are disconnected from religious communities and, at the end of the day, it is the contributions and civic participation facilitated by religious communities that support all of those faith-based institutions that hold up our civil society. There are interesting attempts by Humanist groups to model congregation-type communities, complete with service projects for the broader society. My friends Greg Epstein and Chris Stedman at the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy are front and center in this type of positive secular community building. But it’s a long way from a Thanksgiving turkey drive to a hospital.
And so the question remains: What will happen to U.S. civil society as the pews empty out? Who will support all those schools, hospitals, and social service agencies? Who will build new ones?
When I pose this question to social scientists who study these things, they turn to me and say, “I don’t know.” Honestly, I don’t have a better answer.
Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, writes about social justice from his perspective as a Muslim American of Indian heritage.
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Looking ahead
Here are some of the activities ahead for United Methodists across the connection. If you have an item to share, email newsdesk@umcom.org and put Digest in the subject line.
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Deadline to register for online course "United Methodism 101," Monday, Feb. 24 -Course runs Feb. 26-April 9, training from United Methodist Communications. Seating limited. $9.99. Details.
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Deadline to register for online course "Moodle 300: Course Facilitation," Monday, Feb. 24 -Course runs Feb. 26-April 9, training from United Methodist Communications, Moodle Basc and Moodle Advanced are prerequisite. Seating limited. $119.99. Details.
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United Methodist Global AIDS Fund event "Just Save One," Tuesday, Feb. 25 - 6:30 to 8 p.m. ET, Saint Mark United Methodist Church, 781 Peachtree St. NE., Atlanta. The event focuses on how individuals and churches can fight AIDS. Details.
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Welcome Table at Wesley Theological Seminary, Tuesday, Feb. 25; Tuesday, March 4; and Thursday, April 3 - 4-7:30 p.m. ET events for prospective students include a campus tour, networking opportunities and the chance to attend a class. Details.
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Free webinar "Children's Ministry: Using Pockets Magazine in Groups, at Home and in Church," Tuesday, Feb. 25 - 10 a.m. CT, Lynn Gilliam, editor of Pockets, will offer suggestions and ideas for using this resource with the children of your congregation and community. To register.
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Webinar "Does Your Church have a Personality?" Tuesday, Feb. 25 - 7-8 p.m. ET, finding out what Myers-Briggs can tell about a congregation, offered by Practical Church Resources and led by Julia Wallace, ministry coach and former staff member of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship. $10. Details.
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Free webinar "Means of Grace, Means of Growth," 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. CT, Thursday, Feb. 27 - Registration deadline is 12 noon CT, Wednesday, Feb. 26.Webinar from Upper Room and Interpreter magazine that explores practices in which Christians have traditionally engaged to grow in their relationship to God. To register.
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Deadline to register for "Reclaiming Evangelism" Event, Wednesday, Feb. 26 - 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 1, Mullins United Methodist Church, 4 N. Mendenhall Road, Memphis,Tenn. The Rev. Heather Lear, director of evangelism ministries at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, will speak. $25 per individual, $20 per attendee in groups of four or more. Details.
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Deadline for early-bird registration for "180 Turnaround Church Conference," Friday, Feb. 28 - 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. ET Thursday, March 20 conference at Redeemer United Methodist Church in DeWitt, Mich. $49 per person. Details.
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New deadline to register for Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, "Faith, Health and Peace: Seeking the Basic Right to Good Health for All God's Children," Saturday, March 1 -Thursday-Sunday, March 27-30, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in Lake Junaluska, N.C. Partial student scholarships available. Details.
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Transfiguration Sunday, March 2 - Resources from the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.
Webinar "Making Sure Your Church Website Works," Tuesday, March 4 - 7 p.m.-8 p.m. ET, what belongs on the website, how to organize content and how best to use images, offered by Practical Church Resources. $10. Details.
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Ash Wednesday, March 5 - Mark the start of Lent with worship resources from the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.
Creating Sacred Time for Your Family workshop, Sunday, March 2 - 6 p.m. CT, First United Methodist Church of Hurst, Texas. Details.
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Our Sacred Journey with Children workshop, Monday, March 3 - 7-8:30 p.m. CT, First United Methodist Church of Hurst, Texas. Details.
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Early-bird registration deadline for Engaging Local Schools Conference, Monday, March 3 - 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, Saturday, March 22, Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. $20-50. Details.
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Free webinar "Developing Your Ministry Plan 2: Discovering Your Congregation's Niche," Thursday, March 6 - 6:30 p.m. CT, Understanding the missional context of your congregation and your community is key for creating ministry that connects to newcomers. To register.
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Sprague Lecture Series, "Christian Ethics and the Crisis in U.S. Criminal Justice," Saturday, March 8 - 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET, the University Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus, Ohio. Speakers include Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," James Logan, author of "Good Punishment? Christian Moral Practice and U.S. Imprisonment," and Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer. Details.
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Deadline to register for five online courses from United Methodist Communications, Monday, March 10 - Courses run March 12-April 23, choices include Communicating Faith in the 21st Century, Connectional Giving, Moodle 200: Basic Training, Web Ministry 100: What is Web Ministry? and Welcoming Ministry 100. Prices vary. Connectional Giving is free. Details..
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Free webinar "Individual Faith Formation Planning for Children," Tuesday, March 11 - 10 a.m. CT, The interactive webinar explores what an individual faith formation plan for a child would look like and how it could shape the way a child engages. To register.
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Free webinar "Multiplying Disciples: Part 1," Tuesday, March 11 - 6:30 p.m. CT, Explore the qualities needed to build a lay-clergy team that leads the congregation in disciple-making. To register.
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Free webinar "Freed Up Financial Living: Start This Ministry in Your Church!," Thursday, March 13 - 6:30 p.m. CT, This course can help people in your church better understand their money, and how to control it so that it doesn't control them. To register.
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One Great Hour of Sharing, Sunday, March 30 - Donations the United Methodist Committee on Relief receives through this offering, along with other undesignated gifts made throughout the year, cover the relief agency's costs of doing business. The United Methodist Publishing House offers "Be Hope," a new, four-week study in preparation for One Great Hour of Sharing. $6.29-10. To order.
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Deadline to register for the 2014 United Methodist Women Assembly, Tuesday, April 1 - April 25-27, Louisville, Ky. Details.
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Sojourn/ing Women, Bold Voices Then + Now conference, Friday-Saturday, April 4-5 - Scarritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, Tenn. Prices vary. Details.
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A Gathering of the Aldersgate Covenant, Friday-Saturday, May 16-17 - A 20-hour prayer for revival at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kan. Details.
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United Methodist News Service is a ministry of:
United Methodist Communications
810 12th Avenue South Nashville, TN 37203-4704 United States
NewsDesk@umcom.org
Phone: (615)742-5400
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