bishops

Bishop Daniel Lunge (center) of the Central Congo Episcopal Area speaks during a roundtable on communication in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as East Congo Bishop Antoine Kalema Tambwe (left) and North Katanga Bishop Mande Muyombo look on. The bishops emphasized that communication is an essential tool for making disciples and building peace in geographically complex and conflict-ridden areas. Photo by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, UM News.

Charting new path for African communication

Bishops, communicators and United Methodist Communications staff gathered to develop a creative strategy to keep local churches in the Mid-Africa Regional Conference connected despite power outages, poor roads and more than 450 regional languages.

Worship

Helping people ‘hear the Gospel’ in new ways

May is National Speech-Language-Hearing Month, a good time for United Methodist churches to examine ways to improve hearing accessibility.

Global Health

Bishop Mande Muyombo (right) helps a woman settle into her new adapted bicycle in Kamina, Congo. At left are lay leader Kiluba Yolola Elie and Pastor Joseph Kasongo Mukolomone. The United Methodist Church distributed 97 bicycles to people living with disabilities in the North Katanga Conference. The initiative is funded by United Methodist partners in the North Georgia Conference. Photo by Yamba Kisonga Barthélémy, UM News.

Adapted bicycles break barriers, enrich lives in Congo

The United Methodist Church provides mobility assistance to people with disabilities in Kamina, including members of other religious denominations.

Church History

A 1961 map shows the location of churches and the borders of episcopal areas within the Central Jurisdiction, which the Methodist Church established to segregate Black members from the wider church. The union that formed The United Methodist Church in 1968 dissolved the Central Jurisdiction. During the Council of Bishops spring meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., bishops explored the legacy of the Central Jurisdiction as denominational leaders consider changes to the geographic jurisdictional system. Image courtesy of Archives and History.

Lessons from past shape jurisdictions’ future

United Methodist bishops learned more about the legacy of the segregated Central Jurisdiction and history of the jurisdictional system, as leaders contemplate possible changes to that system.

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