Theology and Education

Graphic by Taylor W Burton Edwards based on The 2020/2024 Book of Discipline, Copyright 2024, United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.

Ask The UMC: Part 1, Local churches, annual conferences, and general agencies

Some are smaller, and some are bigger, but changes have come in the 2020/2024 Book of Discipline for local churches, annual conferences, and general agencies.
General Church
Due to financial constraints and declining demand, the United Methodist Publishing House has announced it will discontinue Korean and Spanish translations of the Book of Discipline unless alternative funding and distribution methods can be found. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Korean, Spanish versions of Discipline halted

Korean and Hispanic/Latino church leaders voice concern about the United Methodist Publishing House’s decision to no longer translate the Book of Discipline due to financial pressures.
Faith Stories
The Rev. Russell E. Richey speaks during a panel discussion on theological education at Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn., in 2015. Richey, who died Jan. 19 at his home in Durham, N.C., was a professor at Duke Divinity School in Durham, and former dean of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Richey, influential historian, remembered

The Rev. Russell E. Richey, who died Jan. 19, was praised by colleagues, friends and former students as an amiable yet exacting historian who steered scholarly research of the denomination toward sources beyond the minutes of General Conference.
Theology and Education
A lawsuit over United Methodist control of Southern Methodist University in Dallas has reached the Texas Supreme Court. The South Central Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church filed the lawsuit in 2019 after the university’s board of trustees voted to change the university’s articles of incorporation without the jurisdictional conference’s approval. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons.

High court hears case over church control of SMU

The Texas Supreme Court heard arguments to determine if Southern Methodist University could change its articles of incorporation without a United Methodist jurisdiction’s approval.

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe Now
Loading

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2025 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved