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Theology and Education
Claudine Migisha (right) receives congratulations from Wehnam Dabale, upon her graduation from Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Migisha, from Goma, Congo, was part of the United Methodist-related school's 25th graduating class. Dabale is the university's international student advisor. Photo courtesy of Africa University.
Claudine Migisha (right) receives congratulations from Wehnam Dabale, upon her graduation from Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Migisha, from Goma, Congo, was part of the United Methodist-related school's 25th graduating class. Dabale is the university's international student advisor. Photo courtesy of Africa University.

526 Africa University graduates in 2019 class
New graduates of the United Methodist university come from 22 African countries, but share a passion for change.

Editor's Picks

Local Church
Abuja Area 1 United Methodist Church in Abuja, Nigeria, was started 10 years ago and is still under construction. Photo by E Julu Swen, UM News.

Nigerian church faces fine, possible demolition
Abuja 1 United Methodist Church is the church’s major presence in the Nigerian capital, but it continues to struggle financially.
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.
Disaster Relief
Members of McKinley United Methodist Church work with Dayton Young Black Professionals to clean-up from recent tornado damage in Dayton, Ohio. Photo by the Rev. Peter Edward Matthews.

Ramping up response to US spring disasters
From the local to conference level, floods and tornadoes have kept United Methodists busy in a record-setting season.

Latest

General Conference
Delegates Jorge Lockward and the Rev. Beth Ann Cook embrace during the closing moments of the 2019 United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis. The two had previously spoken on opposite sides in a debate over possible church exit plans. U.S. conferences are calculating how much a church must pay if it leaves under legislation General Conference approved. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Exiting congregations face hefty price tag
Social Concerns
Salome Mudiwa, age 19, is a first-year student at Bindura University of Science Education. She is studying natural resources in Bindura, Zimbabwe. Photo by the Rev. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, UM News.

Rural girls face challenges at city universities
Social Concerns
Volunteers remove a traditional paramilitary mural from a wall in in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2003 to make way for a new mural that will honor both Catholic and Protestant heroes from the two World Wars. “Brexit” — Britain’s process of withdrawing from the 28-member European Union — is raising concerns about re-imposing hard borders on the island of Ireland. File photo by Kathleen LaCamera.

Brexit threatens longtime peace in Northern Ireland
Central Conferences
The Rev. John Pena Auta (foreground), provost of Banyan Theological Seminary, works on a computer in the new communications center in Jalingo, Nigeria. Seated next to him is Dan Krause, top staff executive of United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn. In the background are Tafadzwa Mudambanuki (left) from United Methodist Communications and Bishop John Wesley Yohanna of the Nigeria Episcopal Area. Photo by Danny Mai, United Methodist Communications.

New communication center aids learning in Nigeria
Local Church
The Rev. Schubert Ogden, a longtime professor at Perkins School of Theology, died June 6 in Louisville, Colorado, near Boulder and Denver. He was 91. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Theologian Ogden pushed himself and his students
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Multimedia

Global Health
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.
Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News

Ministries help children affected by addiction
Children in addicted households are in danger of falling into the same cycle without support. One devoted mentor can make a world of difference.

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Evangelism
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
Global Health
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
Global Health
Andy, a recovering addict, gets a smooch from guard dog Tundra while feeding chickens at Brookside Farm, part of the Jacob's Ladder rehabilitation program in Aurora, W.Va.

Churches walk with addicts on recovery journey
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Commentaries

The Rev. In-Sook Hwang. Photo courtesy of Rev. Hwang.

Achieving inclusion: Break barriers, build bridges
The Rev. Kathleen LaCamera. Photo by Chris Loughlin.

Son's vote for peace set his father's killers free
The Rev. Christopher Momany. Photo by Hollie Smith, Adrian College

Live tomorrow's life today
The Rev. Melissa Meyers. Photo by Moriah Safford.

Remembering Rachel Held Evans
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Ask The UMC

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.
Graphic by Laurens Glass, United Methodist Communications

Ask The UMC: What is Ordinary Time?
The Christian year includes the central seasons of Christmas and Easter followed by Ordinary Time.

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Theology and Education
John Wesley portrait from the U.S. Library of Congress, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (altered from original)

Ask The UMC: Are we saved if accepting God's grace happens gradually and not in one specific moment?
Theology and Education
Public domain image from the National Child Labor Committee collection by Lewis Wickes-Hine, courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Ask The UMC: Why do we have Social Principles? Where did they come from?
General Conference
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

Ask The UMC: What did the Judicial Council decide about the Traditional Plan?
Theology and Education
Claudia Teli N'guessan sings during worship at Temple Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Man, Côte d'Ivoire, in this 2015 file photo. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Ask The UMC: When is Easter over? What comes next?
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Categories

Local Church
Sen. Richard Lugar (right) and University of Indianapolis president Robert Manuel announce the planned launch of the United Methodist-related school’s Richard G. Lugar Academy. Lugar, a long-time member of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, died April 28, 2019. File photo courtesy of the University of Indianapolis.

