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United Methodist Bishop LaTrelle Easterling (right) offers a prayer during an interfaith vigil near the White House on June 3. At left is Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. United Methodist conferences are confronting the sin of racism through prayers, calls for justice and education on white supremacy. File photo by Melissa Lauber, Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Taking concrete steps to move against racism

United Methodist conferences are confronting the sin of racism through prayers, calls for justice and education on white supremacy.

Editor's Picks

Mission and Ministry

A nurse at Lokolé United Methodist Hospital in Kindu, Congo, returns a child to his mother after a routine immunization session. The United Methodist Church’s hospitals and clinics are helping vaccinate thousands of children each year in the country. Photo by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, UM News.

Church celebrates end of measles, Ebola outbreaks in Congo

United Methodist health centers in remote areas were key in helping to immunize children and end a measles epidemic that killed more than 7,000.

Mission and Ministry

What once was the First United Methodist Church in North Adams, Mass., is now the Berkshire Art Museum. The Rev. Thomas Frank writes about the transition in his new book “Historic Houses of Worship in Peril.” Photo courtesy of the Berkshire Art Museum.

A manifesto for saving old church buildings

The Rev. Thomas Frank, United Methodist polity expert, is the author of the new book “Historic Houses of Worship in Peril.”

Social Concerns

United Methodist Bishop LaTrelle Easterling speaks at the virtual Inclusiveness Conference, organized by the United Methodist Association of Retired Clergy. The leader of the Baltimore-Washington Conference called on United Methodists not to back down from their commitment to dismantle racism. Photo by the Rev. Valerie L. Jackson, one of the event’s moderators.

Planning for a more inclusive church

A United Methodist conference focused on church efforts to dismantle racism, welcome LGBTQ people and cross international boundaries.

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General Church

An offering plate is passed down the pew at Cathedral of the Rockies, a United Methodist church in Boise, Idaho. The General Council on Finance and Administration board surveyed U.S. conference treasurers to find out what impact potential church disaffiliations and church closures will have on the apportionment formula over the next four years. 2018 file photo by Mary Kienzle, United Methodist Communications.

Estimating financial impact of church exits

Mission and Ministry

Bishop Rodolfo A. Juan (in red stole) and a team of United Methodists pray over generators for the Bicol Philippines Conference. The generators from United Methodist Communications are being loaned to churches to provide free charging to communities affected by a series of powerful typhoons in the Philippines. Photo by Jerome Mercado.

United Methodists rally to help typhoon survivors

Evangelism

The Rev. George E. Ogle (center) in an archived July 4, 1971 photo in front of the Soongeui Methodist Church in Incheon, Korea, where he was a clergy member. Next to Ogle is the Rev. Ho-moon Lee (elected as a bishop of the Korean Methodist Church.) File photo courtesy of Soongeui Methodist Church in Incheon, Korea.

Former missionary to South Korea dies at 91

Local Church

The Rev. William Bobby McClain speaks during the 2019 meeting of Black Methodists for Church Renewal in Atlanta. McClain, an original board member of the church's African-American caucus and professor emeritus at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, died Nov. 18. He was 82. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

McClain, theologian and civil rights leader, dies at 82

Mission and Ministry

Wampanoag leader Ousamequin (left) and Plymouth Colony Gov. John Carver are depicted smoking a peace pipe as they worked out a treaty of peace and mutual protection on March 22, 1621. The U.S. Thanksgiving Day tradition has mythologized the relationship between the Wampanoag and the English settlers, but the harsher realities provide vital lessons for United Methodists today. Image from the California State Library’s Sutro Library, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The making of Thanksgiving in the US

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Multimedia

Global Health

Women carry water as the sun rises at Njenjete village near Madisi, Malawi. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

‘Water is Life’ chronicles global struggle for clean water

More than 750 million people around the world lack reliable water access. Three years in the making, photographer Mike DuBose and reporter Kathy L. Gilbert document the church's efforts to provide clean water to rural Africa in a special photo feature.

Mission and Ministry