Daily Digest - June 12, 2017

“This is a testimony that addressing system inefficiencies is as vital to sustainability as much as funding support is.” — Dr. Olusimbo Ige of Global Ministries on improvements at United Methodist Kissy Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone hospital celebrates turnaround

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (UMNS) — A certificate from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries recognizes United Methodist Kissy Hospital’s transformation to a renewed, self-sustaining facility. Phileas Jusu reports. 
Read story 

Educator who broke color barriers has died

ATLANTA — Samuel DuBois Cook, the first African-American faculty member at United Methodist-related Duke University, is dead at 88. When he joined the faculty there in 1966, he was the first tenure-track African-American professor appointed by a predominately white university in the South since Reconstruction. Cook went on to serve 22 years as president of Dillard University, one of the historically black colleges supported by The United Methodist Church’s Black College Fund. 
Read New York Times obituary 
Read Duke Today story 

Call to ‘Stand With Refugees’

NEW YORK — In advance of World Refugee Day on June 20, the Stand With Refugees campaign — sponsored by a coalition led by U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, including Church World Service, a United Methodist partner — is asking Americans to contact their lawmakers during the week of June 12-16.
Visit website 

An analog refuge in a digital world

BALTIMORE — Nestled in a grove of old oak trees northwest of Baltimore is a place where time has seemingly stood still. Small cottages line narrow streets where cars are forbidden to go. Erik Alsgaard of the Baltimore-Washington Conference writes about Emory Grove, a historic Methodist camp meeting ground still in ministry today. 
Read story 

Commentary: Small church as surrogate family

LEMOYNE, Pa. — The Rev. Lewis Park, author of “Small on Purpose,” writes that small churches offer surrogate families for those whose basic family unit is dispersed or in need of wider circles of enforcement. He adds that they are not unlike the houses churches of the New Testament era. 
Read commentary 

 

Looking ahead

Here are some of the activities ahead for United Methodists across the connection. If you have a United Methodist event to share, you can add it to the calendar with this submission form.

Online Congregational Leadership Workshop on United Methodist History and Polity — 10 a.m., CST. Designed for part-time local pastors and certified lay ministers, but open to any person, clergy or lay, this online course will cover the development of The United Methodist Church, as well as its doctrinal roots in both the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren traditions. This BeADisciple.com course is one of the elective courses for the Certificate in Congregational Leadership program and is eligible for 1.0 CEU. Price: $49. Details 

See more United Methodist events


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