This is a digest of news features provided by United Methodist Communications for Sept. 8-12. 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 umc.org/news.
Top Stories
Can health care law save conferences money?
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (UMNS) — Facing mounting health care costs for an aging risk pool, some United Methodist annual (regional) conferences are turning to the Affordable Care Act for relief. Turning to state insurance marketplaces can bring both advantages and drawbacks for church employees.
Can health care law save conferences money? by Heather Hahn, NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
Come fall, the Rev. John Cross won’t be able to enroll in a conference health insurance plan. Instead, he must shop for coverage through the Illinois insurance marketplace, part of the Affordable Care Act.
He may pay more, the United Methodist pastor said, but it beats the alternative.
“My opinion was we didn’t have a lot of options,” said Cross, pastor of Eldorado (Illinois) First United Methodist Church. Costs were rising so much, he said, that many congregations — especially smaller churches — no longer could afford to contribute the required amount to their pastor’s insurance.
This summer, Cross and other members of the Illinois Great Rivers Annual (regional) Conference approved a plan to end the conference insurance program on Dec. 31. The decision means about 415 clergy and their dependents must turn elsewhere for coverage. Among those possibilities is Get Covered Illinois, the state marketplace that’s part of the law commonly called Obamacare.
WHAT DOES CHURCH LAW SAY?
In The United Methodist Church, conferences historically have had the primary responsibility for sponsoring or participating in a group health plan that covers full-time clergy in the United States.
In 2012, General Conference amended the Book of Discipline to take the Affordable Care Act into account. Church law now allows conferences to end their group health plans if, regardless of their health status, employees can find affordable coverage through health insurance exchanges or another mechanism.
The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book, does not require conferences to cover lay employees at local churches and other extension ministries.
The Illinois Great Rivers Conference is not alone in looking to the new marketplaces to relieve mounting health care costs. At least three other conferences are sending some workers to the marketplaces or considering doing so by 2016.
The problem many conferences face, say benefits officers, is providing health care to an aging and often ailing risk pool.
As of this year, the median age of elders is 56, that of deacons is 55 and that of local pastors is 57, reports the United Methodist-related Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Surveys also repeatedly have found United Methodist pastors in the United States have a higher incidence of health problems than their peers, mostly due to stress.
Some conferences include lay local church employees in their group health plan; some do not. In any case, clergy comprise the bulk of conference insurance participants.
The Affordable Care Act is “a game-changer” for clergy and cash-strapped conferences, said the Rev. Richard A. Van Giesen, Illinois Great Rivers Conference treasurer and benefits officer.
“Clergy now have a viable alternative,” he said. “They cannot be denied access to a qualified health plan because of a pre-existing medical condition. Because so many of our clergy have multiple chronic conditions, we knew that before the ACA they would not be able to obtain insurance anywhere else.”
Large employers and local churches
Last year, a big question for the denomination was: Who counts as the employer of United Methodist clergy — the ministry where they are appointed or the clergy member’s conference?
If the Internal Revenue Service deemed conferences to be the employer, then conferences likely would be required to continue providing insurance benefits under the Affordable Care Act's large-employer rules or pay a penalty.
HOW LAW AFFECTS UNINSURED
Meet a United Methodist deacon who has helped hundreds of uninsured people sign up for coverage..
In February, the IRS released its final rule regarding employers’ responsibility. Essentially, that rule instructed churches to use a “reasonable, good faith interpretation” standard in identifying employers in their organizations, explained Andrew Q. Hendren, associate general counsel at the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits. He is the church agency's expert on the health care law.
Saying local churches are the employer for purposes of the Affordable Care Act is likely a reasonable interpretation, Hendren said.
Still, he urges conferences to proceed with caution. Participants can see their tax burden and out-of-pocket costs go up if they shift to the new marketplaces. Some legal uncertainty also exists about whether individuals will be able to qualify for federal subsidies in some states. Also, without the equalizing effect of the same health plan for all local church appointments, new friction may emerge over clergy appointments, Hendren said.
Some conferences, though, see a need to act now. Here is an overview of how they are using the law.
Illinois Great Rivers Conference
In the largely rural Illinois Great Rivers Conference, the current conference insurance plan is self-funded, which means the conference assumes the responsibility for paying clergy medical claims. The conference’s health care costs last year exceeded health care payments from local churches by $1.5 million, reported the conference’s Board of Pensions and Health Benefits.
HOW EXPENSIVE ARE THE PLANS?
The Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCooper has compiled data from 33 states and the District of Columbia. The institute found average rate increase for premiums of 7 percent, while the average monthly premium (without subsidies) is around $379.
To qualify for subsidies, people generally must have a household income between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level and not have access to another source of affordable health insurance coverage. In 2014, that translates to annual income between $11,670 and $46,680 for an individual or between $23,850 and $95,400 for a family of four.
Under Affordable Care Act rules, the Internal Revenue Service looks at the cost of coverage only for an individual employee, not for a family. That means if a person can get insurance through an employer that costs less than 9.5 percent of his or her income, then federal subsidies would not be available.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Affordable Care Act does not authorize subsidies for those who purchase insurance on federally established marketplaces. On the same day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held the opposite.
On Sept. 4, the circuit court announced it had granted the Obama Administration’s request for an en banc rehearing, meaning a review by all the judges on the court. Democratic nominees now hold a 7-4 majority. Oral argument is scheduled for Dec. 17. By granting further review, the court wipes out the three-judge panel’s previous ruling on the matter.
Challengers to the Fourth Circuit ruling have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
It is unclear what impact the D.C. Circuit Court’s decision to rehear the case will have on the Supreme Court, writes Lyle Denniston of Scotusblog. If there is no conflict between appeals courts, the high court is unlikely to step in. If conflict remains, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately may have to settle the issue. For now, subsidies continue.
The proposed open enrollment periodfor 2015 starts Nov. 15 and will end Feb. 15 next year.
Van Giesen said there were two main drivers of the deficit. First, local churches were unwilling or unable to accept a premium increase. Second, the conference was seeing increasing claims from a generally unhealthy population.
The conference plan for 2015 calls on each local congregation to increase full-time pastors’ annual salaries by $12,000 to help them buy health insurance. Because of the salary increase, local churches also will have to pay a corresponding higher pension payment. Local congregations are now on the hook for $17,520 annually to cover the employers’ share of insurance.
For pastors, the concern is that their new “health care allowance” will be taxable, unlike current health benefits. But Van Giesen noted it’s not all bad news for pastors. Depending on their income, some may qualify for subsidies — that is, tax credits — on their monthly premiums.
The big beneficiaries are local churches. Some, he wrote, will be able “to retain a full-time pastor because of the savings they will experience — and because of a big premium increase they will not experience” in the conference’s group health plan.
The vote to end the conference’s current plan was 735 to 106.
Northern Illinois Conference
The neighboring Northern Illinois Conference is taking a slower approach. Starting this year, the conferencehas a one-year pilot project that will send some clergy to Get Covered Illinois.
The project is only open to appointments where clergy can get similar health coverage through the marketplace at a lower cost. Participation requires approval of the clergy’s family, the church’s staff-parish relations committee, the district superintendent and the Conference Board of Pensions.
Lonnie Chafin, the conference’s treasurer, said the impetus for Northern Illinois was that some clergy thought they could save their churches money and still get affordable coverage. The conference calculated that a clergy family appointed to a low-salary church might have monthly premiums of $250, while the same family at a high-salary church might have expenses of $1,350.
“Our policy, colloquially stated, is ‘Let’s see where it works,’” Chafin said.
The conference expects 35 clergy, about 10 percent, will participate.
Arkansas Conference
The Arkansas Conference is in the early stages of seeing whether it should also end its current self-funded group health plan and send employees to its state marketplace, Arkansas Health Connector. Such a move would happen in 2016, at the earliest.
Like Illinois Great Rivers, the conference sees its current plan, which covers both clergy and full-time lay employees, as unsustainable. At present, the conference is spending close to $7 million a year on health care, said Mona Williams, conference benefits officer.
“With the increasing cost of medical care, churches may be spending more money to provide health care than they are on making disciples,” Williams said.
The Florida Conference
The Florida Conference was a pioneer in using the new insurance marketplace.
Since the beginning of this year, the conference has no longer provided health insurance for lay employees at its local churches and extension ministries, such as campus ministries.
The Conference Board of Pension and Health Benefits announced this August that it was also considering a marketplace-based approach to providing health benefits for clergy. Changes to the clergy plan, however, will not take place at least until 2016. The conference added that local churches always will be required to help clergy pay for health insurance.
Wendy McCoy, the conference’s director of human resources and benefits, said some lay employees have found better coverage in the insurance marketplace, while others found it more expensive.
“So it’s not any different from the environment we had before,” she said. “We had people who could not participate (in the group plan) because their church didn’t meet the enrollment requirements. … Just like before, there are those who were satisfied with the status quo and those who were not — its’ just different folks who are pleased with the change and others who are not.”
Robert Jackson, choir director at First United Methodist Church in Gainesville, was among those who ended up paying more.
