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General Conference
Video image of Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball, courtesy of the West Virginia Conference.
Video image of Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball, courtesy of the West Virginia Conference.

Seeing a Way Forward: Bishop Steiner Ball
West Virginia Conference’s Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball talks about the Way Forward process and offers brief overviews of the three plans being considered by the 2019 special General Conference.

Editor's Picks

The Revs. Joel Hortiales (center, in blue blazer) and David Farley (to Hortiales' right) join parishioners of the Border Church in Tijuana, Mexico, as they lift their arms skyward beneath the fence that marks the border with the U.S.

God’s grace flows freely over wall between nations
The Methodist Church of Mexico and The United Methodist Church in the U.S. share communion each Sunday on beach divided by a border wall.
General Conference
The Rules Committee of the Commission on General Conference discusses plans for one legislative committee at the 2019 special session. From left are Stephanie Henry, chair of the Rules Committee; commission members Audun Westad and Stanislas Kassongo, and translator Isabelle Berger. The commission met Oct. Oct. 3-5 at Epworth by the Sea in St. Simons, Ga. Photo by Heather Hahn, UMNS.

Plan approved for GC2019 decision-making
The Commission on General Conference has decided on a process to help delegates do the legislative work together.
Human Rights
Pianist Anna Petrova (second from left) and Molly Carr (right), perform during a concert in New York to mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and highlight their “Novel Voices” project. Photo by Ramon Leonardo Cabrera/GFDD.

Pianist, violist seek out ‘Novel Voices’
United Methodist connections help musical duo realize a project that helps refugees and highlight human rights at U.N.-related concert.

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Disaster Relief
Lynn Haven United Methodist Church in Panama City, Fla., lost the roof over its sanctuary and its back wall in the winds of Hurricane Michael. Photo courtesy of Lynn Haven United Methodist Church.

United Methodists gear up for Michael relief
Mission and Ministry
Parents attend a dedication ceremony for a new public school in the Tonglaywein Community in Nimba County, Liberia. Photo by E Julu Swen, UMNS.

Church in Liberia renovates public school in rural village
Judicial Council
Members of the 2016-2020 Judicial Council. (From left) Front row: Deanell Reece Tacha, N. Oswald Tweh Sr., the Rev. Luan-Vu Tran. Back row: Lydia Romão Gulele, Ruben T. Reyes, the Rev. Øyvind Helliesen, the Rev. Dennis Blackwell, and the Rev. J. Kabamba Kiboko. (Not pictured, Beth Capen) Photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications

Top court plays decision-making role
General Conference
Alabama-West Florida Bishop David Graves answered questions in the packed sanctuary at First United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Ala. The gathering was one of many held in churches around the globe to hear the three main legislative options that emerged for special General Conference 2019. Photo by Luke Lucas, AWF Communications Specialist.

Big crowds for meetings on denomination’s future
Faith Sharing
A gathering at the Asia Upper Room held in Seoul, South Korea, celebrated the 80th anniversary of the ministry and provided training for today’s devotional editors. Photo by Thomas Kim, UMNS.

Upper Room celebrates 80 years in Asia
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Multimedia

Disaster Relief
Construction work on a building in Hatíllo, Puerto Rico, is part of efforts by UMCOR to rebuild and renew after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September of 2017. Photo by Michelle Maldonado, United Methodist Communications.
Construction work on a building in Hatíllo, Puerto Rico, is part of efforts by UMCOR to rebuild and renew after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September of 2017. Photo by Michelle Maldonado, United Methodist Communications.

Video: Puerto Rican bishop gives thanks to UMCOR
In the year since Hurricane Maria swept across Puerto Rico, UMCOR has contributed more than $20 million to help “Renew, Rebuild and Reconstruct.”

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Immigration
Miriam Magdalena Verdugo Lopez plays with her daughter Maria, 2, at the Movimiento Juventud 2000 shelter for migrants in Tijuana, Mexico.

Struggling families find temporary shelter in small tents
Immigration
U.S. Border Patrol agents run down a dirt road amid swirling dust stirred up by a helicopter during a search for people who had crossed into the United States illegally and were hiding in heavily wooded areas and sugar cane fields near McAllen, Texas. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Paths collide for immigrants, border agents
Congregations
The Rev. Alan Ashworth (right) visits with Appalachian Trail thru-hikers at a free hiker feed sponsored by New Hope Union United Methodist Church near Bastian, Va. Volunteers set up a temporary shelter where the trail crosses a gravel parking area and offered hot sandwiches, salads and cold drinks to weary hikers. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Small churches, big ministry
Global Health
Ernest Tokpah recalls the toll Ebola took on his family during 2015 and 2016 in Ganta, Liberia. "Ganta was on fire because of the Ebola," he said. "We stopped eating together, we stopped shaking hands, and people practically stopped talking to each other.” Tokpah, a faculty member at Ganta United Methodist School, is raising four children left orphaned when his sister and her husband died of the disease. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Church institutions continue to aid post-Ebola Liberia
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Commentaries

Lonnie D. Brooks Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Commentary: Evaluating the GC2019 organizational plan
The Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr. Photo courtesy of Wesley Theological Seminary.

Commentary: Should be hard to leave denomination
The Rev. Thomas E. Bowsher.

Commentary: Officially or unofficially, church will separate
Simon Mafunda is the Zimbabwe East Conference lay leader, a two-time General Conference delegate and a member of the Africa Initiative. Photo by Evelyn Chikwana, UMNS.

