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Evangelism

A global prayer campaign for peace on the Korean Peninsula will occur from March 1 to Aug. 15, 2020, inviting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to say: “We Pray, Peace Now, End the War!” The campaign began Feb. 6 with a live-streamed event hosted by the World Council of Churches in Geneva, with corresponding events the same day in Washington and Seoul. Photo by Ivars Kupcis, World Council of Churches. — Foto de Ivars Kupcis, CMI.

Churches call for peace on the Korean Peninsula

The year 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The United and Korean Methodist churches will join Christians throughout the world to call for peace and reconciliation.

Editor's Picks

General Church

A delegate holds her voting device aloft as she contemplates a Feb. 26, 2019, vote during the special General Conference in St. Louis. General Conference organizers have named a think tank to consider how best to process legislation at the 2020 General Conference. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Think tank to look at GC2020 possibilities

The commission that plans General Conference has named a group to look at how delegates can process legislation “the best way possible.”

Mission and Ministry

Professor George Carew addresses students during orientation at the United Methodist University Preparatory Program campus in Brookfields, Sierra Leone, in western Freetown. The new program prepares students to retake their high school exit exams. Over 95% of Sierra Leonean students who took the 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations failed to score high enough to meet university requirements. Photo by Phileas Jusu, UM News.

United Methodist University offers path for failing students

New program prepares students in Sierra Leone to retake high school exit exams so they can qualify to enroll at universities.

Chart summarizes and compares proposals to General Conference 2020 about the future of The United Methodist Church. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Comparing plans headed to GC2020

This chart summarizes and compares proposals to General Conference 2020 about the future of The United Methodist Church. The chart does not include plans from individuals and may be updated after all legislation is published.

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Mission and Ministry

Grace Wall from Clarksbury United Methodist Church in Harmony, N.C., teaches students at New Hope Education Center how to brush and floss their teeth effectively. The primary school, run by Huruma United Methodist Church, supports orphans and other vulnerable children in the Mathare Valley slums on the eastern side of Nairobi, Kenya. Photo by Gad Maiga, UM News.

Church school offers hope in Kenyan slums

Moses Kumar discusses the denomination’s budget at the 2020 Pre-General Conference Briefing in January in Nashville, Tenn. Kumar, the top executive of the General Council on Finance and Administration, helped lead a Feb. 21 online meeting dealing with the denomination’s financial challenges. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Looking at financial impact of GC2020 plans

The top portion of an incorporation application for “The Florida Methodist Church” filed Feb. 7, 2020. Three Florida Conference cabinet members filed the papers, although two later decided to remove their names. Document from the Florida Secretary of State’s office.

Cabinet members filed papers for new church group

The Rev. Lev Shults plays a traditional horn in the Senate of the Czech Republic during the International Bible Championships. Shults is pastor of Agape United Methodist Church, a Russian-speaking church among 23 local parishes of The United Methodist Church in Czechia. Photo by Urs Schweizer, Central Conference of Central and Southern Europe.

Prague pastor goes ‘where God sends me’

Bishop Samuel J. Quire Jr. leads discussion at a meeting of the Liberia Annual Conference in Ganta. The conference approved a resolution calling for changes to the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace through Separation, one of the plans headed to the 2020 United Methodist General Conference. Photo by E Julu Swen, UM News.

Liberians want changes in separation plan

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Multimedia

Mission and Ministry

Ruth Moreno shows her brother, Lino, how to keep his hands warm as the sun rises behind them on the Santa Fe Bridge over the Rio Grande in Juárez, Mexico. They make the two-hour cross-border journey each school day to attend the United Methodist Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News. — Foto por Mike DuBose, Noticias MU.

Lydia Patterson Institute is a dream maker for young students

The United Methodist college-preparatory school is supported by the South Central Jurisdiction and many local churches and individuals provide scholarships.