He already made too much to qualify for subsidies. His church also formerly paid his monthly premiums of $661 on the conference plan. To help defray the costs of the new insurance plan, First United Methodist gave its lay employees a salary increase.
But that increase is taxable and doesn’t cover the full amount of the new premiums. Jackson said he is paying about $280 more out-of-pocket for insurance. The pay increase also puts him in a higher tax bracket.
“I have insurance, and I think it’s a fairly decent plan. But it’s not what I’ve been used to for 20 years with The United Methodist Church,” he said. “I hear positive stories from people who never had insurance before and are able to get it, and so that’s where the plan works really well.”
Cross, the pastor in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, said he too expects to pay more for his insurance in 2015.
“It’s possible that a lot of our pastors will come out and qualify for the government subsidy,” he said. “They fall into a place where it will be very reasonable for them. But the thing is others will not. … But again, the reality was we had to do something. Not many of the pastors I know said, ‘Hey, this is a great thing we’re doing.’ But they all said we have to do it.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Affordable Care Act’s impact on the uninsured Last in a two-part series by Heather Hahn, NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
The Rev. Gregory Gross estimates he has helped hundreds of uninsured people obtain health coverage over the past year. In that time, he has seen a man cry with relief and another eager to visit a doctor for the first time since childhood.
Gross, an ordained United Methodist deacon, serves the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago as an in-person counselor and outreach specialist. That means he helps people navigate the new system under the Affordable Care Act. He also works with many United Methodist congregations across Chicago to help people sign up for insurance and make the best use of it.
HOW LAW AFFECTS CONFERENCES
Facing mounting health care costs, some conferences turn to Affordable Care Act for relief.
Gross can attest how the health care law, also known as Obamacare, helps people — and how it falls short.
“Millions of people have obtained health care for the first time or for the first time in a great while," said Gross, who also is the family ministries coordinator at Berry United Methodist Church in Chicago.
"Health care is a right for all and not a privilege for those with financial means. Now those who have never had health care are able to finally see a doctor or therapist."
More insurance enrollment
Despite a rough start with the federal healthcare.gov website and some individual plans canceling coverage, the law does appear to be achieving its goal of increasing access to health insurance.
The percentage of uninsured U.S. adults has dropped from 18 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent, as of midway 2014, according to a survey by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. That’s the lowest quarterly rate in more than six years of tracking the uninsured.
The steepest drops were in states that embraced the Affordable Care Act — choosing to expand Medicaid and set up insurance marketplaces either on their own or in partnership with the federal government.
For example, the uninsured rate fell from 15.5 percent in 2013 to 12.3 percent this year in Illinois, which chose to expand Medicaid and partner with the federal government in its state marketplace. Arkansas saw the biggest decline in its uninsured population, going from 22.5 percent to 12.4 percent.
One of the formerly uninsured is Randall Wensil, a hairstylist. He had been without health insurance for a year when Gross encouraged him to sign up for coverage through the state marketplace, Get Covered Illinois.
Wensil said Gross answered his questions during enrollment, and the hairstylist learned he qualified for federal subsidies that reduce the cost of his monthly premiums.
“There were more choices than I thought there would be,” Wensil said. “I wanted better coverage than I was able to afford. But I feel that some coverage is better than none.”
Specifically, he said, the limited nature of his plan means he had to change primary care doctors and he can only use certain hospitals in the Chicago area. Still, he said, the coverage is “a lot better” than what he had when he worked for the Hair Cuttery salon chain from 2006 to 2012.
Needed improvements
Gross has worked with HIV/AIDS patients for six years and decided to become an insurance navigator in part to help people living with the virus. He said that when he gave people their diagnosis, too often their first concern was health insurance.
“Many people were afraid to get tested for HIV for fear that they’d have a ‘pre-existing condition’ since they were between jobs, or (they were) afraid their employer would find out through their employer-sponsored coverage,” Gross said.
Now, the law bans insurance companies from discriminating against people based on their health status or capping their coverage when they get sick. Still, Gross said, companies have found ways ofmaking certain medicines and services cost-prohibitive. For example, he said, all the insurance companies in Illinois have put HIV drugs and cancer treatments in their top-tier of medications. Under some plans, individuals have to pay 25 percent or even 50 percent of a top-tier drug’s cost.
“When an HIV medication can cost $2,500 a month, having to pay 50 percent for the medication is outrageous,” he said. “In essence, companies have found a way to tell people: ‘We don’t want your business.’”
He sees other ways the law needs improvement.
“Working within the market-based system we have, I’d like to see even more competition in the exchanges so that costs go down and health care becomes even more affordable,” he said. “Even within areas of the same state, prices vary greatly.”
In Chicago, an individual may have 65 plans to choose from while someone living in the more rural area around Rochelle, Ill., may have only 32 options. “This means that person’s coverage is more expensive,” Gross said.
He also noted that the insurance system remains overly complicated for most people to navigate on their own. “I’ve spent two hours and spoken with 10 different people at one insurance company to sort out an issue with a client,” he said. “And even then it was only because I knew what to ask for that we were able to resolve the issue.”
Ultimately, he said, he would like the United States to move toward a system that provides universal coverage such as found in Canada, Japan, parts of Latin America and much of Europe.
Difference Medicaid expansion makes
Likely the simplest way to improve the Affordable Care Act in the near future is for more states to expand Medicaid coverage, Gross said. So far, 27 states and the District of Columbia have opted for the Medicaid expansion.
The expansion, largely supported through federal funds, provides coverage for low-income adults making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. As it stands, some Americans make too little money to qualify for federal subsidies and too much to qualify for Medicaid in states without the expansion. For these Americans, health insurance remains financially out of reach.
Each week, Gross visits state psychiatric hospitals to assist patients in applying for Illinois’ Medicaid expansion.
Gross recalled helping one middle-aged man who had major surgery a decade ago. The procedure saved his life, but because the man did not have insurance, he went bankrupt and lost everything. He subsequently had a breakdown and was being treated at the state hospital for major depression and suicidal tendencies.
“Once we were done with the application, he just sat there sobbing, saying, ‘I have insurance? I really have insurance,’” Gross said. “Tears of relief just flowing.”
As a United Methodist deacon, Gross said he is called to serve people at the margins of society. Helping people make use of the new health care law, he said, “has been an incredible way to do just this.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Church extends support to Atlantic City workers
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (UMNS) — The Rev. Brian Roberts sees a storm headed for Atlantic City, New Jersey, that could inflict just as much damage as Superstorm Sandy did two years ago. This time, the telltale signs are not fierce winds and a churning ocean but an avalanche of pink slips as closing casinos disrupt the regional economy. United Methodists in the Greater New Jersey Annual (regional) Conference are responding to the crisis.
Church extends support to Atlantic City workers by Linda Bloom, NEW YORK (UMNS)
The Rev. Brian Roberts sees a storm headed for Atlantic City, New Jersey, that could inflict just as much damage as Superstorm Sandy did two years ago.
This time, the telltale signs are not fierce winds and a churning ocean but an avalanche of pink slips as closing casinos disrupt the local economy.
Since January, three casinos —the Atlantic Club, Showboat and Revel — have closed and a fourth, the Trump Plaza, is scheduled to shut its doors on Sept. 16. Another casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, has signaled it could be in trouble as well.
The response from the 63 United Methodist churches in the Cape Atlantic District, including three in the city itself, will encompass both prayer and practical assistance. As their district superintendent, Roberts already convened an Atlantic City Economic Response Team, which will hold its second meeting Sept. 10 at the district office.
Just as Sandy “was a weather storm of epic proportions,” New Jersey Bishop John Schol told United Methodist News Service, so the layoff of 6,000 or more workers has created “an epic economic storm for South Jersey which will ripple its way through the state.”
In an Aug. 25 letter to the United Methodist Greater New Jersey Annual (regional) Conference, Schol wrote about joining other faith leaders to pray and walk with those whose jobs were threatened.
“Many, maybe most of those losing their jobs are hotel workers, wait staff, cooks, and cleaning staff,” the letter said. “We prayed for a new vision for Atlantic City, for the financial health of the families and for sustainable jobs.”
The Rev. William M. Williams III, pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church, believes the church’s participation in casting an economic vision is crucial to Atlantic City’s success. “What we, as United Methodists, need to do and are trying to do is to have a seat at the table.”
Second or third layoffs
The Rev. Juliann Henry, who manages pastoral care at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center and serves two small United Methodist congregations, noted that some casino employees are reeling now from what is a second or third layoff.
Her husband, Ed Henry, 59, is a case in point. A lighting designer, he spent 27 years working for shows connected to the Trump Plaza before being laid off three years ago, but found a new position when the Revel Casino opened in April 2012. “Most of the folk at Revel that just lost their jobs had found a job after they had been laid off at other casinos,” she explained.
United Methodist clergy are among the volunteers at a clearinghouse set up last week in the Atlantic City Convention Center by Local 54 of Unite Here, the main casino workers’ union, and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The laid-off workers can file for unemployment and get information on job search assistance. The resource center will close Sept. 10 and reopen elsewhere after the Trump Plaza closes Sept. 16.
