UM News Digest - Jan. 13, 2025

Clinic helps immigrants
Pacific Palisades has Methodist roots
Understanding hate

“From a human empathetic level, it matters to understand that these people fled their homes. … What if you had kids that you couldn’t feed or keep safe? Would you not go to the ends of the earth to protect them?” — Katie Taylor, legal director for Neighbors Immigration Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky.

Katie Taylor, legal director for Neighbors Immigration Clinic in Lexington, Ky., leads an “Asylum 101” workshop for members of the community who work with immigrants. Photo by Joey Butler, UM News.

Clinic helps immigrants navigate asylum process

LEXINGTON, Ky. (UM News) — Neighbors Immigration Clinic is one of few legal resources for Kentucky’s growing immigrant community. The clinic — part of the United Methodist Immigrant Law & Justice Network — has begun offering workshops on topics like asylum to engage community partners who also work with immigrants. Joey Butler and Gustavo Vasquez report.

Read story

UM News: Immigration ministry undaunted by political climate

California-Pacific Conference
Community lost to fire had deep Methodist roots
LOS ANGELES — The Palisades fire, which has burned an area larger than the island of Manhattan, has left much of Pacific Palisades in ruins, including Community United Methodist Church. A predecessor of what is now the California-Pacific Conference was instrumental in founding the Pacific Palisades coastal community in 1921. The Rev. Catie Coots offers the history while also mourning the Los Angeles wildfires’ destruction, which also claimed Altadena United Methodist Church. The fires have killed at least 24 people.
Read history
UM News: United Methodists see loss, offer relief
Donate to the California-Pacific Conference’s fire recovery fund
Donate to the United Methodist Committee on Relief

Holston Conference
Churches keep neighbors fed, out of the cold
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As winter brings below-freezing temperatures, people in need of shelter or heat are finding warm beds and hot food in United Methodist churches. “I think John Wesley would be proud,” the Rev. Tim Jackson said. Annette Spence has a running blog on how churches in the Holston Conference are helping to keep people safe from the cold.
Read stories

North Georgia, South Georgia conferences
Conferences explore potential unification
ATLANTA — The North Georgia and South Georgia conferences have officially launched an effort to study and pursue potential unification. Launched under the leadership of Bishop Robin Dease, the effort aims to explore the possibilities and benefits of becoming one annual conference. Dease leads both conferences. The conferences have put together a website for information and updates on the possibility of “One Georgia UMC.”
See website

Buckhead.com
Origami-dove exhibit fills church sanctuary
ATLANTA — Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, has filled its sanctuary with a special exhibit of 1,300 origami doves as part of its centennial celebration. The church is one of just three U.S. locations and seven worldwide to display the doves, symbolizing peace, created by German artist Michael Pendry. Everett Catts has the story and photos of the doves.
Read story and see photos

Archives and History
Tell Your United Methodist story
MADISON, N.J. — An oral history app is ready to compile the history of United Methodism, one testimony at a time. United Methodist Stories is available for all mobile devices. “Preserving testimonies and reactions from a variety of voices within The UMC will serve as a vital learning tool for our denomination’s future, as well as interrupt the dominant, often colonial understanding that history is preserved only through written form,” said Ashley Boggan D., top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.
Read press release
Tell your story (mobile devices only)

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.

What does hate feel like in the body?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UM News) — In the second in a three-part series on hate, the Rev. Neelley Hicks says it is critical for Christians to understand the spiritual, emotional and physical warning signs of hate. “Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit that can keep us from acting on humanity’s worst characteristics. But when hate sneaks into our hearts through media or relationships that affirm our worst instincts, we can lose both self-control and awareness of who we’ve become,” she writes.
Read commentary
Read Part 1: Confronting hate — what do you wear?

United Methodist Communications
Engage and be bold, lay leaders
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When the method United Methodists are using to go and make disciples is no longer effective and it is not attracting people to the church, faith should provide the conviction to change methods, writes J. F. Knapp III, South Georgia Conference lay leader. “How we reach people, to bring them to know Jesus, has to change with the times,” he says. Knapp issues a call and encouragement to other lay leaders.
Read commentary

World Council of Churches
Resources to pray for Christian unity
GENEVA — During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity each year, Christian communities join together to pray for the visible unity of the Church, faithfully abiding by the will of Christ, who prayed “that all may be one” (John 17:21). In much of the world, this Week of Prayer is commemorated from Jan. 18-25. The World Council of Churches, of which The United Methodist Church is a member, has liturgical resources to help mark the week.
See resources (PDF)

United Methodist Communications
Human Relations Day set for Jan. 19
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Human Relations Day is a United Methodist special Sunday focused on funding grants for ministries and churches to better support community and youth outreach. United Methodist churches traditionally receive Human Relations Day offerings on the Sunday before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday observance, which is Jan. 19 this year. However, churches can celebrate on any Sunday that suits their schedule.
See resources