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Bishop Ough announced a plan a General Conference 2016. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, United Methodist Communications. — The Commission on a Way Forward was formed to assist the bishops in leading our church through our divide over homosexuality.

Seeing a Way Forward: Bishop Bruce Ough

Dakotas-Minnesota Area Bishop Bruce Ough was president of the Council of Bishops during the 2016 General Conference that authorized the Commission on a Way Forward. He discusses the commission’s work and his hopes for the upcoming special 2019 General Conference.

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General Church

The Rev. Brian McLaren urges churches to align around a common objective during the 50th anniversary gathering of Christians Engaged in Faith Formation in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo by the Rev. Arthur McClanahan.

McLaren urges churches to get in alignment

Churches face major challenges and must rethink everything from scratch, author says.

Evangelism

Church in Nigeria sees membership boom

As the country’s population approaches 200 million, church leaders focus on evangelism; envision 18 percent annual growth in next 12 years.

Mission and Ministry

The Rev. Chebon Kernell walks through the sanctuary at Grace United Methodist Church in Atlanta offering incense during the closing worship service for Global Ministries. Photo by Hector Amador.

Expanding partnerships with Native Americans

The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries uses its fall meeting to remember history and renew commitments with Native peoples.

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Social Concerns

Koreans from both North and South Korea and American Koreans join together in singing a 600- year-old Korean folk song, "Arirang," about love and reuniting during 70th anniversary events of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. At the "Roundtable for Peace on the Korean Peninsula," a Nov. 9-11 event in Atlanta hosted by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, Methodist and ecumenical leaders will discuss the best ways to help secure the peace. Photo by Albin Hillert, WCC.

Building momentum for peace in Korea

General Agencies

The Rev. Junius B. Dotson, top executive of Discipleship Ministries, lays out his agency’s plans to help United Methodists reach people for Jesus. He addressed his agency’s board in March 2017 in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Heather Hahn, UMNS.

Discipleship Ministries restructures

Poverty

Jeru Barnabas is one of 800 women who received microfinance loans through the Empower Her project, a ministry of The United Methodist Church in Nigeria. Photo by the Rev. Ande Emmanuel.

Empowering Nigerian women through microloans

Immigration

People living on the street, many of them migrants, pray during a worship service and dinner provided by El Divino Redentor Methodist Church at Mariachi Plaza in Mexicali, Mexico.

Love of Christ extends to immigrants living on street

Human Sexuality

In a skit for Do No Harm 2018, Paul Ballard plays "Pastor John" and the Rev. Sally Bevill plays "Sally," two fictional characters whose counseling session crosses into romance. Ballard and Bevill joined others from the Mississippi Conference in staging the short drama, aimed at prompting discussion about sexual misconduct in the church. Do No Harm is The United Methodist Church's every-few-years sexual ethics summit, and this year's was held in San Antonio. Photo by Sam Hodges, UMNS.

Timing right for sexual ethics summit

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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.

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.”

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

Commentaries

Commentary: Evaluating the GC2019 organizational plan

Commentary: Should be hard to leave denomination

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

Ask The UMC

Church History

(Left to right) Central United Methodist Church in Luanda, Angola, photo by Mike DuBose; food distribution site for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Dagami, Philippines, photo by Mike DuBose; the Rev. Shalom Agtarap, photo by Paul Jeffrey; stained glass cross and flame, photo by Kathleen Barry. — Photos by Mike DuBose, Paul Jeffrey and Kathleen Barry, UMNS.

Ask The UMC: Has The United Methodist Church always had an official symbol like the cross and flame?

The official insignia of The United Methodist Church has been the Cross and Flame since its founding in 1968. The symbols and seals for other predecessor denominations were generally varied in form and use.

General Conference