Henry has been one of the volunteers. “One of the things that the union asked for, right off the bat, was a comprehensive clergy presence around the clock,” she said.
The United Methodist Church officially opposes the legalization of gambling, but, as Schol points out in his letter, the denomination also has members who work in the gaming business and members who gamble.
“Our concern for the people of Atlantic City and the region is because the significant layoffs will hurt families, the local community and the stability of the area. Our commitment is to help those who lost jobs by supporting them during the transition and to assist them in finding meaningful work.”
For church, mission is the same
Those most affected in his congregation at Asbury, Williams said, are members whose children and grandchildren work for the casinos, along with “a handful of members who are associated with the tourism industry.”
The church’s mission in this economic crisis is “the same mission it was through the ages — to spread the good news, to spread love,” he explained. “Maybe now more than ever we need to embody that mission.”
That could mean anything from creating a system to quickly meet economic needs to tailoring worship services to address the issues raised by the crisis. Asbury already provides food for the hungry on Saturdays. “Our doors need to be open for silent prayer, for mediation, for people to just come and sit,” he added.
Roberts said the Cape Atlantic District is moving “with haste” to form partnerships with others and provide resources such as counseling, food provisions, résumé-writing assistance, drop-in and online centers for conversation and “a heaping helping of hope.”
“We’re trying to be where they are,” explained the Rev. Clifford Still Jr., pointing out that the church has “to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ” and offer support. “There’s nothing worse than not knowing how you’re going to feed your family,” he said.
Still leads two Atlantic City United Methodist churches, Venice Park and Hamilton Memorial, where Schol preached over the weekend. “I’m very encouraged and excited that we have a bishop who is genuinely concerned about people and people’s welfare,” Still said. “He has demonstrated that numerous times.”
Williams believes it will take courage, discernment and “a sense of mutual cooperation” in partnership with other faith groups to push for a more holistic approach to unemployment.
“Atlantic City has time and time again gone through the transition of economic instability,” he said. “Maybe now it’s time for the church to take on that position of combining a compassionate economic theory that helps us move forward with sustainable growth in all areas of a person’s life.”
‘Feels like another hurricane’
For the community as a whole, the collapse of several casinos coming at a time when the Sandy recovery is ongoing is a blow, Henry said. “It feels like another hurricane, to be quite honest.”
The silver lining in that storm cloud, she and Schol pointed out, is the experience and expanded capacity that has developed from that disaster.
A Future with Hope, the Greater New Jersey Conference’s Sandy recovery organization, currently has volunteer teams working on 15 houses in Atlantic City. Statewide, its teams will repair some 70 homes this year and anticipates finishing another 100 homes in 2015, Schol said. He expects the organization could become “the largest nonprofit housing developer in the state of New Jersey.”
A new pilot program in three Sandy-damaged communities, using the denomination’s “Communities of Shalom” model, will focus not just on rebuilding houses but rebuilding lives, he added.
The long-term recovery group in Atlantic City, of which Henry has been a part, has been very successful in providing case management for Sandy survivors. Because of that, Atlantic City’s mayor may provide funds to hire a few case managers to help the newly displaced casino workers.
“We’ve got a great infrastructure already in place,” she said. “Atlantic City has been able to really move forward in the last two years.”
Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her athttp://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Liberia needs faith to shake off despair amid Ebola crisis
MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS) — “A feeling of despair” hangs over Liberians in the wake of the Ebola crisis and could keep the country from defeating the epidemic, said the Rev. Yatta R. Young, a dean at United Methodist University. Many still suffering from Liberia’s 14-year civil war are adopting a “defeatist attitude,” she told United Methodist News Service.
Liberia needs faith amid despair of Ebola crisis by Kathy L. Gilbert, (UMNS)
“A feeling of despair” hangs over Liberians in the wake of the Ebola crisis and could keep the country from defeating the epidemic, said the Rev. Yatta R. Young, a dean at United Methodist University, Monrovia, Liberia.
Many still suffering from Liberia’s 14-year civil war, which ended in 2003, are adopting a “defeatist attitude,” she told United Methodist News Service.
GET INVOLVED
Read full coverage of church's response to the Ebola outbreak and donate online to United ommunication’s efforts to help the denomination distribute information about the disease atwww.umc.org/ebola.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief has to date sent $400,000 in grants to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
“The Ebola epidemic, coming out of the blue at this point in our lives is like a monkey wrench being thrown into our efforts to rebuild our lives,” she said.
Young was recently part of a group distributing buckets, chlorine and soap to families in the New Georgia Estate Community near Monrovia and providing food to an orphanage in the same community. She is former dean of the Gbarnga School of Theology and dean of the proposed graduate studies program at United Methodist University.
Young said families who were not able to get the preventative supplies they needed to keep safe during the epidemic moved her to reach out. Prevention must start at the family level, she said.
She said children are the most vulnerable.
“My heart goes out to these little ones, and I want to make sure that they wash their hands always to keep safe.”
The World Health Organization reported on Sept. 10, the death toll jumped by almost 200 in a single day to at least 2,296. “We know the numbers are under-estimated,” said Sylvie Brand, director of WHO’s department of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
Ebola is spreading “like wildfire” in Liberia said an official with UNICEF, speaking to the BBC.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, an active United Methodist, said she expects the crisis to worsen as health care workers struggle with inadequate supplies, lack of outside support and a population living in fear.
Old habits hard to break
Young said she is concerned about the cultural socio-economic implications of the preventive measures issued by the health ministry and the Center for Disease Control in an attempt to halt the spread of the disease. Similar thoughts have been expressed by other Liberians.
Many of the precautions are counter to tradition and culture, especially concerning burials, she said.
“The new way has been hard to comply with because to honor to the dead is very important. Children are duty-bound to give their parents a befitting burial as a final sign of respect and a show of gratitude.”
Touching dead bodies is strictly prohibited because secretions are extremely contagious. According to a report on PBS Frontline, precautions for those who have died from Ebola include handling the body in full protective equipment, spraying the body, putting it in a body bag, spraying the body bag, put it in another body bag and then spraying the second bag. All contaminated materials — sheets, clothes, mattresses — are burned.
“I can just imagine Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Jesus and the other women making the trip to tomb on Easter Sunday morning resolutely to give the Lord a befitting traditional burial,” Young said.
Costs soaring
Young said transportation costs have quadrupled because fewer people are allowed in vehicles. Prices for produce and other essentials are soaring because of the increased transportation costs.
“Fellowship time is not the same anymore. We no longer shake hands, hug or kiss Christian brothers and sisters even as we sing ‘Hold somebody; tell them that you love them. Raise your hands together and praise the Lord.’”
People are finding it hard to adhere to simple but effective preventative measures.
“We have our part to play alongside God in this fight to defeat Ebola. So to throw in the towel now states that we feel that our efforts at prevention are useless; and this is not the progressive attitude we need to kick Ebola out of Liberia,” she said.
Julu Swen, United Methodist communicator in Liberia, contributed to this report.
Gilbert is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Liberian DS died of complications due to hypertension by United Methodist News Service, MONROVIA, Liberia
A district superintendent in Liberia died of complications due to hypertension, but because he died at an Ebola center there is little chance his body will be released for burial.
The Rev. Morris Jarkloh, district superintendent of the Sinoe District, United Methodist Liberia Annual (regional) Conference, died at the MSF/ELWA Hospital in Monrovia Sept. 5.
The hospital, an Ebola center, was the only facility that could admit him, according to his family. Even though Jarkloh did not have Ebola, his body was placed among patients who had died of Ebola and is believed to be contaminated.
The Rev. Samuel Quire, who was with the family, said there is little chance the government will allow his body to be released to his family for burial at his church.
Bishop John Innis, episcopal leader of Liberia, praised Jarkloh’s commitment to the church.
“The Rev. Morris Jarkloh was one of our finest district superintendents who worked sacrificially to makes disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. He was committed and devoted to his responsibilities. He was a man of Christ to the people and we will miss him on the cabinet for respecting his calling.”
Thousands of new Ebola cases are expected in the next three weeks in Liberia, the World Health Organization reported Sept. 8.
At least 2,100 have died from Ebola in the West African states of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the first case in May. Of those, 1,089 have been in Liberia.
The BBC reported that Liberia’s Montserrado County only had 240 hospital beds available for 1,000 Ebola patients.
“When patients are turned away … they have no choice but to return to their communities and homes, where they inevitably infect others,” the World Health Organization said.
Ebola is spread by direct contact with infected blood, body fluids or organs or indirect contact with contaminated environments. Ebola can be spread through the handling of dead bodies in preparation for burial.
This story was based on information provided by Tafadzwa W. Mudambanuki, central conference content coordinator for United Methodist Communications, and Julu Swen, a communicator in Liberia.
