United Methodist News Service

Top Story

Sara Hotchkiss, General Conference business manager, speaks to the Commission on General Conference during its meeting at First United Methodist Church in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Heather Hahn, UM News. — Photo by Heather Hahn, UM News

What to expect at General Conference 2020

Organizers are making some changes they hope will address issues arising from the 2019 General Conference.

General Church

A group of centrist, progressive and traditionalist church leaders have come up with a plan for The United Methodist Church to separate amicably into two or more denominations. It's called the Indianapolis Plan, after where the group met. Photo by William Sturgell, courtesy of Pixabay; graphic by UM News.

Group drafts separation plan for denomination

Citing irreconcilable differences over homosexuality, a theologically diverse team of 12 envisions ʻnew expressions’ of United Methodism in a plan for the church’s future.

Mission and Ministry

Dr. Albert Akhidenor treats a patient during a training program for community health workers in Bambur, Nigeria. Akhidenor is founder and CEO of the Community Oral Health Initiative, a nonprofit that aims to improve oral health in communities that don’t have access to dental care. Photo by Richard Fidelis, UM News.

Church helps bring dental care to remote villages in Nigeria

The United Methodist Church in Nigeria is training community health workers to perform urgent-care dentistry.

Annual Conferences

United Methodist conference reports. Find out what’s happening across the connection. Read official filings of annual and central conference meetings from around the world. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News; globe by Mediengestalter courtesy of Pixabay.

United Methodist conference reports

Find out what’s happening across the connection. Read official filings of annual conference meetings from around the world.

Latest

Pastor Dorlimar Lebrón (left) prays with two young people, wrapped in the same type of blankets that immigrants are issued at U.S. immigration detention centers, during the meeting of The United Methodist Church’s Hispanic-Latino caucus in Philadelphia. Photo by Michelle Maldonado, UMCOM.

MARCHA: Hispanic-Latino voice needed at GC2020

In celebration of National Indigenous Peoples Day in the Philippines, Knox United Methodist Church provided medical attention and supplies to the Aetas, indigenous peoples who live in isolated mountainous parts of Luzon. Photo courtesy of Emil Dyangco.

Filipino church connects with indigenous peoples

Social Concerns

The Rev. Anna Blaedel (at microphone) speaks during the Iowa Annual Conference in June 2016. Blaedel is facing a church trial after being charged under the ban against ordination of a “self-avowed practicing homosexual.” File photo by Arthur McClanahan, Iowa Conference.

Iowa clergyperson to face trial

General Conference

Commission on General Conference members and staff sing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” during opening worship at their meeting at First United Methodist Church in Lexington, Ky. The group decided to use a well-known Bible verse as the 2020 General Conference theme. Photo by Heather Hahn, UM News.

Biblical comparison shapes GC2020 theme

Betty Spiwe Katiyo of Zimbabwe delivers one of three Laity Addresses to the April 25 session of the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Florida. Katiyo, a longtime lay leader in The United Methodist Church, died suddenly Aug. 10 after leaving the Commission on General Conference meeting in Lexington, Ky. File photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Zimbabwe lay leader dies at 63

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Multimedia

Rachael Porter and the Rev. David Johnston adopted two children who came from a home with opioid addiction. Johnston serves as pastor of Concord United Methodist Church in Athens, W.Va. — Foto Mike DuBose, Noticias MU.

Clergy embrace becoming foster parents

West Virginia has one of the highest rates in the nation of children removed from homes due to drug abuse, and one of the lowest rates of new homes for them. Clergy felt called to respond.

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Kate Rhodes (left) leads students from House of the Carpenter back from a field trip on Wheeling Island in Wheeling, W.Va. Rhodes was serving as youth coordinator for the program's Pre-Work Camp, which teaches basic employment skills to middle school students. House of the Carpenter is a mission project of The United Methodist Church's West Virginia Conference.

Ministries help children affected by addiction

Wayne Worth (right) embraces Roger outside his home in Fisher, W.Va. Worth, a member of United Methodist Temple in Clarksburg, was passing out flyers containing information about local resources for anyone struggling with addiction, when he met Roger.

Outreach ministry for addiction is simple, effective

Disaster Relief

Isabel João (right) and Maria Lidia António salvage what they can of their corn crop, which was killed before it matured when their field was flooded by Cyclone Idai in Buzi, Mozambique. “Hunger is the number one problem now,” Joao said. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

After the cyclone, faith abides

The Rev. Paula Napier lost her 32-year-old son, Lincoln Nutter, to a drug overdose in June 2018. Napier, who pastors Canaan United Methodist Church in Charleston, W.Va., says she lives in the midst of the opioid crisis. “I think people need to know it hits everybody,” she said.

Pastors cope with sons’ overdose deaths

Commentaries

Seeing ‘new face’ of Christian church in China

Photo of The Rev. William B. Lawrence by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.

Commission on General Conference added to confusion

The Rev. Michael Beck. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Michael Beck.

United Methodists are question-mark people

The Rev. Laceye C. Warner is Associate Dean for Wesleyan Engagement and the Royce and Jane Reynolds Associate Professor of the Practice of Evangelism and Methodist Studies at Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. Photo by Les Todd.

John Wesley reminds us that grace is available to all

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Ask The UMC

General Conference

Spare voting machines rest on a table at the 2019 United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Ask The UMC: How are decisions made at General Conference?

