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Mission

Church leaders and supporters pray with United Methodist missionary Miracle Osman (center, wearing white shirt) upon her arrival in Lilongwe, Malawi, after she was allowed to leave the Philippines. Photo courtesy of United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Last of detained missionaries arrives home

Miracle Osman, a United Methodist missionary, is greeted in Malawi by family and church members after leaving the Philippines.

Editor's Picks

Local Church

The Rev. Kanda Salumu examines an electronic voting machine during a demonstration in Kindu, Congo. The United Methodist Church is helping educate pastors and laypeople about the machines, which are unfamiliar to many Congolese. Photo by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, UMNS.

Raising awareness about voting in Congo elections

The United Methodist Church is helping pastors and lay people, many who have never touched a computer, prepare to use voting machines for the first time.

Global Health

Student dentist Preston Harris sees a patient in the Meharry Medical College mobile dental clinic in Nashville, Tenn. Photo courtesy of Meharry Medical College.

Meharry mobile dental clinic provides needed care

A mobile dental clinic operated by Meharry Medical College students is helping Tennesseans in areas where dental care wasn’t available.

General Church

Leaders from the General Board of Church Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., traveled to Harare to meet with leaders from the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area June 20-21 to draft a revised version of its Social Principles. The decision to create a new document was made at the 2016 General Conference. The last revision was made by committee in 1968. Photo by Chenayi Kumuterera, UMNS.

Zimbabwe United Methodists weigh in on Social Principles

Listening sessions, said Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, ‘will go a long way in grounding our understanding of Social Principles and how to implement them.’

Latest

People wait in a security screening line to enter the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland, Ore. There will be no registration fees for the 2019 special General Conference. But visitors will be asked to pay $7-10 for badges required by venue security. File photo by Kathleen Barry, UMNS.

GC2019 no longer needs registration fees

Members of the 2016-2020 Judicial Council pose for a group photo. The United Methodist Council of Bishops has asked the denomination’s top court to rule on the constitutionality of the legislation submitted by the Commission on Way Forward. Photo by Kathleen Barry, UMNS.

Bishops seek court ruling on Way Forward plans

Presian Vlaiakov sings at the Sofia (Bulgaria) United Methodist Church. Vlaiakov, the son of a single mother, said his commitment to the church grew out of the love and help the church showed him as a child. Photo by the Rev. Mihail Stefanov.

Church provided family for Bulgarian boy

Parishioners read responsively during worship at Central United Methodist Church in Luanda, Angola, in 2012. The Eastern Angola conference has added a statistician to their staff to better evaluate the progress of the church. File photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

More than names and numbers in Angola

Parishioners take part in a spirited Bible study at Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston in this March 2011 file photo. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose.

Megachurch weighs leaving denomination

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Multimedia

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

In the two years since Liberia was declared Ebola-free, United Methodist schools and hospitals have helped the country recover.

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Edmond Assamoi directs the choir at a recently opened United Methodist church outside Agboville, Côte d'Ivoire. The church is so new that it has not yet been named. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Singing the gospel in Côte d’Ivoire

Bermondsey Central Hall Methodist Church serves a diverse congregation of about 320 and houses the South London Mission, which has been supporting the community since 1889. The modern London Shard skyscraper rises behind the church. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

British Methodism: Staying Relevant in Wesley’s Homeland

A statue of Saint John of Nepomuk looks out over the Main River in the historic Höchst district of Frankfurt, Germany. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

German Methodism: A strong Christian voice

Wesley “Gabby” Jones and Ted Barnett sing the spiritual “Stand Still, Jordan” during an April 23 service at Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church, in Chubbtown, Georgia. The church’s sanctuary dates to 1870, and the community was founded by the Chubb family, who came to the area as free blacks before the end of the Civil War. Photo by Sam Hodges, UMNS.

Little church looms large in black history

Commentaries

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

Commentary: Threat of schism hangs over jubilee of church

Photo of Kathy L. Gilbert by Kathleen Barry, UMNS.

Commentary: Addiction, Mother’s Day and God’s grace

Commentary: Rescuing Outler's 'Visions and Dreams'

Commentary: Open for (church) business

Ask The UMC

Pews and hymnals photographed inside Monroe Street United Methodist Church in historic Germantown, Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications

Ask The UMC: Why does The United Methodist Hymnal include more than songs?

The answer has to do with developments in both Methodist ritual and published resources over time.

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Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect - Matt. 5:48. File photo by Kay Panovec, United Methodist Communications.

Ask The UMC: What did John Wesley mean by ‘moving on to perfection?’

Image of a circuit rider, courtesy of the General Commission on Archives and History for The United Methodist Church, Drew University.

Ask The UMC: Why do United Methodist pastors change churches?