News media contact: Kathy Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Bishop McLee, 'champion' for marginalized people, dies
NEW YORK (UMNS) — Funeral services for Bishop Martin D. McLee will be held at 11 a.m. ET Monday, Sept. 15, at The Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, New York, New York. Viewing will take place from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. The service will be streamed live online with the prelude music at 10:30 a.m. ET and continue with the service at 11 a.m. To view the feed, go to the New York Annual Conference live stream page. Expressions of condolence can be sent to: The Family of Bishop Martin D. McLee, c/o The New York Annual Conference, 20 Soundview Ave., White Plains, New York, 10606. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to McLee’s “Young Clergy Debt Assistance Program.” Please make checks payable to “NYAC” and send to the attention of Ross Williams at New York Annual Conference.
Updated Funeral Service Information Available
Photo courtesy of the Council of Bishops; Collage by UM Communications
September 12, 2014
The people of the New York Annual Conference continue to mourn the loss of our episcopal leader, Bishop Martin D. McLee. Funeral services for Bishop McLee will be held on Monday, September 15, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at The Riverside Church, located at 490 Riverside Drive, New York NY. Viewing is from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Clergy, who are asked to wear white robes and white stoles, should arrive at 10:00 a.m. and gather in the South Hall. A room will be provided in which belongings can be secured.
The people of the New York Annual Conference continue to mourn the loss of our episcopal leader, Bishop Martin D. McLee. Funeral services for Bishop McLee will be held on Monday, September 15, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at The Riverside Church, located at 490 Riverside Drive, New York NY. Viewing is from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Clergy, who are asked to wear white robes and white stoles, should arrive at 10:00 a.m. and gather in the South Hall. A room will be provided in which belongings can be secured.
Bishop McLee, ‘champion’ for marginalized people, dies United Methodist News Service WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
Editor's Note: To view a live Internet stream of the funeral service for Bishop Martin D. McLee on Monday, Sept.15, go to the New York Annual Conference live stream page.
Bishop Martin D. McLee, leader of The United Methodist Church’s New York Area, died Sept. 6. He had been on leave of absence due to illness since July.
McLee would have been 59 years old Sept. 10.
He was elected bishop in July 2012. Bishop Marcus Matthews, leader of the Baltimore-Washington Conference and president of the Northeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops, laid his hands on McLee during the consecration service.
“Since that day, I have worked closely with Bishop McLee and seen what a great servant of God he was,” Matthews said. “From his words and his work, it is clear that Bishop McLee cared for the church and was God’s champion for millions of marginalized people in the NEJ and throughout the word. Through his work with those who remained on the margins of society and the church, Bishop McLee embodied our call to serve all of God's people.”
Matthews asked churches to observe a moment of silence in honor of McLee and to offer prayers for the bishop’s family.
Bishop John Schol, leader of the Greater New Jersey Area, also called for prayers for the family as well as the people of the New York Area, and he paid tribute to McLee.
“He was a dynamic preacher, creative worship leader, and a faithful and fruitful spiritual leader,” Schol said in a statement.
Time as bishop
McLee had led the New York Area since Sept. 1, 2012. Retired Bishop Neil Irons has been leading the area as interim bishop since McLee went on leave.
Early in his days as bishop, McLee conducted a “listening tour” in the New York Conference, where he told church leaders that he did not “have a master plan for New York and Connecticut, but I serve a Master with a plan.”
During his brief time as bishop, he was no stranger to tragedy or controversy.
He was with the congregation of Newtown United Methodist Church in Connecticut for a somber Sunday worship, two days after the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.
McLee told the grieving congregants that messages of care and love “have been received from across the world, from Zimbabwe and nearer. Many are connected in our pain. We are not alone. In the midst of our pain we are not alone! And we give thanks that God is our Comforter, and we say, ‘Amen.’”
He addressed a very different issue last March.
That month, United Methodist leaders announced they had reached a "just resolution" without a trial in handling a complaint against the Rev. Thomas Ogletree, a retired United Methodist seminary dean in the New York Conference who officiated at his son’s same-gender wedding. At the news conference, McLee also called for “the cessation of church trials” related to same-sex marriage.
While the denomination officially states that all people are of sacred worth, it also says that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Church law forbids its clergy from performing same-gender weddings. Pastors disregarding the policy have been subject to formal complaints, which in some cases have led to church trials.
“Church trials produce no winners ... trials are not the way forward,” McLee said at the time.
McLee was not bishop long enough to see many of his plans for the New York Conference come to fruition. But he faciliated difficult conversations the conference needed, said the Rev. Adrienne Brewington, superintendent of the Long Island East District.
"The thing I appreciated most about Bishop McLee was the fearlessness in which he engaged in ministry because of his confidence in Jesus Christ," she said. "One thing we often heard him say in the cabinet room was: 'It will be difficult but that is no reason not to do it.'"
She said that sentiment empowered her in her own ministry as a district superintendent.
The Rev. William S. Shillady, executive director of the United Methodist City Society in New York, credited McLee with pushing the conference toward excellence in urban ministry and toward reaching new people, including new immigrant populations.
He exemplified the kind of relational evangelism that was needed, Shillady said. For example, McLee became an unofficial pastor to the people in his barbershop.
"He modeled for us what it means to reach people outside the traditional church setting," Shillady said.
McLee also had a gift for reaching out to both young people and those who were young in ministry, Shillady said. The bishop routinely gave out his cell phone number to seminary students and new pastors. "They felt he was their pastor and their bishop," Shillady said
McLee was a trendsetteer, Shillady said. The bishop would rap at joyful occasions and take selfies with many of the congregations he visited that he would then post to Facebook. He often brought a sense of celebration to Christian life.
Both Brewington and Shillady said losing McLee is a shock to many in the conference. Brewington asked for people's prayers for the New York Conference.
A bridge-builder
Prior to his election as bishop, McLee was superintendent of the Metro Boston Hope District of the New England Conference.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, he answered the call to ministry at St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, under the leadership of the Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes Jr.
McLee joined the St. Luke congregation shortly after graduating from law school and immediately immersed himself in the life of the church, including its many social justice ministries, Holmes recalled. Among other activities, McLee sang in the choir, volunteered with the church's prison ministry, served in its AIDS ministry and registered voters. The senior pastor said he was not surprised when McLee announced his call to ordained ministry at a church prayer service.
"He was a great gift of God to the church," Holmes said. "We have faith that he is at home with God as he always has been at home with God."
At McLee's invitation, Holmes preached at the New York Conference's annual meeting in June. "It was just before I arrived he told me he was ill and would not be able to attend," Holmes said. "But he told me he'd pray for me, and I felt his prayers."
McLee served as a pastor in the New England Conference and received the prestigious Ziegler Award for Preaching Excellence.
He had served as adjunct professor of social work at Simmons College and at Brandeis University. He was committed to activism and frequently lectured on issues concerning HIV/AIDS and the faith community, race relations and social justice, and served as a Juvenile Justice Advocate and public school educator prior to entering the ministry.
The bishop earned his Master of Divinity degree from Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, Dallas; Juris Doctor degree from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, Houston; Master of Science degree in Education from Fordham University; and Bachelor of Science degree in Health (with honors) from Hunter College, both in New York City.
McLee also served as president of the Northeastern Jurisdiction's Multi-Ethnic Center; vice president of Strengthening the Black Church for the Twenty-First Century Initiative; and on the boards of Drew University, New York Theological Seminary and the New York Methodist Hospital.
McLee was known as a bridge-builder committed to bringing people into relationship with Christ through both evangelism and social justice ministries. The biography posted on his conference website described him as “a servant leader at heart.” It noted one of the guiding Scriptures in his faith journey was Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”
Funeral services for McLee will be held at 11 a.m. ET Monday, Sept. 15 at The Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, New York, NY. Viewing will take place from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Clergy are requested to wear white robes and white stoles.
Expressions of condolence can be sent to: The Family of Bishop Martin D. McLee c/o The New York Annual Conference, 20 Soundview Ave., White Plains, New York, 10606.
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to McLee’s “Young Clergy Debt Assistance Program.” Please make checks payable to “NYAC” and send to the attention of Ross Williams at the New York Annual Conference.
Expressions of condolence can be sent to: The Family of Bishop Martin D. McLee c/o The New York Annual Conference, 20 Soundview Ave., White Plains, New York, 10606.
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to McLee’s “Young Clergy Debt Assistance Program.” Please make checks payable to “NYAC” and send to the attention of Ross Williams at the New York Annual Conference.
News media contact: Heather Hahn at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Moving beyond conflict to ‘culture of peace’
UNITED NATIONS (UMNS) — During Liberia’s civil war, Christian and Muslim women learned how to work together to help bring about the war’s end. Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee knows what such cooperation can achieve. She and other speakers talked about the goals for “The Culture of Peace” during a U.N. forum.
Moving beyond conflict to ‘culture of peace’ by Linda Bloom, | UNITED NATIONS (UMNS)
During Liberia’s civil war, Christian and Muslim women learned how to work together to build a “culture of peace” that helped end the war in 2003.
Leymah Gbowee, awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for leading that nonviolent movement, believes this effort must be replicated elsewhere.
In a Sept. 9 keynote speech during the United Nations High Level Forum on The Culture of Peace, she briefly chronicled what it took to form a peace-seeking consortium that included women of different religious and ethnic groups and varying income levels.
Organized in cooperation with The Global Movement for The Culture of Peace, the forum marked the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace by the U.N. General Assembly.