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Jorge João Novo lifts a wooden pole into place to help secure an emergency tarp over his home after the roof was peeled off by Cyclone Idai in Buzi, Mozambique. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

2019: The year in UM News photos

Social Concerns

Bishop Woodie W. White (center) crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, during the 50th anniversary observance in 2015 of Bloody Sunday. With him are his wife, Kim (right), Ruby Shinhoster and Beth Clarke. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

A look back at Bloody Sunday’s 50th anniversary

Jesús, a migrant from Michoacán state in Western Mexico, tries to shield his 1-year-old daughter, Kataleya, from a cold drizzle falling at the tent encampment where they are living at the foot of the Paso del Norte Bridge in Juárez, Mexico. Michoacán is among five states in Mexico given the highest-risk “do not travel” warning by the U.S. State Department.

Summit leads United Methodists to heart of border woes

“Faithful Giving in a Time of Change,” a roundtable discussion of connectional giving in The United Methodist Church, is a video resource designed for local congregations to help explain the role of giving in the church. Panelists were (from left) Christine Dodson, the Rev. Reginald Clemons, John Pearce, the Rev. Lyssette Perez, the Rev. Dennis Shaw and panel moderator Vicki Brown. Photo by Kathleen Barry, UM News.

Faithful Giving in a Time of Change

Commentaries

Loss always comes with separation, divorce

The Rev. Jay Williams. Photo by Robert Louis Kelsey.

Seeking future liberation from past oppression

The Rev. Steve West is pastor of First United Methodist Church of Arab, Alabama. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Steve West.

Why I’m not leaving The United Methodist Church

The Rev. Beverly L. Wilkes-Null. Photo courtesy of Highland Hope United Methodist Church.

Living as United Methodists between the radical ends

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Ask The UMC

Theology and Education

Lent is a journey of preparation for following the way of Jesus. Photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications. — Le Carême est temps de préparation pour suivre les traces de Jésus. Photo de Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.

Ask The UMC: What is Lent and why does it last forty days?

Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.

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General Conference

Bishop Warner H. Brown preaches at the opening worship for the United Methodist 2016 General Conference in Portland, Ore. File photo by Maile Bradfield, UM News.

Ask The UMC: How are General Conference delegates chosen?

Mission and Ministry

The Adoration of the Magi tapestry dating from 1894 from the Manchester Metropolitan University, England. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Ask The UMC: How do United Methodists understand Epiphany ?

Theology and Education

Green is the color for the Season after Epiphany. Readings during this season offer two distinct paths to follow. Photo by Susanne Nilsson, Flickr, Creative Commons.

Ask The UMC: What is the purpose of the Season after Epiphany?

Stained glass window featuring Charles Wesley from Grace United Methodist Church in Atlanta, part of the United Methodist Church Global Mission Center. Photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.

Ask The UMC: Did Charles Wesley write Christmas hymns?

Categories

The Rev. John Wesley Z. Kurewa helps lead Sunday worship during the 25th anniversary celebration for Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in March 2017. Kurewa, the United Methodist institution's founding vice chancellor, died Feb. 15 in Harare, Zimbabwe. He was 87. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Africa University founding father dies at 87

The Rev. Frances Helen Foley Guest speaks at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., after receiving a distinguished alumni award in June 2002. The three and a half years she spent in a Japanese prison camp with her missionary parents helped shape her ministry. File photo by Kenneth J. Guest.

For this pastor, storytelling became a ministry

The Rev. Donald “Bud” Heckman, accused of sexual misconduct and abuse, reached a resolution with the West Ohio Conference in which he retired under complaint. Young United Methodist clergywomen have circulated an open letter asking the judicial process be reopened. Photo courtesy of the Religion Communicators Council.

Conference urged to reopen misconduct case

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The Rev. Oscar Nyasha Mukahanana, Harare East District superintendent, distributes Holy Communion to children and others at Maximum Salvation United Methodist Church in Manresa, Zimbabwe. The church, near Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, serves inmates, officers and their families. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Zimbabwe area plants church for prisoners, officers

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is Jan. 18-25. This year’s theme, selected by representatives from Christian churches in Malta, is “They Showed Us Unusual Kindness.” Poster image courtesy of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute.

