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The South Central Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church and Southern Methodist University in Dallas have reached a settlement in a long-running lawsuit filed after the university’s board moved to alter its relationship with the denomination. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons.

Church, SMU resolve legal dispute

A United Methodist jurisdictional conference and Southern Methodist University have reached a settlement in a long-running lawsuit filed after the university’s board moved to alter its relationship with the denomination.

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General Church

Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi speaks during opening worship for “Faithful Resistance: A Public Witness for Immigrant Justice” on Feb. 25 at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church in Washington. Moore-Koikoi, who leads the Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey conferences, is the convener of the interim committee that is organizing the U.S. Regional Conference. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Bishops name US Regional Conference organizers

The newly named group is responsible for planning the first United Methodist assembly that will make decisions affecting only church members in the U.S.

Social Concerns

Map courtesy of Pixabay; graphic by UM News.

Probe underway of pastor who worked for Epstein

United Methodist leaders learned this week that an ordained elder from Missouri worked briefly as a property manager for the convicted sex offender.

Global Health

Marie Otshumba, one of the beneficiaries of The United Methodist Church’s Maternal, Newborn and Child Health program, holds son Amisi alongside nurses at Lokole United Methodist Hospital Center in Kindu, Congo. After five years of repeated miscarriages, Otshumba said the prenatal care she received through the church program transformed her pain into joy. Photo by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, UM News.

Prenatal care transforms grief into joy for Congolese mothers

In Congo, The United Methodist Church’s health program is restoring hope to women who had suffered repeated miscarriages.

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Social Concerns

United Methodists are joining with other Christians in Palm Sunday actions across the United States that aim to counter rising authoritarianism with Christ’s call to love our neighbors. Organizers emphasize that the original Palm Sunday, as described in the Gospels, was a political event. Palm leaf image by studio2013, courtesy of Pixabay; illustration by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Across US, churches plan Palm Sunday protests

Congregations

Members of Marvin United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., pose during a bowling outing. Marvin United Methodist Church received a $100,000 grant from neighboring Sherwood Forest United Methodist Church to help make repairs on its building. Photo courtesy of Marvin United Methodist Church.

Church merger results in win-win-win-win

Social Concerns

(From left) United Methodist Deaconess Rubylin G. Litao, Nay Llore Pasco, a leader of the Rise Up for Life and for Rights network, and lawyer Krissi Conti, International Criminal Court-accredited assistant to the counsel of the victims’ families, hold a banner with the faces of victims at a rally in the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands on Feb. 25. Photo courtesy of Rubylin Litao.

United Methodists denounce attacks on deaconess, drug war victims

General Church

The five U.S. jurisdictions, which each consist of multiple annual conferences, first came into being in 1939. While regionalization leaves the current jurisdictions in place, a group of United Methodist leaders are looking at proposing changes to the denomination’s constitution to allow each regional conference, including the U.S., to decide whether to have jurisdictions. Map from The United Methodist Church Handbook 2025-2028 courtesy of ResourceUMC.

Church leaders explore future of jurisdictions

Immigration

When fear knocks, the church answers

Social Concerns

Pastor Laquaan Malachi of Brunswick United Methodist Church in Crystal speaks to the appointive council of the Minnesota Conference and to fellow members of the Wisdom Council, a panel designed to make sure historically underrepresented people have a say in the Minnesota Conference. Image from video by Lilla Marigza, UM News.

Minnesota ‘Wisdom Council’ lifts all voices

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Local Church

The Rev. Mariah Tollgaard, senior pastor of Hamline Church United Methodist in St. Paul, Minn., testifies March 4 before the U.S. House of Represenatives Oversight Committee. Also testifying were Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison. Screen shot from U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing via YouTube by UM News.

Commentaries

Multimedia

Social Concerns

Filipino United Methodists in the Davao Episcopal Area participated in a four-day United Methodist Board of Global Ministries EarthKeepers training on climate change and environmental conservation. Image from video by Touch Barrientos, Kyla Ragasa, DEA Communications, and Matthan Bang-Asan.

EarthKeepers promote creation care in the Philippines

Filipino United Methodists commit to leading environmental initiatives in their local churches following training by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Local Church