"We felt it was time to move from focusing on acts of mercy to addressing issues of justice, especially the systemic issue of poverty. To think of channeling those resources and that energy into our communities, transforming the world one family at a time, is a little scary, but we feel it is the next faithful step that God is calling us to take." - The Rev. Mary Teasley, Greenville, S. C. district superintendent.
S.C. district fights poverty through friendship
GREENVILLE, S.C. (UMNS) - Forming a relationship with a family in poverty instead of just giving anonymously is the new mission of the Greenville District of the South Carolina Annual (regional) Conference. Called the Methodist Family Partnering With Families Initiative, the project has the goal of focusing local churches on the needs of families in poverty to make ministry more effective. Jessica Connor, editor of the South Carolina Advocate, has the story.
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Bishops urge Bishop Talbert not to officiate at same-sex union
WASHINGTON, D.C. (UMNS) - The executive committee of the United Methodist Council of Bishops issued a statement today, Oct. 23, in response to retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert's plans to officiate at the marriage ceremony of Bobby Prince and Joe Openshaw on Oct. 26 in Birmingham, Ala.
"The bishops of the church are bound together in a covenant and all ordained elders are committed to uphold the Book of Discipline," the statement reads. "'Conducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions; or performing same-sex wedding ceremonies' are chargeable offenses in The United Methodist Church. (
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