Substance Abuse

More than a dozen former alcoholics and addicts carried signs telling how it felt to be in recovery during a presentation at the 2012 Oklahoma Annual Conference meeting in Tulsa. Photo by Boyce Bowdon

Ask The UMC: May United Methodists drink alcohol?

General Conference

Bishop Cynthia F. Harvey (right) answers questions during a press conference about The United Methodist Church's Way Forward plan to address how the denomination ministers with LGBTQ individuals. She is flanked by Bishops Bruce R. Ough (left) and Kenneth H. Carter following the Council of Bishops meeting in Chicago. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Ask The UMC: Can you explain Way Forward plans, COB recommendation?

Categories

Church members and leaders celebrate the purchase of a car for use by United Methodist pastors in the Nenguwo Circuit outside Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo by Eveline Chikwanah.

Rural pastors gain reliable transportation

Students from the June Hartranft Primary School for Girls process through Moyamba, Sierra Leone, during the school’s 50th anniversary celebration. The United Methodist institution is the only girls’ primary school in the country providing a boarding facility. Photo by Phileas Jusu, UMNS.

United Methodist girls’ boarding school turns 50

Children line up to get a glimpse of the new Bishop Gaspar João Domingos Methodist Primary School in Ságua, Angola. The structure includes a cafeteria, a principal’s office, a teachers’ lounge and three classrooms to accommodate 30 students each. Photo by Orlando da Cruz, UMNS.

New primary school enriches Angola village

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Chisipiti United Methodist Church hosts a revival attended by women in the district. Despite the social, economic and political challenges in the country the church has continued to raise funds from within membership. Photo by Priscilla Muzerengwa, UMNS.

Amid Zimbabwe’s economic struggles, ‘God is doing wonders’

Unaccompanied minor migrants enjoy four days at a United Methodist summer camp. They point out their home towns and trace the journey they took to arrive at U.S. border on a large wall map. Photo courtesy of California-Pacific Conference.

Camp offers migrant youth fun, friendship

Tawanda Chandiwana, center, has been detained in the Philippines since May 9. United Methodist officials are making a public appeal to the Philippines government to release Chandiwana, who has denied any wrongdoing. Officials have asked that he and two other missionaries be allowed to leave the country. Photo courtesy of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Church seeks release of detained missionary

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Social Concerns

Delegate Pierre Kasongo (right) and other members of the Tanganyika delegation vote on legislation while listening to a translation of the 2016 General Conference proceedings. The Commission on General Conference said translations of the Way Forward proposals are coming. File Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Translated Way Forward coming July 30

The Commission on a Way Forward convened Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, Tenn. The commission is still working on possibilities for the denomination’s future. Photo by the Rev. Maidstone Mulenga.

Bishops amend what’s heading to GC2019

A cross with candles calls for justice and peace at a prayer vigil led by the Rev. Francis Fajardo at Wesleyan University-Philippines for slain mayor, Ferdinand Bote. Bote, mayor of the General Tinio in Nueva Ecija province, was gunned down July 3. Photo courtesy of Clarafe Gonzales & Sergio Arevalo.

United Methodist mayor shot dead in Philippines

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Mission

United Methodist Women from Liberia clean the area around The United Methodist Church Hospital in Diecke, Guinea, during a four-day Ubuntu Missionary Journey. Photo by E Julu Swen, UMNS.

Ubuntu journey connects United Methodist Women

Students from the University of Zimbabwe sit with secondary school-level students in a classroom at Mashambanhaka Secondary Mission School. The college students are part of the United Methodist-supported ministry, Partners for Success, that is mentoring more than 250 younger students. Photo by Chenayi Kumuterera, UMNS.

Zimbabwe students motivate others through partners for success

Tawanda Chandiwana is greeted by Russell Rusike, a fellow Zimbabwean Global Mission Fellow, at the airport in Harare, Zimbabwe. Chandiwana arrived home from the Philippines, where he had been detained since May 9. Photo by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, UMNS.

Detained missionary arrives home in Zimbabwe

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Gracious Matika (left) and her sister, Varaidzo, pose with her new diploma after Africa University’s June 9 graduation ceremony. Photo by Eveline Chikwanah, UMNS.

AU grad's study supported by U.S. teen

Dr. Marie Claire Manafundu (left) visits children in the Irambo neighborhood in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, where poor nutrition has become a problem, especially for children. Photo by Philippe Kituka Lolonga, UMNS.

Hospitals in Congo concerned by growing child malnutrition

Micheline Ongambo and Prince Onaunya of Youth for Christ in the Kindu South District of the East Congo Conference raise their hands in prayer during youth leadership training. Photo by Chadwack Tambwe Londe, UMNS.

Youth leaders focus on guiding others to Jesus Christ

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