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The Rev. Chris Ritter gives the keynote talk at a Jan. 25 gathering of traditionalist United Methodists, held in Trussville, Ala. Discussion focused on the prospect of a new denomination for traditionalists and on details of a “Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation.” Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News. — The Rev. Chris Ritter gives the keynote talk at a Jan. 25 gathering of traditionalist United Methodists, held in Trussville, Ala. Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.

Traditionalists’ event draws big crowd

A meeting near Birmingham, Alabama, explores the possibility of a denomination separating from The United Methodist Church.

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General Conference

On Jan. 3, a 16-member group of United Methodist leaders offered a proposal that would preserve The United Methodist Church while allowing traditionalist-minded congregations to form a new denomination. UM News will host a panel discussion on the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation proposal at 9:30 a.m. EST on Jan. 13. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Video archive: UM News interviews protocol developers

Leaders who helped develop a separation plan for The United Methodist Church answered questions about their proposal during a live event Jan. 13.

James W. Story is working to preserve African American spiritual songs through an album and stage shows. Photo by Josh Cross, courtesy of Gallatin News.

Music educator devoted to preserving spirituals

John W. Story, a high school and community college music educator, has spent years pursuing his self-appointed mission to keep African American spirituals relevant to future generations.

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.

Latest

The definition of abeyance as listed on dictionary.com. While the proposed “Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation” is not a done deal, negotiators are asking for a pause in certain church closings and complaints in the meantime. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Negotiators urge hold on trials, closures

The Rev. Junius Dotson (holding microphone), speaks during a livestreamed panel discussion in Tampa, Fla., with members of the team that developed the "Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation.” $39 million is set aside in the plan to go to minority churches. “The idea was … to make clear that the church has a commitment to these communities of color,” Dotson said. Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.

Minority funding critical to separation deal

Mission and Ministry

Evacuees in Mataas Na Kahoy in the province of Batangas, Philippines, receive relief goods from the Philippines Central Conference’s Asuncion Perez Memorial Center. United Methodists are among the many people responding to the thousands displaced by the Taal volcano eruption Jan. 12 on Luzon Island. Photo courtesy of Liza A. Cortez.

United Methodists in Philippines help volcano evacuees

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.

Lydia Patterson Institute is a dream maker for young students

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’

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Multimedia

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

The year 2019 was an eventful one for The United Methodist Church. Photographers from UM News, the denomination's official news service, documented a year in the life of United Methodism worldwide.

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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

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

Commentaries

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

Living as United Methodists between the radical ends

Christians should defend journalists

United Methodists behind closed doors

Preventing a United Methodist Berlin Wall

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Ask The UMC

Mission and Ministry

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

Ask The UMC: How do United Methodists understand Epiphany ?

Epiphany is the day Christians remember the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus, bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

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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?

Theology and Education

A wreath with three lit candles marks the third week of Advent. Photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.

Ask The UMC: What do the candles in our Advent wreath mean?

Theology and Education

At the time of Jesus, cremation was widely practiced by the Romans, but rarely by Jews and Christians because of their belief that the bodies of believers would one day be physically resurrected. Photo by MaryW, courtesy of Pixabay.

Ask The UMC: How does the church view cremation, organ donation?

Categories

The Rev. Bud Heckman. Photo courtesy of the Religion Communicators Council.

Clergyman retires ‘under complaint’ of abuse

Obert Chikwato shows off a gift he received from members of The United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe on Dec. 13. “This is my first time to get a Christmas gift,” said the 16-year-old, who lives at Good Samaritan Children’s Home, a foster home in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo by Priscilla Muzerengwa, UM News.

Young church members collect gifts for foster children

The Rev. Will Choate (at left) helps lead worshippers in singing “Silent Night” by candlelight on Christmas Eve 2018 at Argenta United Methodist Church in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The growing congregation and others across the United Methodist connection are preparing to make visitors feel welcome. Photo courtesy of Argenta United Methodist Church.

What should a Christmas welcome look like?

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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

Josiane Bahi, 33, holds her 1-year-old granddaughter, Grâce Debra, at Ampain Ivorian Refugee Camp in Ampain, Ghana, where Bahi, a United Methodist, has resided since 2012. Her granddaughter was among more than 540 children who received a gift on Christmas Day from The United Methodist Church in Côte d'Ivoire. Photo by Isaac Broune, UM News.

Children at refugee camp get Christmas surprise

Members gather at the newly built Saint Paul United Methodist Church in Murehe, Burundi. The church, which has 7,300 members, can now hold 3,000 people for Sunday worship. The previous church held only 300 people, and the congregation often held services and revivals beneath a tree on the church grounds. Photo by Pepi Mbabaye, UM News.

New church expands reach in Burundi

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Social Concerns

Kenneth Feinberg (holding microphone), speaks during a livestreamed panel discussion in Tampa, Fla., with members of the team that developed a new proposal that would maintain The United Methodist Church but allow traditionalist congregations to separate into a new denomination. Feinberg moderated the work of the team that created the proposal, called the "Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation.” Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.

Panel offers peek behind scenes of separation plan

On Jan. 3, a 16-member group of United Methodist bishops and other leaders offered the “Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation” proposal to preserve The United Methodist Church while allowing for a new traditionalist-minded denomination. UM News reports on the process the group took to arrive at its plan. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Protocol process painful but fruitful

Jean Tshomba, coordinator of UMCOR's disaster management office in Eastern Congo, hands over a bag of flour to one of the beneficiaries during the distribution of food in the Lubutu ecclesiastical district at the end of November 2019. The United Methodist Committee on Relief provided humanitarian assistance to war-displaced people in the region. Photo courtesy of UMCOR Disaster Management Office, East Congo.

Church helps war-displaced families in East Congo

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Mission and Ministry

United Methodist women process cassava tubers into attiéké, a traditional Ivorian dish, at a new semi-mechanized processing plant in Anyama, Côte d'Ivoire. A $200,000 grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief helped fund the production plant. Photo by Isaac Broune, UM News.

Traditional Ivorian dish cooking up profits for women

James W. Story is working to preserve African American spiritual songs through an album and stage shows. Photo by Josh Cross, courtesy of Gallatin News.

Music educator devoted to preserving spirituals

The Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Ponce, Puerto Rico, suffered extensive damage in a series of earthquakes that have rattled the area since Dec. 28. Photo courtesy of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican Methodists tackle earthquake response

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A file photo courtesy of the Council of Bishops.

Bishop Coyner, unifier of people, dies

Famed mediator Kenneth Feinberg speaks during a forum at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, in May 2011. Feinberg helped a diverse group of United Methodist bishops and other leaders reach an agreement, released Jan. 3, on a "Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation." Photo courtesy of the Miller Center, Creative Commons.

Feinberg kept church negotiators at table

L. Dale Patterson, archivist-records administrator at the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, examines film, one of thousands of carefully filed items at the agency housed on the campus of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. A 2013 file photo by Kathleen Barry, UM News.

Taking church archives from hi-fi to Wi-Fi

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