UM News: Your official source of comprehensive information and news about The United Methodist Church.

Romanian hotel houses one-stop shop for ministry

A hotel and ministry center run by The United Methodist Church in Romania hosts numerous programs to help Ukrainian refugees, as well as the rest of the community.

Evangelism

Kurai Baureni, a member of Ebenezer United Methodist Church, leads a community Bible study class in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. The Chitungwiza Marondera District trained 40 class leaders through the Community Bible Study International program, and today there are 161 classes functioning. Photo by Priscilla Muzerengwa, UM News.

Community Bible study helps church make disciples

Church members in the Chitungwiza Marondera District in Zimbabwe are studying and spreading God’s word in their communities with the help of international Bible study program.

Judicial Council

Bishops process into worship at the 2019 special session of the General Conference held in St. Louis. Amid increasing church disaffiliations, bishops are speaking out to address misinformation they say is being spread about The United Methodist Church’s future. File photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Bishops push back against recruitment tactics

Bishops are trying to set the record straight on misinformation being spread about The United Methodist Church’s future. They also are working toward building a church where traditionalists, centrists and progressives will all feel they belong.

Annual Conferences

2022 United Methodist annual conference reports

UM News posts the official summaries filed by annual conferences from around the connection. Find the latest reports on our archive page.

Latest News

Mission and Ministry

The Revs. László Khaled (left) and Üllas Tankler (second from left) pray with the family of Robert, Renatta and their children in the small cabin they share at the United Methodist Dorcas church camp in Debrecen, Hungary, where they are staying after fleeing the war in Ukraine. The family is among many Roma who have found a place of welcome at the camp. Khaled is superintendent of The United Methodist Church in Hungary and Tankler is the European/Eurasian representative of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Hungarian camp houses Ukrainian Roma refugees

General Church

A large crowd at a June 13 Celebrate UMC-sponsored event at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, rises in applause. Celebrate UMC, which formed in the Alabama-West Florida Conference, is one of a handful of grassroots groups that are making an affirmative case for The United Methodist Church as some congregations decide whether to leave the denomination. Photo courtesy of Celebrate UMC.

Grassroots groups talk up The United Methodist Church

Ecumenism

Faith leaders from around the world join together during the closing prayer service for the World Council of Churches' 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany. From right are: The Rev. Heike Springhart of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Bishop Abraham Mar Paulos of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, Metropolitan Zacariah Mar Nicholovos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, United Methodist Bishops Sally Dyck and Mary Ann Swenson from the U.S., and the Rev. Hyuk Cho of the United Church of Canada. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

WCC General Assembly closes with call to ‘act for justice’

General Church

Churches discern whether to stay or go

Mission and Ministry

A new outpatient department, funded by a United Methodist Board of Global Ministries grant, houses many departments and consultation rooms at Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The facelift of the over 100-year-old institution includes a kitchen, a 120-panel solar system and a comfortable indoor waiting area for patients. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Zimbabwe’s Old Mutare Mission Hospital gets a facelift

Disaster Relief

Two displaced Central African women receive an envelope containing money to buy food. The United Methodist Committee on Relief provided $50,000 to assist nearly 1,000 displaced families from the Central African Republic living in a refugee camp in Limasa, Congo. Photo courtesy of the Eastern Congo disaster management office.

Church helps displaced Central Africans living in Congo

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Local Church

The Rev. Dr. Tori Butler (right) speaks with the Rev. Dr. Jalene Chase, former Metro Transit police officer in Washington and current pastor of Goshen United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, Md., about practical ways clergy can maintain their safety. Screengrab from ZOOM via YouTube by UM News.

‘You can holler for your safety because you matter’

Evangelism

Participants pray during a service for peace and reunification between South and North Korea at St. Stephan Church in Karlsruhe, Germany, as part of the World Council of Churches' 11th Assembly. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

World Council of Churches works for just peace

Social Concerns

At a Sept. 21 memorial service marking the 50th anniversary of martial law in the Philippines, Bishop Ciriaco Francisco, the resident bishop of the Manila Area, holds a sign supporting the Rev. Glofie Baluntong, a United Methodist pastor who has been charged with attempted murder in a case she and her supporters believe was invented to intimidate her. Photo © Paul Jeffrey, Life on Earth Pictures.

Church says clergywoman faces trumped-up charges

Mission and Ministry

Nyasha (with headset), a second grade student in the hard-of-hearing class at Nyadire Primary in Zimbabwe, tries out an auto-hearing machine machine donated to the school by the Northwest District of the Indiana Conference. Also pictured are David Czerwonky (left) with the Wesley Foundation of Purdue University; Janée LaFuze (center), Northwest District lay leader; Ruvarashe, another student; and teacher Everjoy Nyamukapa (far right). During a July 13-Aug. 4 mission trip, visitors from the Northwest District and the Wesley Foundation of Purdue connected with church members in the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Mission trip strengthens partnership, ministries

General Church

Bishop Spain, tireless counselor, dies at 96

Commentaries

United Methodists should support Dobbs decision

Getting to a pro-choice and pro-life position

The Rev. Mel West. Photo courtesy of the author.

A plan to re-church rural America

Dr. David W. Scott. Photo © Hector Amador.

Political context and the meaning of church

Staying the course with vaccine access

9/11 attacks sparked life change for eyewitness

Faith communities can respond to substance-use epidemic with hope

Kedging our way toward a hopeful future

News From UMC Partners

Congregations

Volunteers from First United Methodist Church in Jamestown, N.D., hand out root beer floats and invitations to their after-school program. Photo from First United Methodist Church's Facebook page, courtesy of the Dakotas Conference.

A root beer float introduction

First United Methodist Church broke out the big guns to attract children: root beer floats. Children who came by for a treat were also handed a card with a QR code that took them to an app giving information about its Crosswalk after-school program.