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Students dance with joy after a worship service at Dindi Mission’s primary school in Mutawatawa, Zimbabwe. At left is Fungai Chimuti, the school’s headmaster. A new boarding facility for the mission’s schools is helping address high dropout rates and other challenges. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Mission school offers hope to vulnerable students

A new low-cost boarding school is giving more students access to education in the communities surrounding United Methodist Dindi Mission.

Editor's Picks

Global Health

Medical students work in the lab at Luke’s House, a free health clinic in New Orleans. From left, with faces visible, are Ryan Barry, Zahra Naeini, Karla Gallegos Díaz and Amelie Jacobs. A United Methodist pastor helped start the clinic in 2006 in response to the health care gap left by Hurricane Katrina. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Faith-based free clinic serves community

Luke’s House, a free clinic in New Orleans started by United Methodists, grew out of a need after Hurricane Katrina closed most avenues to health care.

General Church

Stephen Trowen (S.T.) Nagbe United Methodist Church in Monrovia, Liberia, recently reopened after being closed due to disruptions between current and former church members. The reopening came in the wake of a civil court ruling that affirmed the Liberia Conference as the owner of all properties registered in its name that are under dispute, including churches, schools, health facilities and universities. Photo by E Julu Swen, UM News.

United Methodists cheer court win in Liberia

A civil court ruling affirming The United Methodist Church’s Liberia Conference as the sole legal owner of all its properties under dispute is being met with joy and relief.

Disaster Relief

E. Dwight Franklin helps with the gutting of his parents’ home in New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina. Virginia Tech student Ivy Gorman (background) was part of a team from her school working through the Louisiana United Methodist Storm Recovery Center during their spring vacation. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

Special series: Hope Beyond the Storm

Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina devasted the U.S. Gulf Coast, a team from UM News returns to some of the hard-hit areas to talk with church members who recall the devastation and the power of the United Methodist connection.

Latest News

Global Health

The Rev. Sunny Brown Farley, coordinator of the United Methodist Global AIDS Committee, helps cut the ribbon on a new house built for a mother living with HIV in Rwanda. Joining in the festivities are neighboring women and the Rev. Donald E. Messer, a member of the United Methodist Global AIDS Committee. Photo courtesy of Donald E. Messer.

Global AIDS addresses needs in Africa

Young People

Donnette Gering helps her granddaughter Amelia Polreis write a story as part of Grandparents and Me Camp at Lake Poinsett in Arlington, South Dakota. Photo by Lilla Marigza, UM News.

Grandparents, kids connect at camp

Church Leadership

Steven Odhiambo of the Kenya-Ethiopia Conference is consecrated as a home missioner by retired United Methodist Bishop Joaquina F. Nhanala during the Africa Region Deaconess/Home Missioner consecration service on July 9 at the Lutheran Uhuru Hostel and Conference Centre in Moshi, Tanzania. The ceremony marked the first time a United Methodist deaconess/home missioner consecration was held on African soil. Photo courtesy of Laurel Akin.

Diaconal vision for Africa becomes reality

Disaster Relief

The Rev. Callie Winn Crawford describes the process of reopening and restoring Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, sending the 60-foot steeple crashing through the roof. Crawford said the church hosted volunteer teams for almost three years. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Church’s light shines bright in New Orleans

Disaster Relief

Dr. Sue Berry recalls her service directing a special-needs shelter in Lake Charles, La., in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Berry is a member of Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New Orleans. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

New Orleans doctor answers call to serve after hurricane

Global Health

Faith-based free clinic serves community

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Local Church

Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Conference.

Louisiana Conference: Hope Beyond the Storm podcast series

Evangelism

Mary Spurgeon stops to listen to the sounds of nature during Wild Worship, an outdoor gathering offered by her church, First United Methodist of Omaha. Video image by Lilla Marigza, UM News.

Taking worship into the wild

Social Concerns

Some 40 faith leaders from across Washington, D.C., join Aug. 22 in leading a prayer vigil in the city’s ethnically diverse Columbia Heights neighborhood. The group aimed to present a vision of unity and hope in the face of Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital. At center in the green and white stole is the Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol, pastor of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, who spoke at the event. Photo by Sharon Groves, the Festival Center.

Churches push back on armed troops in US cities

Mission and Ministry

The Rev. J. Andre Wilson (center) shares a message with children during Altadena United Methodist Church’s first Sunday worship service at its new temporary home on the campus of the former First United Methodist Church of San Gabriel, Calif. Altadena is one of two United Methodist churches destroyed by wildfires in January. Photo courtesy of Heather Wilson.

LA-area churches seek to rebuild after fires

General Church

Shirley Watkins, a member of Travis Park United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas, addresses the 90th anniversary celebration of The Upper Room on Aug. 21 at The Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Tenn. Watkins was one of three representatives from Travis Park, where the idea for The Upper Room devotional was born. Photo by Laura Buchanan, UM News.

The Upper Room devotional celebrates 90 years

Commentaries

Honoring our differences while celebrating unity

Love more, fear less, in cross-cultural ministry

The Rev. Joelle Henneman. Photo courtesy of the author.

Church can be sanctuary for trans lives

Silence is complicity: Responding to racist mascots

The Rev. Christopher P. Momany. Photo by Kristen Schell.

Troubled times call for revival of personalism

Trust clause stands as connectional cornerstone

Hannah Buchanan. Photo courtesy of the author.

United Methodist pastor: I believe Jesus weeps with us

Affirmation at last: Remembering the Rev. Dr. Rick Huskey

Multimedia

Worship

Taking worship into the wild

Individuals are heading to the woods to connect with God in nature. This unique worship experience is a ministry of First United Methodist Church of Omaha, Nebraska.

Disaster Relief

Louisiana Conference: Hope Beyond the Storm podcast series

Disaster Relief

Sunlight streams through the stained-glass windows as the choir sings during worship at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in New Orleans in July 2025. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Members rallied to save church after Katrina

Church History

“A boy at Gulfside Waveland, Miss.” is the original description of this undated photo taken at Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Miss. The historic African American camp, founded in 1925, was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Photo courtesy of Gulfside Assembly.

Gulfside Assembly 20 years after Katrina

Faith Stories

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.

100 Years of Camp Glisson

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