General Conference is the highest legislative body in The United Methodist Church. It usually convenes once every four years to determine the denomination’s future direction.

More

Theology and Education

Clockwise from top left: Detail from Butyka Mausoleum by Globetrotter19, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; stained glass window by Kathleen Barry, UM News; Bible and cross by Mike DuBose, UMNS; detail of aanchor and two fish courtesy of Catacombe Domitilla; the Rev. George Miller by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Ask The UMC: Why do missionaries wear an anchor cross?

World map, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Ask The UMC: Is The UMC in Canada, Australia, Latin America, Asia?

Theology and Education

Eucharist is shared during the morning prayer held in the chapel of Sarum College during the 2016 Wesley Pilgrimage in England. Photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.

Ask The UMC: Is communion simply a ritual of remembrance?

Theology and Education

The Christian year includes the central seasons of Christmas and Easter followed by Ordinary Time. The colors associated with the different seasons express visually what is happening in the life of the church. Each color symbolizes the nature of the festival being celebrated. Graphic by Laurens Glass, United Methodist Communications.

Ask The UMC: What is Ordinary Time?

Categories

Children at the Nyadire Mission’s Home of Hope orphanage in Mutoko, Zimbabwe, pose with new bikes provided by Dutilh United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh. Photo by Mary Beth Zollars.

Pittsburgh preschoolers help orphans in Zimbabwe

The Rev. F. Thomas Trotter, former head of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, died July 26 at the age of 93. Undated file photograph courtesy of Claremont School of Theology.

Trotter, education champion, dies at 93

This is Burley Middle School in Charlottesville, Va., where the nondenominational church Mission Charlottesville meets on Sundays. UM News photo.

New Charlottesville church draws suspicions

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Bishop Gabriel Yemba Unda (center) helps rededicate the Yanda village United Methodist church, south of Kindu, Congo. Some 12 churches in the area have been renovated with more weatherproof materials with help from Martin (Tenn.) First United Methodist Church in the U.S. Photo by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, UM News.

Rebuilding straw churches in eastern Congo

The Rev. Vienna Mutezo (in clerical collar) celebrates an evangelism crusade with United Methodist women in Chiredzi Town, Zimbabwe. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Evangelism crusades enrich spiritual lives in Zimbabwe

The Rev. Alan Masimba Gurupira (center), officiates a ceremony to present motorbikes to five pastors of the Mutasa Nyanga District of Zimbabwe on July 20. Listening are the Rev. Tafadzwa Musona (left, in red), district superintendent; and the Rev. Duncan Charwadza (right, behind bike), Connectional Ministries director and Deputy Administrative Assistant to the Bishop. The motorbikes were a gift from Mutasa Nyanga Homelink, a group of church members originally from the district, who pool their resources to support the pastors. Photo by Eveline Chikwanah, UM News.

Motorbikes ease travel for rural pastors in Zimbabwe

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Social Concerns

Amber Ruiz and Jazmyn Blake embrace during a vigil a day after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 4. Photo by Callaghan O'Hare, Reuters.

Mass shootings prompt prayer, action

Bishops Cynthia Moore-Koikoi (left) of the Western Pennsylvania Conference and Eben K. Nhiwatiwa of the Zimbabwe Area celebrate the signing of a continuing partnership covenant between the two areas during the 2019 Laity Academy at Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Photo by Eveline Chikwanah, UM News.

Zimbabwe, Western Pennsylvania partnership continues

A definition of the initials LGBTQ adapted from dictionary.com. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Scholars gather to champion LGBTQ inclusion

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Mission and Ministry

The Rev. Jeff Allen walks through the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston. Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, says it's important for the faith community to be heard in matters of public policy.

Pastors push to help addict offenders rejoin society

A student at the United Methodist sewing center in Kamina, Congo, practices what she has learned from teacher Ilunga Nday Lebon (rear). Until recently, clerical shirts, United Methodist Women blouses and altar cloths were ordered from Lubumbashi, 370 miles from Kamina. Today, the items are sewn locally, saving time and money. Photo by Betty Kazadi Musau, UM News.

Sewing center nurtures girls, women in Congo

Susanne Scholz (left) and the Rev. Billy Abraham, both professors at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, are ideological adversaries and unlikely friends. Photo by Hillsman Stuart Jackson, © Southern Methodist University.

Seminary professors are ideological adversaries, unlikely friends

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Bishop Rodolfo Alfonso “Rudy” Juan, who leads the Davao Area in the southern Philippines, preaches at the Commission on General Conference meeting in Lexington, Ky. Juan expressed disappointment in the decision not to hold the 2024 General Conference in the Philippines. Photo by Heather Hahn, UM News.

Plans canceled for GC2024 in Philippines

Bishops Thomas J. Bickerton (center) and Gregory V. Palmer (right) confer with colleagues on legislative procedures during the 2019 United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis. Bickerton is the Council of Bishops representative on the Commission on General Conference. The Commission on General Conference — meeting behind closed doors — reviewed an investigation that found evidence of four ineligible people casting votes using the credentials of delegates who were not present. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Improper voting at GC2019 voids key vote

Ancient redwood trees tower above Redwood National and State Parks near Orick, Calif., in 2017. The United Methodist Church’s efforts to address climate concerns extends to its pension and benefits programs. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Wespath using financial clout for climate change

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