Christians should practice ‘unusual kindness’

Elasto Musakanda (right), headmaster at Pagejo Rarubi Primary School, shares a laugh with students and staff at Pagejo Rarubi Farm in rural Zimbabwe. The United Methodist church established on the property has been paying school fees for 20 pupils annually and providing supplies and other support, he said. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Farm churches spread Gospel in rural communities

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Social Concerns

Helene Bataku (in orange dress), a member of Mwambangu United Methodist Church in Fizi, has learned to read and write at a new vocational center led by The United Methodist Church in Fizi, Congo. She said the center offers women new opportunities and a chance to catch up to their peers. Photo by Philippe Kituka Lolonga, UM News.

Church helps train marginalized women, youth

The Rev. Solomon Rogers speaks to a crowd gathered for a special handoff ceremony Jan. 15 in western Freetown, Sierra Leone. The event marks the end of a seven-year land dispute between The United Methodist Church’s Sierra Leone Conference and neighboring Masantigie community. Photo by Phileas Jusu, UM News.

Sierra Leone church celebrates end of land dispute

Bishop Rodolfo A. Juan (center) and the Rev. Rubynell Estrella lead a candlelight prayer service at United Methodist Church in Manila for Lumad farmers caught in a violent protest at the Spottswood United Methodist Church in April 2016. United Methodist leaders have condemned a recent raid on a mission center that houses 500 displaced Lumad in Mindanao, Philippines. File photo courtesy of Gladys P. Mangiduyos, UM News.

Filipino United Methodists defend Lumad sanctuary

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Mission and Ministry

Jecinta Nairesea, 12, holds her 2-year-old daughter, Dorcus Nchorira, outside Trinity United Methodist Church in Gilgil, Kenya. The young mother was among those who attended the church’s youth camp in December. Jecinta, who was forced to marry at age 9, now attends Trinity Mission Girls High School. Photo by Faith Wanjiru, UM News.

Church in Kenya fights against female genital mutilation

The Rev. Danson Maganga from Tanzania takes notes during a United Methodist e-Academy weeklong training session in Nairobi, Kenya. The goal of the new e-learning program is to equip people for ordained and lay leadership in rural communities. Photo by Gad Maiga, UM News.

Theological e-Academy is ‘game changer’ in East Africa

The Rev. Henry Luckson Chareka (left) congratulates guest of honor Mwazvita Patricia Katsidzira-Madondo, during the launch of United Methodist Barrington Christian School in Harare, Zimbabwe. Joyce Chikuni (center), board chairperson of the school, watches. The school will be the first private United Methodist institution in the urban part of Harare and the first to be run by United Methodist women. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

United Methodist women plan private school in Harare

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A woman holds an offering plate during a service at Boise United Methodist Church in Boise, Idaho. United Methodist collection rates in 2019 dipped below recent years, but the drop wasn’t as steep as initially projected. Photo courtesy of the Marketing Department, United Methodist Communications.

Church giving overcomes worst fears

United Methodist Bishops Rodolfo A. Juan (left), Ciriaco Q. Francisco (center) and Pedro M. Torio Jr. preside over a session of the Philippines Annual Conference Cavite, meeting in Tagaytay City, Philippines. The conference endorsed and sent to the 2020 General Conference legislation for the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation and for the Christmas Covenant, two key proposals for the future of The United Methodist Church. Photo courtesy of the United Methodist Youth Fellowship of Philippines Annual Conference, Cavite.

Conference acts on protocol, Christmas Covenant

Members of the Michigan Conference vote on legislation in June 2019. The same conference has been called to a special session on March 7 to consider whether legislation for the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation will be presented to the 2020 General Conference in May. File photo by Jonathan Trites, Michigan Conference Communications.

Conferences to vote on forwarding protocol legislation

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