The declaration calls upon all governments and all peoples to strive for a more peaceful world through “a positive, dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation.”
In Liberia, the consortium “spent many days negotiating with each other to resolve our own conflicts,” said Gbowee, a Lutheran and author of the memoir, “Mighty Be Our Powers.” But then, she added, they engaged in strategic planning for hours every day.
That struggle, she said, “inadvertently” followed Article 1 of the Culture of Peace declaration: “Through education, dialogue and cooperation, we fostered an environment conducive to peace.”
Peace cannot be negotiated by men with guns, she argued. “Nothing guarantees that a man’s gun and the size of his arsenal gives him high intellect to sit at the peace table,” Gbowee declared.
Women, on the other hand, “have proven time and time again that we can do it right when everyone else misses the mark.”
Values, not weapons
In his opening remarks to the forum, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted that achieving peace means more than ending armed conflict. “Peace is a mode of behavior,” he said, and humanity’s strongest assets are shared values, not weapons.
“We are many cultures but we are a single family bound by a respect for human rights and dignity for all,” the secretary general said.
During the event, representatives spoke briefly for delegations from a number of member states, focusing on the need for tolerance, equality, respect, understanding, democratic participation, education and sustainable economic and social development.
“Almost always, the lack of basic needs leads to the destruction of peace,” the Sri Lanka representative pointed out.
The representative from Kazakstan stressed that an emphasis on socialization and values for youth is vital for national development, a priority reinforced in a panel discussion on “The Role and Contributions of Women and Youth to The Culture of Peace.”
Ahmed Alhendawi, the U.N. Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth, noted that while young people are disproportionately affected by conflict, they are rarely invited to participate in peace negotiations.
Providing youth with a sense of accountability and ownership in bringing peace could ensure that having the world’s largest generation ever of young people “is the opportunity, not the liability, of our time.”
Oliver Rizzi Carlson, a U.N. representative from the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, said young people are eager for that opportunity. “We’re used to talking about peace in terms of results,” he added. “The trick is (that) peace is about the process. Youth know this.”
Sitting at the peace table
Women, who often work for peace under threatening conditions, also need to be more prominent in peace talks, said Sanam Anderlini, co-founder of the International Civil Society Action Network, echoing Gbowee’s call.
“Women’s movements don’t resort to violence to attain their goals,” she explained. “They have other creative solutions. They need to bring those solutions to the peace table.”
Commitments to achieving a Culture of Peace also need to be well-funded, argued Kathleen Kuehnast from the U.S. Institute for Peace.
“What we need is a Silicon Valley for nonviolent approaches to global problem-solving,” she said.
Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her athttp://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Humanitarian need grows in Iraq
GENEVA (UMNS) — Agencies assisting the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant attacks warn that the onset of winter will intensify the humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq. Greg Brekke reports for the World Council of Churches.
Humanitarian need and loss punctuate crisis in northern Iraq
A disabled man displaced from Qaraqosh rests in the makeshift dormitory in the fellowship hall of St. Peter and Paul Ancient Assyrian Church of the East in Dohuk, Iraq. © WCC/Gregg Brekke
*By Gregg Brekke
Even as hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant attacks find refuge in the towns of the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, agencies assisting these internally displaced persons (IDPs) warn of a huge unmet humanitarian need exacerbated by the looming onset of winter.
It is this humanitarian need that a World Council of Churches (WCC) staff delegation visiting northern Iraq from 27 to 31 August heard about, and observed first hand. The WCC subsequently issued a statement calling on the Iraqi government to provide protection and support for its people, and for the international community greatly to increase their humanitarian response.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) reports that over 1.4 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes since January. Those who have recently fled Mosul, the Nineveh plain and surrounding areas have found temporary refuge in the Kurdish towns of Erbil, Dohuk and in many other towns and villages in the region.
Haval Mohammed Amedy, head of Emergency Operations for the Dohuk Governate in the Kurdistan region, is coordinating the relief efforts of governmental and non-governmental (including church) agencies. Noting that IDPs are housed in 673 schools and nearly all places of worship throughout the Governate, his office’s work results in what Amedy says is the most efficient use of material and expertise flowing into the region.
“We collect all the resource [information] here. Our colleagues from different agencies meet on a weekly basis – we share the information, see where there are gaps and where we can improve our implementation to overcome this problem altogether,” he says.
The town of Khanke, just north of Dohuk, has swollen from a population of 25,000 to more than 100,000 mostly Yazidi people, fleeing from the genocidal violence of ISIS in Sinjar and elsewhere. Housed in schools, public buildings and local homes, along with a sprawling 60,000 person UNHCR tent encampment on the outskirts of town, these displaced people have stretched the capacities of the town’s infrastructure. Water, sanitation and food preparation are continuing concerns for humanitarian groups as this population settles in for what may be an extended stay in lieu of any foreseeable prospect of a return to homes and settlements still under ISIS control.
The plight of displaced people
Most of those the WCC delegation interviewed fled their homes with only the clothes they were wearing. The brutal refrain of ISIS – convert, leave or die – was repeated in town after town, emptying these settlements of all religious groups other than those ISIS claims to represent. A recurring theme in the accounts received by the WCC delegation was the ease with which ISIS forces were able to recruit local Muslims as their agents in these towns, betraying and expelling their neighbours and acting as jailors for those who would not or could not leave.
Ayad Hajjo, a Yazidi man from a village south of Mosul, told of a massacre by ISIS fighters following his community’s retreat to a nearby mountain. Those unable to leave the mountain because of exhaustion or lack of mobility were without defense. “ISIS fighters came in a few hundred cars and attacked the people who couldn’t move. When they were done, they destroyed all our religious objects,” he says. Following the attack, Hajjo says his brother went to the mountain to investigate. “He found only bodies,” he says.
Given the urgency with which people were forced to flee, few have any possessions, money or documentation such as passports or identification cards, and are at the mercy of aid organizations for shelter and clothing.
Peer Deyan, head of Khanke’s governing board, says the town is doing its best to accommodate such a huge influx of people, but cautioned that without continued and increased help from aid organizations, they will not be able to keep up with the demands.
A humanitarian crisis
Immediate needs, he says, are for winter clothing and shelter, in addition to individual cooking supplies. Although UNHCR tents fill the landscape for kilometres, these vinyl walled structures will provide no protection against the cold winters of northern Iraq where nighttime temperatures can fall below freezing. Given that most people fled their homes in the height of summer with the clothes they were wearing, cold-weather clothing is urgently needed.
Under the supervision of UNHCR and other aid organizations, communal kitchens have been established within the camps and in town centers. While Deyan says this is an efficient way to feed such large numbers of people, he feels that families need to be able to cook for themselves at some point. “It would signal a return to something normal, for them simply to cook their own meal, instead of standing in line after line to attend to their basic needs,” he says.
Highlighting the observed and reported needs, Peter Prove, director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, sent a report to the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on the human rights situation in Iraq on 1 September. Prove emphasized the immediacy and scale of the need for humanitarian assistance, saying the situation "fully warrants the focused and continuous attention of the entire international community."
Prove's report also called on the UN to condemn those who foster a culture of impunity in the region, urging the formation of a war crimes tribunal to address and prosecute those guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq and Syria. He additionally asked that those in the global community who provide material, financial and moral support to ISIS be "named and held accountable" for perpetuating terrorism, extremist ideologies and violence in the region.
Need for a comprehensive response
In addition to these calls, Prove asked the UN to investigate violations of religious freedom against Yazidi, Christian and Muslim minority communities by ISIS forces. He notes that the Christian community in Mosul, one of the oldest Christian communities in the East, has been all but eliminated. "There is no Christian left in the city, and the physical vestiges of this ancient community – the churches, monasteries and sacred texts – are being desecrated and destroyed," his report reads.
Following Prove's report, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, said in a statement to the member churches, “The Iraqi government has a responsibility to protect its citizens, and if they cannot do that then the international community must step in to assure the safety and security of people who have been brutally forced away from their homes… The application of international military force in the region, if any, should be undertaken under a mandate from the United Nations Security Council."
Tveit emphasized the multiple needs in the region, calling for the protection of religious minorities even as aid arrives. "The international community must exercise its responsibility to protect these extremely vulnerable people, including Christians and members of other religious communities in the region," he said.
As of the time of writing, the UN has not formulated a long term response to the situation beyond the massive distribution of humanitarian supplies already underway.
* Gregg Brekke is a freelance journalist specializing in human rights, global health and issues pertinent to world religions. He is founder of SixView Studios and president of the U.S.-based Associated Church Press.
WCC calls for increased humanitarian response and responsibility to protect populations in Northern Iraq (WCC news release of 4 September 2014)
Churches ask Human Rights Council to support religious minority communities in Iraq (WCC news release of 2 September 2014)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — When it floods, or a typhoon hits, or you are caught in the middle of a civil war, grab your cell phone. That was the bottom-line advice from three people who have been in the middle of all those situations. The speakers were part of a panel about communication as aid on the last day of a three-day Game Changers Summit that was all about technology that helps rebuild and restore communities after they have suffered devastating events.
