Mission and Ministry

The Methodist Church’s 1956 General Conference meets from April 25 to May 7 in the municipal auditorium in Minneapolis. On May 4, the first Friday of the legislative assembly, the delegates voted to make women eligible for full clergy rights. “Now it is up to us to prove in clear and deep witness to the whole church our consecration and our loyal devotion to the work of the Kingdom of God,” said Margaret Henrichsen, a General Conference visitor, after the vote. In 1967, she became the first U.S. woman appointed district superintendent. Photo courtesy of Archives and History.

Why the 1956 women-clergy vote matters

Seventy years ago, the Methodist Church supported full conference membership for women clergy — a decision that would have a resounding impact when The United Methodist Church formed in 1968 and even today.

Local Church

Madang marks 10th anniversary with renewed vision

Over the past decade, CRCC Madang has grown into a vital support network for Korean American clergy navigating cross-cultural ministry.

Faith Stories

Charles H. Webb was much honored in Indiana for his leadership of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He found time to play organ for his local United Methodist church and to serve on The United Methodist Church’s Hymnal Revision Committee. Webb died April 13 at age 93. Photo courtesy of Malcolm Webb.

Methodist prodigy became a maestro

Charles H. Webb, who died April 13 at age 93, served The United Methodist Church during a long, stellar music career.

Ecumenism

Retired professor Jin Kwan Kwon (left) and Vanderbilt University professor Joerg Rieger discuss Minjung theology — a liberation theology that emerged in the 1970s in South Korea — during a lecture March 31 at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn. The event was hosted by Vanderbilt’s Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice, which was founded by Rieger. Photo by the Rev. Thomas E. Kim, UM News.

Minjung theology offers lessons for today

Though this form of liberation theology emerged over 50 years ago in South Korea, its emphasis on the struggles of the oppressed and marginalized resonates across national boundaries today.

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