Faith laid foundation for Lugar's public service
The Rev. Happymore Chipere observes budding nartjies (South African tangerines) at his tree nursery in Mujukuya, Zimbabwe. Chipere is preparing for retirement by growing fruit. Photo by Chenayi Kumuterera, UMNS.

Citrus farming to help clergy retirements
The Rev. Jasmine Smothers, lead pastor of Atlanta First United Methodist Church, has been among the conveners of recent meetings by centrists and progressives to discuss the denomination's future. Photo by Les Scarbrough, Atlanta First United Methodist Church.

Centrists, progressives to discuss church's future
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Evangelism
Young people sing during the Next Generation Forum in Monrovia, Liberia. The May 2 event focused on the future of young people in the church. Photo by E Julu Swen, UM News.

Liberia pushes to recruit young people into ministry
Students practice traditional dance and music at Ngundu Primary School in Buhera, Zimbabwe. The once-ailing school now has new classrooms and teacher quarters built through the Chabadza Community Development Program, a partnership between The United Methodist Church in Norway and Zimbabwe. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UMNS.

Chabadza partnership revives ailing school
Bishop Daniel Wandabula of the East Africa Episcopal Area called on communicators to “unite the church (rather) than perpetuate divisions” while speaking at the United Methodist Radio Network annual meeting, April 25-27, in Kampala, Uganda. Photo by the Rev. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo.

Radio can help unite divided church, bishop says
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Social Concerns
Newly ordained deacons lead the benediction at the end of the ordination service during the New York Annual Conference meeting at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. From left are the Revs. Arletha (Lisa) Miles Boyce, Lea A. Matthews and Janet L. Cox. Matthews says she sees her ministry as a helping hand to marginalized people in the world, including LGBTQ people like herself and her wife. Photo by Stephanie Parsons, NYAC.

LGBTQ deacon ordained by New York Conference
East Africa Bishop Daniel Wandabula stands with others outside Kayole St. John's United Methodist Church in Nairobi, Kenya, where he has launched the opening of The United Methodist Church Savings and Credit Co-Operative Society, the first church-based financial institution in the East Africa episcopal region. Photo by Gad Maiga, UM News.

United Methodist credit union opens in East Africa
Rufaro Chisenga places her offering on the altar at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Harare, Zimbabwe. Despite the country’s economic turmoil, pastors say members are continuing to give to the church. Photo by Priscilla Muzerengwa, UM News.

Zimbabwe churches keep faith in tough economic times
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Mission and Ministry
Shiku Kajalukapushes carries relief items received from the Malawi United Methodist Church on his bicycle. With him are his wife and baby. Photo by Francis Nkhoma, UM News.

Relief distribution in Malawi
The Rev. Tom Wall, a United Methodist campus minister at the University of South Carolina, brushes a boy’s teeth during a free health camp in eastern Uganda. The United Methodist Church in Uganda and the African Methodist Episcopal Church jointly sponsored the weeklong event. Wall served as the team leader of the group from the United States. Photo by Vivian Agaba, UM News.

Ugandan church partnership offers free health care
From left, United Methodist Committee on Relief volunteer Helen Quirocho, Magnolia Becker and UMCOR’s Judy Lewis sift through wildfire wreckage in what is left of Becker’s home in the Truncas canyon of Malibu, California, on April 6, 2019. Photo by Doug Lewis.

Fire season advances as California rebuilds
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General Church
The Rev Alan Masimba Gurupira, administrative assistant to Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, sits next to South Congo Bishop Owan Kasap at a farewell dinner at Bouche Camp in Lubumbashi, Congo. A delegation of 12 lay and clergy members from the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area traveled to South Congo to exchange ministry ideas and strategies for church growth. Photo by Chenayi Kumuterera, UM News.

Episcopal areas unite to grow church in Africa
The Rev. Jane Graner wipes away tears after her June 3 ordination as an elder in the North Texas Conference. Graner, 57, is openly gay. Church law prohibits ordination of “self-avowed practicing” homosexuals, but conference officials noted her single status and said she qualified for ordination. Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.

North Texas Conference ordains openly gay pastor
The Rev. Adam Hamilton speaks at a press conference following the UMCNext gathering at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan. He was one of a 17-member convening team for an event that brought together U.S. United Methodists who oppose the Traditional Plan. Photo by David Burke, Great Plains Conference.

Planning new directions for the church
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