Grab your cell phone in typhoon, flood, or war by Kathy L. Gilbert, NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
When it floods, or a typhoon hits, or you are caught in the middle of a civil war, grab your cell phones.
That was the bottom-line advice from three people who have been in the middle of all those scenarios. They spoke on a panel about communication as aid on the last day of a three-day summit that was all about technology helping rebuild and restore communities that had suffered devastating events.
Isaac Broune, a communicator from the Côte d’Ivoire episcopal area, spoke about bullets flying through the window and falling by the bed as he slept late after the 2010 elections. Those elections in his country sparked fighting in the street that led to a civil war. He lived at the United Methodist conference office to keep the radio station operating during the civil unrest.
“There were 3,000 deaths during that crisis and we were the voice of hope,” he said of the radio station.
His family — 20 people — lived in a two-bedroom house. “It was the size of the hotel room I am staying in now,” he said, smiling.
Broune, April Gonzaga-Mercado and Linda Raftree talked about their experiences as communicators suddenly facing being somewhere in the world after a disaster — with no way to communicate.
Game Changers Summit 2014, hosted by United Methodist Communications, was held in the Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Sept. 3-5. More than 240 people from nine countries attended the event that included world leaders in ICT4D—information and communication technology for development.
GPS and coconut trees
TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL GOOD
Information and communications technology can help those left behind by the technological revolution.
Join the conversation at:
#ICT4DSummit14 on Twitter or Facebook
Gonzaga-Mercado was awoken at 3 a.m. with a job offer she couldn’t refuse after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on Nov. 8. United Methodist Communications, the denomination’s communication agency, wanted her to be part of a four-person team sent to the disaster area.
She was a journalist and communications chairperson of her church, Taytay United Methodist Church, and an active member of the United Methodist Young Adult Fellowship. She had never been in the middle of a disaster, but joined the team sent in to help assess needs and spread information.
She said she flew into the area and was shocked.
“I wasn’t able to speak for two days,” she said, describing what she faced on the ground.
“When Haiyan happened, all communication towers were knocked down. Satellite phones were rendered useless because of thick clouds overhead. The only useful form of communication was ham radios.”
The team distributed tablets equipped with GPS, because as she said, “When you walk through a field of coconut trees, you don’t know which way to go.”
The team also distributed solar chargers to survivors to combat widespread power outages, and solar lamps to cut down on using oil lamps, which pose fire and health hazards.
Food, water and shelter are an immediate need in the aftermath of disaster, but Mercado also sees technology as a vital tool in keeping survivors informed of where to find aid, or where to go for safety.
‘It will rain again’
Raftree was in disaster work in El Salvador in 2001 after an earthquake and she too was suddenly faced with a situation no one had prepared for. That has led her to championing for being ready when disaster hits.
“In the middle of a disaster is the worst time to push something new (technology),” she said.
Jill Costello, project manager for United Methodist Communication’s ICT4D team, said a roofing business in her former hometown of San Francisco had a slogan she loved, “It will rain again.” Costello moderated Friday’s panel.
“It will happen again,” she said of natural disasters, epidemics and climate changes.
In wrapping up the summit, the Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive for United Methodist Communications, said, the church needs to understand and use technology for ministry.
“We need to use these tools to lead local people to understand they are a gift from a loving God.”
Gilbert is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Game Changer Summit Coverage
The Game Changers Summit in Nashville, Tenn., addresses how information and communications technology (ICT) can be used to help parts of the world left behind by the technological revolution.
Hear from globally-renowned leaders about how to solve problems in education, wellness, and community development by leveraging the world's growing access to cell towers, Internet and hardware.
Learn how your congregation can be part of this innovative, technology-based mission.
Flickr Slideshow
Presentations and White Papers:
Day 1
- State of ICT4D by The Rev. Larry Hollon, General Secreatry of United Methodist Communications (PDF)
- ICT4D - Where Are We Heading by Chris Locke, Founder, Caribou Digital (PDF)
- The Great Migration by April Mercado (Prezi Presentation)
Day 2
- Hackers, fixers and reluctant innovators: The future of [technology and]
development? Keynote by Ken Banks (PDF) - Maximizing Information and Communications Technologies for Development in Faith-Based Initiatives (White paper, PDF)
- From Dependency to Sustainability panel moderator: Chris Locke (PDF)
- The Local Content Ecosystem: How Do We Collaborate to Drive Global Action? (PDF)
- Thomas Food Project ICT Intervention (White paper, PDF)
Day 3
News Coverage
Grab your cell phone in typhoon, flood, or war
When disaster strikes a community, cell phones and other communication aids can help with emergency response and recovery.Read More
State of ICT4D: Address by the Rev. Larry Hollon
United Methodist Communications' top exec addresses Game Changers Summit on how technology today is used for the social good. Read More
Leveraging information for development
Game Changers Summit draws people from nine countries to hear experts on how technology helps the social good. Read More
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Groups to bishops: You must speak
LOS ANGELES (UMNS) — Two United Methodist groups — coming from different theological perspectives — are urging the Council of Bishops to take the lead and speak out on issues facing the church and wider world. The Western Methodist Justice Movement and Good News each released a statement this week encouraging bishops’ action.
Groups to bishops: You must speak by Heather Hahn, NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
Updated: This story has been updated to include the most recent numbers of people who signed the Methodist Crossroads statement. The story also includes a link to a statement on Ferguson by two African-American church leaders.
Two United Methodist groups — coming from different theological perspectives — are urging the Council of Bishops to take the lead and speak out on issues facing the church and wider world.
Those issues include the police shooting in Ferguson, the root causes of immigration, violence in Gaza and church divisions on human sexuality.
The Western Methodist Justice Movement and Good News each released a statement this week encouraging bishops’ action. Both are advocacy groups that are not official United Methodist bodies.
What the different statements show, say leaders of both groups, is the value United Methodists place in the guidance bishops can provide.
“In a very practical way, the bishops are the most visible manifestation of The United Methodist Church in the years between our quadrennial General Conferences,” said the Rev. Frank Wulf, the convener of the progressive Western Methodist Justice Movement and its coordinating team.
“This is one reason why major social movements find it so important for bishops to be present when they are making statements of concern to the nation or the world.”
The Rev. Rob Renfroe, president of the conservative Good News group, echoed that statement.
“Regardless of one’s theological perspective, most United Methodists want our bishops to lead through their actions and their teaching,” he said. “Their voice should instruct and inspire us to be God’s faithful instruments of grace and truth in the world.”
The Western Methodist Justice Movement’s letter
In an open letter to the Council of Bishops released on Sept. 5, the Western Methodist Justice Movement asks the council to address three crises.
- The shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and what the letter called the movement to say “‘No more!’ to the criminalization of U.S. minority communities and to the militarization of U.S. police forces”
- The recent surge of children from Central America crossing into the United States, which the letter says “has started to open our eyes to the violence, poverty and injustice that lead to the creation of unhealthy and unsustainable patterns of global migration”
- The violence in Gaza and the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
The Council of Bishops will next meet Nov. 1-7 in Oklahoma City, but the Western Methodist Justice Movement is asking the body to speak out before then.
“The people for whom you have been elected to provide temporal and spiritual oversight need to hear from you,” the letter said. “They need to know that their bishops are engaged with the critical issues of justice and injustice, violence and peace, wealth and poverty that are roiling the U.S. and the world.”
So far, 84 United Methodists have endorsed the letter, which the group drafted during its Stepping Out in Faith retreat, Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 in Zephyr Cove, Nevada.
The group formed after the 2012 meeting of the Western Jurisdiction in San Diego. During that conference, Greater Northwest Episcopal Area Bishop Grant Hagiya invited participants to advance the jurisdiction’s goals and commitments without waiting on the institutional church, Wulf said. The group is the result.
Two African-American United Methodist leaders also have called on the Council of Bishops to respond to what happened in Ferguson. "We urge you to take a bold stand against racism including the militarized armament and surveillance being used against Black people," wrote the Revs. Pamela Lightsey and Gilbert H. Caldwell on the site of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, another unofficial United Methodist group. "We await a pastoral letter from you that does not straddle the political fence nor prematurely call for healing in the absence of sincere acts of justice and reconciliation making."
Good News’ email
Good News describes itself as a conservative-evangelical movement that has been working for renewal and reform in The United Methodist Church for nearly 50 years.
In an email titled “UMC Bishops Must Hear from Laity and Pastors,” Good News on Sept. 3 urged people on its mailing list to advocate for the Methodist Crossroads statement. So far, at least 3,300 United Methodists have endorsed the statement, which says bishops must enforce and publicly support church law restrictions against same-sex marriage if the denomination is to hold together.
“Regarding the issue of human sexuality, I would love to see our bishops explain, defend and promote our United Methodist position that sex is to be reserved for heterosexual marriage,” Renfroe said.
Why bishops are important
The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book, tasks bishops to be leaders, teachers, exemplars and prophetic voices, among other roles.
The United Methodist Church’s constitution, part of the Book of Discipline, requires that the Council of Bishops plans “for the general oversight and promotion of the temporal and spiritual interests of the entire Church.”