Commentary: African delegates informed, ready for GC2019
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Ask The UMC

General Conference
Overhead view of the 1976 General Conference. Photo by John C. Goodwin, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Overhead view of the 1976 General Conference. Photo by John C. Goodwin, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Ask The UMC: How often has there been a special called General Conference?

Since The United Methodist Church formed in 1968, only one special session of General Conference has been held outside of the normal four-year schedule.

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Mission and Ministry
Young adults pass the collection plate during the contemporary worship at McKendree United Methodist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga. 2016 file photo by Kathleen Barry, UMNS.

Ask The UMC: What does The United Methodist Church teach about tithing?
Theology and Education
Painting of Jesus and his Disciples on the Sea of Galilee dated 1833 by Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Oesterley courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. German art historian, painter and university teacher. Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.

Ask The UMC: What is the difference between an apostle and a disciple?
Theology and Education
The Rev. Jerome R. DeVine (left, rear) makes the sign of the cross on the Rev. Kyland Dobbins during a reaffirmation of baptism at Facing the Future 2018, an event for clergy in cross-racial/cross-cultural appointments, in Newark, N.J. DeVine described the service as “both a remembering of how we are claimed by God's grace in baptism as well as the ongoing gift of grace that heals and strengthens us in the midst of the storms of life and ministry.”

Ask The UMC: Do United Methodists make the sign of the cross?
Church History
A view of Kingswood School in England. Neil Phillips Photography, courtesy of Kingswood School.

Ask The UMC: What was the first school started by Methodists?
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Categories

Local Church
Kupakwashe Kapiso, 14, is one of the beneficiaries of a new scholarship program for orphans in the Harare West District. The money paid for her school fees and uniform. Photo by Chenayi Kumuterera.

Scholarship program lifts up Zimbabwe orphans
The Rev. Nicole Anderson is congratulated after being commissioned as a Dakotas Conference provisional elder. Anderson, 28, now serves as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Vermillion, South Dakota. The latest Lewis Center for Church Leadership study on clergy age trends in the denomination shows a three-year decline in young women elders. Photo courtesy of the Dakotas Conference.

Young clergy still in short supply

Students work in the new computer lab at Nyamidzi Secondary School in rural Zimbabwe. The lab was created through collaboration between The United Methodist Church and the Zimbabwean government. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UMNS.

Norwegian partnership benefits rural Zimbabwe education
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Evangelism
Children dance the Congolese rumba during the closing ceremony for a two-week United Methodist summer camp in Bukavu, Congo, intended to help strengthen their faith. Photo by Philippe Kituka Lolonga.

Camp in Congo helps kids grow in their faith
The Rev. Anna Shammas shares the story of how an invitation to worship led to the formation of the Arabic-Speaking United Methodist Church in Aarau, Switzerland. Photo by Annette Spence, UMNS.

Arabic-speaking Swiss church provides home for migrants
Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa welcomes people to a worship service for African delegates and guests during the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland, Ore. File photo by Kathleen Barry, UMNS.

Bishop Nhiwatiwa earns many nicknames
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Social Concerns
Maria Cândida Teixeira (left), the Angolan minister of education, says “more than four million Angolans between the ages of 15 and 35 still do not know how to read or write.” She spoke in Luanda during the signing of an agreement between the ministry of education and The United Methodist Church in Angola to improve literacy. Photo by Orlando da Cruz, UMNS.

United Methodists fight illiteracy in Angola
Maria Chavalan Sut is living at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Charlottesville, Va., to avoid being deported to Guatemala. Photo by Richard Lord, UMNS.

Church offers sanctuary to woman facing deportation
The Rules Committee of the Commission on General Conference discusses plans for one legislative committee at the 2019 special session. From left are Stephanie Henry, chair of the Rules Committee; commission members Audun Westad and Stanislas Kassongo, and translator Isabelle Berger. The commission met Oct. Oct. 3-5 at Epworth by the Sea in St. Simons, Ga. Photo by Heather Hahn, UMNS.

Plan approved for GC2019 decision-making
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Mission and Ministry
The Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr. Photo courtesy of Wesley Theological Seminary.

Commentary: Should be hard to leave denomination
Some 500 children enjoy a weekly lunch following Sunday worship at Central United Methodist Church in Quessua, Angola. Photo by the Rev. Gustavo Vasquez, UMNS.

Cuban missionaries work on reviving Angola mission
Poorly nourished children receive nutritional supplements at the United Methodist Irambo Health Center in Bukavu, Congo. The program receives support from the Abundant Health program of the denomination’s Board of Global Ministries. Photo by Philippe Kituka Lolonga.

United Methodist hospitals feed malnourished children
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General Church
Lonnie D. Brooks Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Commentary: Evaluating the GC2019 organizational plan
Bishop John Yambasu (right) is congratulated by Ebun James Dekam (center) and the Rev. Bob Williams after Yambasu was elected president of the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone for a second term during the council’s conference in Kabala, Sierra Leone. Dekam is general secretary of the council and Williams is a United Methodist pastor. Photo by Phileas Jusu, UMNS.

Bishop re-elected as head of Sierra Leone Council of Churches
Bishop John Yambasu gives the sermon during morning worship May 19 at the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland, Ore. File photo by Paul Jeffrey, UMNS.

Seeing a Way Forward: Bishop Yambasu
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