UM News Digest - Aug. 13, 2025

UM News Digest - Aug. 13, 2025

Church camp celebrates 100 years
'Morning Service' revives farming community
Responding to Trump’s D.C. police takeover
Women’s voices, votes should not be silenced

“I love the environment. My kids have come to camp here, and I’m sending kids from my church here because this is holy dirt.” — The Rev. Brian Tillman, United Methodist Camp Glisson in North Georgia.

Youth attending Wilderness Week at Camp Glisson in the summer of 2000 sit on top of the camp van in Dahlonega, Ga. Photo by J. Paul Manion, former Camp Glisson staff photographer.

Church camp celebrates 100 years
DAHLONEGA, Ga. (UM News) — United Methodist Camp Glisson in North Georgia is celebrating 100 years of woods, worship and waterfall hikes. To mark a century of church camp, Glisson is hosting reunions throughout 2025. Campers can come back, connect with friends and sing all the old favorite camp songs again. Lilla Marigza reports.

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Danny Dube (left), a regular member of Morning Service in Nyanyadzi, Zimbabwe, talks with the Rev. Godfrey Gaga, Nyanyadzi Circuit pastor-in-charge, after a funeral. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

‘Morning Service’ revives farming community
NYANYADZI, Zimbabwe (UM News) — From humble beginnings three years ago, a morning church service is meeting struggling people where they are. The service has drawn those facing addiction and other problems. Zimbabwe Area Bishop Gift K. Machinga described the ministry as “a powerful and Christ-centered form of evangelism.” Kudzai Chingwe has the story.

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Baltimore-Washington Conference
Responding to Trump’s D.C. police takeover
WASHINGTON — Bishop LaTrelle Easterling describes how the church offers “a more excellent way” as the Trump administration federalizes the police and deploys the National Guard troops in the U.S. capital. United Methodist churches in the D.C. area already work to house the homeless, mentor youth and provide health care, writes Easterling, who leads the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences. As a church, “we reject any use of force that treats God’s children as inconvenient eyesores or threats, rather than as beloved siblings,” she writes.
Read bishop’s statement
Learn about United to Love campaign

Kentucky Conference
Camp lodge destroyed in fire
RAVENNA, Ky. — The lodge at United Methodist-related Aldersgate Camp and Retreat Center caught fire Aug. 10. No one was injured, but the damage to the building is extensive, Bishop David Graves wrote to the Kentucky Conference. For everyone’s safety, he asks people not to visit the camp at this time.
Read bishop’s statement
Donate to camp

West Ohio Conference
Task team considers merger
WORTHINGTON, Ohio — A task team is looking into the possibility of merging the East Ohio and West Ohio conferences. This spring, the Ohio Episcopal Area Task Team hosted 17 listening sessions attended by 254 people representing both conferences. This fall members of the team plan to serve as conveners of work groups to create a picture of what a new conference would look like. West Ohio Conference staff have the story.
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UM News includes in the 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.

Church can be sanctuary for trans lives
COLUMBUS, Ohio (UM News) — Even as transgender people are being legislated out of public life in the U.S., United Methodist churches are opening their doors wider than ever. The Reconciling Ministries Network and the United Methodist Alliance for Transgender Inclusion are working to help the denomination become a sanctuary in the storm, the Rev. Dr. Joelle Henneman writes.
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Status and Role of Women
Women’s voices, votes should not be silenced
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — This weekend, CNN aired an interview with Doug Wilson, a pastor and self-described “Christian nationalist” who opposes women in church leadership and the voting booth. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a member of Wilson’s church, reposted the video with an endorsement. The Rev. Stephanie York Arnold, top executive of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women, writes that the effort to silence women goes against the biblical record and demonstrates why her agency is needed.
Read commentary
UM News: Methodists crucial in fight for women’s vote

Finance and Administration
Registration open for virtual quad training
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The General Council on Finance and Administration has opened registration for the agency’s virtual quadrennial training for U.S. United Methodists. The training is scheduled online Sept. 16-18. Previous in-person events were held in Houston in February and Mutare, Zimbabwe, in July.
Register
UM News: African leaders focus on stewardship