The Council of Bishops is also called to carry into effect the rules and responsibilities approved by General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking body. The council at present includes 66 active bishops and 93 retired bishops from around the world.
While individual bishops have spoken out on Ferguson or responded to immigration along the U.S. border, Wulf said, his group feels it is important to hear from the council as a whole.
“There are situations and issues that emerge from time to time that demand a timely prophetic, pastoral and healing word from the church,” he said. “But who is positioned to offer this word from the church? Only the Council of Bishops!”
He said the bishops’ statement on nuclear disarmament in the mid-1980s helped shift the national conversation on the building and stockpiling of such weapons. He sees a possibility for the bishops to influence the conversation again on the issues his group raised.
He did note that the Methodist Crossroads and Western Methodist Justice Movement statements are asking for two different things. One is asking the bishops to ensure prohibitions in the Book of Discipline are enforced, while Wulf noted his group’s statement is an “invitation to teach and speak.”
“It is telling, however, that both groups are going to the Council of Bishops,” Wulf said. “This testifies to our mutual understanding about who and what the bishops are and how they function as a council for the church as a whole.”
Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., of the California-Nevada Annual (regional) Conference, is the current president of the Council of Bishops. He responded to the statement by the Western Methodist Justice Movement.
He said the council has never functioned in a manner that allows members to respond weekly to the many situations that arise around the globe.
“The council serves as a worldwide church representing 12 million United Methodists on four continents,” Brown said in a statement. “We are committed to our role of being prophetic voices for justice in a suffering and conflicted world, proclaiming the gospel, and alleviating human suffering.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
United Methodists work to reverse Scout losses
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The number of young people involved in Scouting declined nationwide from 2012 to 2014, and programs in The United Methodist Church followed that trend – dropping from 365,565 in 2012 to 349,614 in 2013. Leaders of United Methodist Men are working to reverse that loss, Rich Peck reports.
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United Methodists work to reverse Scout losses
Larry Coppock, director of scouting ministry (left), and Phil Howard, president of the Scouting Ministry Committee, lead a discussion on ways to increase ministries to communities through scouting.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.–The number of young people involved in Scouting declined from 2.85 million in 2012 to 2.49 million in 2013 (the last full year of reporting).
The number of youth involved in scouting programs within the United Methodist Church declined from 365,565 in 2012 to 349,614 in 2013.
The General Commission on United Methodist Men, meeting Sept. 5-7, is seeking ways to reverse the loss of nearly 16,000 young people.
Churches with members who don’t look like their neighborhood can change that through scouting,” said Gil Hanke, top staff executive of the commission.
Scouting is down because the church is losing its identity as a servant of the community,” said Bishop James Swanson, president of the commission. “If we don’t’ see our role as serving the people of the community our numbers will continue to go down.”
The bishop said efforts to increase the number of young people in churches must begin with children. He called for a new emphasis on Cub Scouts and Daisies from the Girl Scouts. “You can’t get youth without beginning with children,” he said.
Larry Coppock, commission staff executive for scouting and other youth-serving agencies, said efforts to help churches understand how scouting can minister to communities is supported by 261 scouting ministry specialists, 2014-15 Bishops Dinners for Scouting, and “Faith in Scouting,” a six-minute film produced in cooperation with the Boy Scouts (http://youtu.be/4mjrJ_73shY).
Coppock said 6,300 United Methodist young people received God and Country awards through the St. Louis-based Programs of Religious Activities with Youth (PRAY), the highest number of all denominations (http://www.praypub.org/).
United Methodists lead all denominations with 212,503 Cub Scouts and is second with 129,503 Boy Scouts in 4,837 United Methodist churches. Many of the 988 churches with Venturing crews use that co-educational program for their youth organization.
In other business, the commission:
- Celebrated the completion of a new storage area and the renovating of commission offices on famed Music Row in Nashville;
- Agreed to continue to provide 6,500 “Backpacking New Testaments” to Scouts attending Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, Northern Tier High Adventure bases in Minnesota and Canada, the Summit in West Virginia, and the Florida Sea Base;
- Agreed to cooperate with Strength for Service Inc., a non-denominational ministry launched by the commission that has published 485,000 copies of daily devotional books for members of the military and 30,000 copies for police officers fire fighters and other first responders;
- Suggested the addition of a part-time staff person to continue providing webinars for Scout leaders;
- Learned that the four deployed staff members of the commission are working with 38 men’s ministry specialists to form eight teams composed of candidates for the position;
- Learned that the number of pounds of food gleaned by Society of Saint Andrew in 2014 is up 15 percent from 2013, but giving by United Methodist Men is off by 8 percent in the first eight months of 2014. Last year UM men gave $85,310 to the Meals for Millions program of the society.
Emerging Ministry Grants launch new programs
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — Two deacons in The United Methodist Church have been awarded 2014 Emerging Ministry Grants by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry. One will launch a community-wide day of service in Lancaster City, Pa., and the other will develop a ministry of spiritual formation for formerly incarcerated people in the West Ohio Conference. The Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s Nicole Burdakin reports.
Emerging Ministry Grants launch day of service, ministry for formerly incarcerated
Two deacons in The United Methodist Church have been awarded 2014 Emerging Ministry Grants from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. One will launch a community-wide day of service in Lancaster City, Pa., and the other will develop a ministry of spiritual formation for formerly incarcerated people in the West Ohio Conference.
“The two ministries awarded grants are particularly intentional about bringing hope to those who may be losing hope, offering very practical assistance that helps people reclaim self-determination, building community, and engaging church people in ministry to their neighbors,” said the Rev. Victoria Rebeck, director of Deacon Ministry Development and Certification in Specialized Ministry at GBHEM.
2014 Emerging Ministry Grants of $2,500 were awarded to:
- The Rev. Eddie Cameron, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, for Labor for Lancaster, a community-wide day of service in the northeast section of Lancaster City designed to bring hope to the city through acts of service, love, justice, mercy and grace.
- The Rev. Amelia Boomershine, West Ohio Conference, for “Seeds of Grace,” a ministry of spiritual formation with people who are or have been incarcerated through engagement with biblical stories and advocacy for restorative justice.
“Seeds of Grace” intends to partner with the Montgomery County Jail in Dayton and Horizon Prison Initiative in Chillicothe Correction Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio. The program will be an integral part of the development of ministry with inmates and “returning citizens” in the greater Dayton region. According to Boomershine, officials at all levels have recognized that good programming, spiritual formation, and church relationship reduce violence within correctional institutions and decrease the rate of recidivism.
The Labor for Lancaster day of service will take place at the end of August. The organizers have worked to build partnerships with two organizations that serve families and children in the cycle of homelessness to achieve sustainable living and employment, the city parks department and the local chapter of the American Red Cross, among others.
The Division of Ordained Ministry of GBHEM awards Emerging Ministry Grants to encourage United Methodist deacons and diaconal ministers to develop cutting-edge and innovative ministries in peace and justice that reach outside the walls of the church. These may be one-time events or projects, or programs that are intended to be ongoing.
About 16 applications were reviewed for this round of grants.
“We regretted that we were not able to offer each applicant a grant,” said Rebeck. “They all deserve support for the ways they lead church people to bring Christ’s love to their neighbors in very practical ways.”
Deacons and diaconal ministers are eligible to apply for grants up to $5,000 to help support a new ministry they are developing. A project may receive this grant only once.
“Deacons lead congregations into ministries of compassion and justice with the marginalized and forgotten in our world,” said Rebeck. “Given that many people do not choose to visit a worship service—and many of them want to do hands-on work to improve the world—deacons are in a key position to lead United Methodists to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
If you would like more information about the emerging ministry grant, contact Victoria Rebeck, director of Deacon Ministry Development and Certification in Specialized Ministry at GBHEM.
Burdakin is editorial and production assistant, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
- See more at: http://www.gbhem.org/article/emerging-ministry-grants-launch-day-service-ministry-formerly-incarcerated#sthash.53tXP2Qu.dpuf
Is the simplest form of church a dinner table?
PORTLAND, Ore. (UMNS) — The Rev. Jeremy Smith shares the experiences of two United Methodist church plants — one in Massachusetts and one in Michigan — that begin with people sharing a meal together. Smith wonders what we can learn from these models of smaller religious communities.
Is the Simplest form of Church just a Dinner Table?
A new church start in New England gathers around a dinner table instead of rows of pews. And I wonder if this is a portent of the future of church.
A Simple Church outside of Boston
Zach Kerzee is the pastor of a new church start without a steeple or a worship space: Simple Church (FB) which sees church as a big family dinner. Zach is a United Methodist and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, which is a distant second to my alma mater of Boston University School of Theology across the river, but let’s not hold that against him.
After Zach had this idea for a novel use of a neglected church parsonage, he heard about St. Lydia’s dinner church in New York City and studied their process to inform his model of church: a simple church that meets for dinner.
After reading more about Zach’s work, I’m really entranced by two aspects of Simple Church.
First, I’m inspired by Zach’s living out of his convictions by making his own life simple. In a profile in the local paper, he really walks the walk: he has sold most of his possessions and lives simply (almost a new monastic, perhaps). Can this church bring an aspect of monasticism to the masses? I don’t know, but a dinner table is a good place to start.
