UM News: Your official source of comprehensive information and news about The United Methodist Church.

Top Story

Emily Allen, a veteran lay delegate from the California-Nevada Conference, delivers a report during the 2024 United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. on May 3, 2024. Allen has been elected to serve as the interim General Conference secretary beginning July 1. She will lead the planning of The United Methodist Church’s international legislative assembly, scheduled May 8-16, 2028, in Minneapolis. Photo by Larry McCormack, UM News.

Bishops elect interim General Conference head

Emily Allen will lead the planning of The United Methodist Church’s international legislative assembly, next scheduled in 2028.

Editor's Picks

Mission and Ministry

Holly Petti and her dog Paisley chat with people entering the Sanctuary at Pinnacle View United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Ark. The church has a designated dog greeter every Sunday in addition to numerous pet outreach ministries the congregation offers. Image from video by Lilla Marigza, UM News.

Dog church welcomes people and pets

A United Methodist church in Little Rock celebrates Earth Day by recognizing God’s care for his people and the pets they love.

General Conference

Planners shorten GC2028, discuss Minneapolis

Organizers are pressing forward with holding the 2028 United Methodist General Conference over eight days in Minneapolis. The group is also taking steps to protect delegates amid heightened immigration enforcement.

Bishops

United Methodist leaders pray during a Feb. 27-28 summit in Nashville, Tenn., focused on the future of episcopal leadership. This week, the denomination’s Judicial Council will take up questions related to the allocation of U.S. bishops going forward. Photo by Andrew Jensen, General Council on Finance and Administration.

Church leaders chart new future for bishops

As they wait for a big decision by The United Methodist Church’s top court, church leaders say they are already collaborating like never before to strengthen the episcopacy.

Latest News

Ecumenism

Retired professor Jin Kwan Kwon (left) and Vanderbilt University professor Joerg Rieger discuss Minjung theology — a liberation theology that emerged in the 1970s in South Korea — during a lecture March 31 at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn. The event was hosted by Vanderbilt’s Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice, which was founded by Rieger. Photo by the Rev. Thomas E. Kim, UM News.

Minjung theology offers lessons for today

Bishops

Bishops urged to stop looking backward

Judicial Council

Retired Bishop Marcus Matthews and other United Methodist bishops process into the opening worship service of the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C., on April 23, 2024. The Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, has released three decisions, including one related to the allocation of U.S. bishops. File photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Church court overturns bishop funding structure

Faith Stories

A new book, “Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation and Love,” documents the Rev. James Lawson Jr.’s prominent role working with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement. At top right, Lawson helps lead the March for Peace, Jobs and Freedom in Washington in 1984 with members of Holman United Methodist Church. He was the longtime pastor of Holman, located in Los Angeles. At bottom right, Lawson makes a point during a 2016 interview with United Methodist News. Book cover courtesy of Random House; march by John C. Goodwin, Board of Global Ministries; portrait photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

The heroic life of the Rev. James Lawson

Theology and Education

The Rev. Young Seon Christina Kim, a United Methodist missionary with Global Ministries and founder of Global Mission Secondary School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, addresses parents and guests at the school’s second graduation ceremony in November. Kim emphasized that the school is a Christian community where mentoring and service shape students’ character, preparing them to become the next generation of leaders in Tanzania. Photo by Asaph Sungura Ally, UM News.

Secondary school transforms lives in Tanzania

Mission and Ministry

An activist speaks April 23, 2024, during a prayer vigil at the Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., to protest the bank’s investments in fossil fuels. Fossil Free UMC and the UM Creation Justice Movement held the rally with local activists during the first day of General Conference 2024 in Charlotte. File photo courtesy of UM Creation Justice Movement.

Faith and hope power Global Ministries EarthKeepers

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe Now

More Headlines

Local Church

Emily Yellin (center), co-author of civil rights leader the Rev. James Lawson Jr.’s memoir, speaks during a book launch Feb. 18 at Woolworth Theatre in Nashville, Tenn. Judge John C. Lawson II, Lawson’s son, is to her right, and to her left is Dennis Dickerson, a historian from Vanderbilt University. Photo by Joe Howell, Vanderbilt University.

Commentaries

Multimedia

Social Concerns

Recipients of sun-powered ovens learn to adapt local recipes to the new cooking method. This photo was taken during a United Methodist Solar Oven Partners workshop for new oven owners in Bo, Sierra Leone, in December 2025. Photo courtesy of Solar Oven Partners.

Solar oven ministry changes lives

United Methodist Solar Oven Partners promotes renewable energy and improves health in vulnerable communities in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone and the Navajo Nation.

Faith Sharing