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Daily Digest - August 15, 2022

“My misery became my ministry.” — The Rev. Myra Maxwell, a United Methodist pastor and victim’s advocate in Philadelphia. 

NEWS AND FEATURES

UMC.org
A mission to help crime victims
PHILADELPHIA — The Rev. Myra Maxwell has a tough job, and it’s not her only one. The co-pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in south Philadelphia also heads up victim support services for the district attorney’s office. She’s already walked in the steps of many of the people she counsels, as a crime victim herself. Jim Patterson reports.
Read story

Holston Conference
Church leads community to build veteran's house

TEN MILE, Tenn. — Luminary United Methodist Church’s plan to move a Vietnam veteran out of unsafe living conditions, without running water, soon grew into a community project. The result is Virgil Sitzlar’s new home. Ben Smith has the story. 
Watch video and read story

Greater Northwest Area
Remote church needs work teams

NOME, Alaska — Community United Methodist Church traces its beginnings to a mission started in 1906 to support the tradition of reindeer herding. Today, the church remains remote but continues to bridge Native and white populations. The Rev. Jim Doepken reports on the church and its continued need for work teams.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Longtime Emory hospital chaplaincy director dies

DECATUR, Ga. — The Rev. G. Robert Gary served five United Methodist churches before becoming director of chaplaincy at Emory University Hospital in 1971. During his 26-year tenure, he grew the department’s clinical pastoral education program to the largest in the country. He died Aug. 3 at age 90.
Read obituary

COMMENTARIES

UM News includes in the Daily Digest various commentaries about issues in the denomination. The opinion pieces reflect a variety of viewpoints and are the opinions of the writers, not UM News staff.

United Methodist Communications 
Step away to a holy place
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — God invites everyone to pause for contemplative rest. Laura Buchanan, a writer for UMC.org, reflects on where she finds refuge: “Our place, our sanctuary, might not have stained-glass windows, or even walls, but it always has God’s presence. … We can wrestle with the unexplainable, unanswerable and infuriating. And undoubtedly, if we open our hearts, we will discover endless grace.”
Read commentary

RESOURCES

Amplify Media
Webinar offers glimpse of 'The Big Picture'
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Revs. Jevon and Nicole Caldwell-Gross, both United Methodist pastors in Indiana, use the experiences of Joseph in the Book of Genesis to help people discover God’s dreams for their lives. The clergy couple will discuss their new study, “The Big Picture,” during an Amplify Media webinar at 1 p.m. U.S. Central time Aug. 23.
Learn more and register

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