Second, I’m stoked about the participatory aspects of the worship service:
Worship [entails] preparing the food together within a liturgical context full of prayers, a candle-lighting ceremony, and a blessing of the food, followed by the meal and a short sermon meant to start discussion. There will of course be music, but not traditional hymns…[afterward] there will be time for the kids to come and play while the grownups gather for coffee.
I think so often we expect church to be a product that we consume and enjoy the fruits of other people’s labors (writing liturgy, practicing the choral anthem, etc). Instead, worship that involves everyone pitching in–be it cooking, prepping, cleaning, setting the table, or just watching the kids–brings a deeper co-creative aspect to worship. Wow.
Simple Church has an official launch on September 18th. If you are in the Grafton, Massachusetts area, stop on by and let us know how it went.
Why Dinner Matters
Dinner matters because food may be one of the holy moments that reaches across all the lines that usually divide us.
I recently went to a conference and sat next to Sarah Harmeyer who runs My Neighbor’s Table in Dallas, Texas. Sarah has a 20-seat dinner table in her backyard (literally, of her house) where she regularly hosts people to eat–at last count, I think she has had over 1,000 guests. That’s at a dinner table in a backyard, not a restaurant!
Two things jumped out at me from Sarah’s secular project (or at least it’s not overtlyfaith-oriented). First was the reaction from some guests at one dinner:
Sarah, who is the founder of Neighbor’s Table, went around the room and introduced everyone. I was so impressed! She remembered pretty much everyone’s name and was able to tell a brief story about each of us. She said a blessing over the food and we all got to dig in and eat.
Second is from when she hosted a dinner party for a cookbook kickstarter and here’s what the author said about the experience:
The love I received that night is not something that can be easily forgotten. It not only confirmed my belief that gathering people to connect around the table is vitally important, but it has challenged me tolove extraordinarily. To not worry so much about what I say or what I accomplish, but how I make others feel. That’s what matters.
Identity, belonging, and transformation–these people received from a dinner table what I hope they receive at a worship service in a church with pews.
Taking on Post-Christendom
Last in our brief survey is Rev. Tom Arthur, pastor of Sycamore Creek Church just outside of Lansing, Michigan. Since October 2012, SCC added a second site to his appointment called “Church in a Diner” where they…have church in a diner. Check out this video:
It looks just like a typical weeknight at a diner, though with a walking sermon, music, and people packing out a place for something other than dollar tacos. And even better is how the pastor frames this taking of church out of the designated building and into the community:
“We live in a post-Christian culture where Sunday morning is not reserved for church. The question is: are we going to adapt to it, or are we going to stay stuck complaining about football and soccer games, dance rehearsals being scheduled on Sunday mornings? Are we going to go to those places where people are already gathering?”
SCC is a very different model than Simple Church because it transplants the traditional church experience into a new wineskin, rather than distilling the worship experience down to its bare essentials.
However, I admire that instead of whining over the loss of Sunday morning sacrosanctness, the church chose to change along with culture and go where the people are. When you are wandering in the wilderness, it’s best to follow the pillar of God’s fire, rather than watch it grow dim as it moves away from you.
The Future is Big…or Small.
I believe the future of church will leave the middle and creep towards the extremes: the megachurches that offer everything to everyone, and the microchurches that offer deeper community and personal relationships (which will compete with megachurches that are multisite…that’s interesting). Our clergy will feel a pull towards one of those extremes.
As we learn the best practices from the megachurches, we would do well to also support and study these smaller communities who are refining the basics of community and conversation that leads to transformation. The Church had its start in an upper room where Jesus shared bread and cup with his friends who he knew by name: maybe there’s something there for us to remember and bring back to our consumeristic world.
Sound off:
- What are your thoughts on dinner churches or faith expressions that are primarily found in the sharing of a meal?
- What other dinner churches are in your area that you want to make note of? Have you attended and what was your experience?
Thanks for your comments!
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.
Free webinar “Children and Sacrament” Monday, Sept. 15 — 10 a.m. CT, United Methodist Board of Discipleship staff will answer questions on involving children in sacraments. Details
Hispanic/Latino/a Heritage Month, Monday, Sept. 15–Wednesday, Oct. 15 — The United Methodist Board of Discipleship shares worship resources.
Free webinar “Becoming a Praying Congregation” Tuesday, Sept. 16 — 6:30 p.m. CT, Event includes examples and ideas to help the community, small groups, individuals and families to have a deeper connection with God. Details
Free webinar “What Is Lay Servant Ministries All About?” Wednesday, Sept. 17— 6:30 p.m. CT, This focuses on the nature of Lay Servant Ministry since the name change from "Lay Speaking Ministry.” Details
Webinar “In-Person Hybrid Learning in Congregational Faith Formation,” Thursday, Sept. 18 — 7-8 p.m. ET, The Rev. Kyle Matthew Oliver will lead a discussion on how digital tools can make faith formation more accessible to congregations, including a hybrid approach that combines small groups and online activities. $10. Details
Free webinar “What’s a Methodist?” Tuesday, Sept. 23 — 6:30 p.m. CT, The class explores John Wesley’s definition of a Methodist found in his brief tract “Advice to the People Called Methodists.” Details
United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Leadership Institute, Wednesday-Friday, Sept. 24-26 — Church is in Leawood, Kansas. The keynote speaker is Len Sweet, United Methodist scholar and best-selling author. Details
Rich Church / Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry, Wednesday, Sept. 24 and again Tuesday, Oct. 14 — Both seminars will be from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CT and will feature United Methodist author and fundraiser, J. Clif Christopher. The Sept. 24 session will be at Platte Woods United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Oct. 14 session will be at Manchester United Methodist Church in St. Louis. $25. Details.
Workshop “Get Their Names,” Saturday, Sept. 27— 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET at Woodbury United Methodist Church, 577 Woodbury Road, Woodbury, New York.The Rev. Bob Farr of the Missouri Annual (regional) Conference will lead the seminar on sharing the Christian faith without anxiety. $20 per person for United Methodists. Details
Classes in the Native American Course of Study, a national school for Native American local pastors and local pastors who work in Native ministries — “Mission: Evangelism.”Monday-Friday, Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, in Shiprock, Arizona, and “Personal and Social Ethics,” Monday-Friday, Oct. 6-10 in Window Rock, New Mexico. Details or contact the Rev. Fred Shaw at fashaw@juno.com.
Deadline to apply for two discernment events for Deaconesses and Home Missioner Ministry is Wednesday, Oct. 1 — Events are Friday-Sunday, Nov. 7-9 in St. Louis andFriday-Sunday, Nov. 21-23 in Tempe, Ariz. A discernment event is an opportunity to explore a sense of call to lay ministry with a group of fellow discerners. Details
Northeastern Jurisdiction Native American Ministries Committee meeting, Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 2-5 — Event at West River Conference Center, 5100 Chalk Point Road, West River, Maryland. For details, contact Sharon Schmit at saschmit@gmail.com.
Free webinar “Focusing on the True Meaning of Christmas with Children,” Thursday, Oct. 2— 7-8 p.m. ET, ecumenical webinar shares how to teach children the true meaning Details
World Communion Sunday, Oct. 5— United Methodists observe World Communion Sunday by celebrating communion with other Christians around the world on this special Sunday. Churches are also encouraged to collect a special offering to support ethnic undergraduate and graduate students, which often enables first-generation students to attend college. To download the World Communion Sunday pastor’s kit. World Communion envelopes
2014 Wright Lectures: Practical Approaches to Emerging Ministries, Sunday-Tuesday, Oct. 12-14 — Gathering will be at Menucha Retreat and Conference Center near Portland, Ore. Keynote speakers include the Revs. Jim Walker and Jeff Eddings, co-founders of Hot Metal Bridge, an emergent church in Pittsburgh that is a joint ministry of United Methodists and Presbyterians. Details
Lake Junaluska's Choir Music Weekend, Friday-Saturday, Oct. 17-18 — Members of small- and medium-sized church choirs at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center will learn and perform eight anthems that may then be performed at participants' home churches. Details
2014 Downtown Church Network, Wednesday-Friday, Oct. 22-24 — A peer-learning event at First United Methodist Church of Arlington, Texas, aimed toward pastors and staff of churches in downtown metropolitan areas of at least 100,000 in population. Details
Wesleyan Leadership Conference on baptismal living, Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 23-25 — Lay and clergy leaders will explore baptismal living in the Wesleyan tradition at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tennessee. Details
Embracing Diversity: Developing Effective Ministries in a Multicultural World, Saturday-Monday, Oct. 25-27 — Gathering at United Methodist Church for All People, 946 Parsons Ave., Columbus, Ohio, will focus on how to embrace diverse people and appreciate diverse gifts. United Methodist Board of Global Ministries is a sponsor. Details
Free leadership retreat for women church planters, Sunday-Tuesday, Nov. 2-4 — Path 1, part of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, will hold at Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. Jane Creswell, author of "Christ-centered Coaching,” will speak. Details ____________________________
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