LInda Bloom, UMNS

UMCOR makes grants for Sandy recovery

May 6, 2013 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

Directors of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) have approved $3 million in grants for Hurricane Sandy recovery in New York and New Jersey. The work will require help from thousands of volunteers through the UMC’s volunteer-in-mission networks. PHOTO COURTESY GREATER NEW JERSEY CONFERENCE

NEW YORK—United Methodists in New York were counting on the regional shipments of 15,000 flood buckets that they distributed to Hurricane Sandy survivors last fall. But they didn’t expect the more than 11,000 blankets from a faraway source, said Bishop Martin McLee, leader of the denomination’s New York Conference. “There was this wonderful call, asking if we would receive blankets from Russia,” Bishop McLee told directors of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries on April 11 as he recounted the conference’s relief efforts. The United Methodist Committee on [...]

For CBS series producer, focus on faith is key

April 30, 2013 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

NEW YORK—When John P. “Jack” Blessington of CBS worked with a United Methodist congregation in Manhattan on a televised Christmas Eve service, he looked beyond the seasonal trappings to see how the church was living out the gospel. Along with the carols and readings, A Christmas for Everyone, which aired in 2010, included a focus on the social justice work and interfaith connections of the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. “We’re kind of a quirky church, and he picked up on all the quirkiness and seemed to embrace [...]

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: John Blessington, Linda Bloom

Global Ministries photographer had eye on King

March 26, 2013 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

King (left), flanked by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, shakes hands with Rabbi Abraham Heschel during a February 1968 prayer vigil at Arlington Cemetery.

A year to the day before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated, the civil rights leader made a major public speech against the war in Vietnam. John C. Goodwin, then 25 years old, was at Riverside Church in New York to document it. His photographs of King from that day and several other anti-war events from 1967 and 1968 have been in demand ever since. Mr. Goodwin, who later spent many years as the staff photographer for the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, had a goal [...]

UMC launches new ecumenical, interfaith office

February 22, 2013 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

The Rev. Carol Lakota Eastin, far right, and others of Native American heritage take part in “An Act of Repentance toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples,” at the 2012 General Conference.

On any given Sunday, more Christians are attending worship services in China than in the United States or Europe. That is one indicator of the challenges presented by a changing world of ecumenism as the United Methodist Church reorganizes how it addresses issues of Christian unity and relationships with other faiths. After a denominational vote by the 2012 United Methodist General Conference, the formerly independent General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (GCCUIC) has become an office on ecumenical and interfaith ministries lodged within the United Methodist Council of [...]

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: ecumenical, Linda Bloom

2013 hunger report: Goals are ‘within reach’

February 11, 2013 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

Sharmila Chaudhari feeds her daughter Sanjana, 19 months, at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Home in Dhangadhi, Nepal. Forty-one percent of Nepali children younger than age 5 suffer from malnutrition. UMNS PHOTO COURTESY LAURA ELIZABETH POHL/BREAD FOR THE WORLD

Sometimes, reducing childhood malnutrition and mortality can be as easy as substituting one crop for another. That has been the result of a United Methodist initiative in the Kamina area [...]

Church’s relief efforts continue at home, overseas

January 4, 2013 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

• Manuel Gomes, whose home in the Iron Bound section of Newark, N.J., was flooded by Hurricane Sandy, eats a meal provided by Morrow Memorial United Methodist in Maplewood, N.J. UMNS PHOTO BY THE REV. CHRIS HECKERT

A late-season hurricane that swept the U.S. Northeast coast and a typhoon flooding the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines capped disaster-response efforts by United Methodists during 2012. Although [...]

Filed Under: Home Center Position 4R, News Tagged With: Linda Bloom, UMCOR

UM agency’s board enters new era of mission

November 20, 2012 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

NEW YORK—A few years ago, the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries began an extended, and sometimes painful, process of re-inventing itself. The results, which include a significant decrease in the size of its board of directors, staff reductions and a realigning of structure and priorities, were apparent Oct. 22-24 when the mission agency had its first meeting of the new quadrennium in the board’s headquarters at 475 Riverside Drive in New York City. Overall, the bureaucracy of the United Methodist Church is changing, and the church’s agencies and [...]

‘Labor of Love’ – Construction ministry restores historic church

November 12, 2012 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

A stained-glass window is carried to St. George United Methodist Church in Maxton, N.C., as part of the church’s renovation through the North Carolina Conference construction ministry program. PHOTOS BY JOHN PAUL MCGUIRE

The United Methodist congregation in Maxton, N.C., a farming community of several thousand, was in a bind. Its historic building—one of the first built for an African-American congregation—was in such disrepair that it already had been condemned by the denomination’s North Carolina Conference, and the congregation was worshipping elsewhere. “We really needed to restore that church, renovate it or tear it down and build another,” said the Rev. Robert A. Fairley Sr., 75, who was baptized at St. George and came back as a pastor in 1983. Because local banks [...]

Concerns rising for Christians in Syria

November 7, 2012 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

The Rev. Motoe Yamada (l), senior pastor of Japanese United Methodist Church in Sacramento, Calif., and Metropolitan Mor Eustathius Matta Roham of Syria are shown at a World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting in 2006. UMNS PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTOE YAMADA

United Methodists who have had longtime relationships with Christians in the Middle East through ecumenical organizations are concerned about their plight in Syria and other countries. The Rev. Motoe Yamada, senior pastor of the Japanese United Methodist Church in Sacramento, Calif., first become acquainted with Mor Eustathius Matta Roham, the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan (archbishop) of Jazirah and Euphrates, in 2006. Both are members of the World Council of Churches Central Committee. “He’s really a down-to-earth person,” Ms. Yamada said. “He’s always willing to explain his traditions of the Syrian Orthodox [...]

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Motoe Yamada, Syria

Green UM colleges make ‘Cool Schools’ list

October 8, 2012 Posted by LInda Bloom, UMNS Leave a Comment

Solar panels at Duke University’s student center provide approximately 40 percent of the hot water for the building. UMNS PHOTO COURTESY DUKE UNIVERSITY

At Duke University, students in the 14 freshmen dorms on East Campus compete in an Eco-Olympics that results in lowered utility use for the remainder of the academic year. Allegheny College students learn to reduce waste through the One Less Cup campaign, which promotes reusable takeout containers, and the annual “Trashion Show.” Composting at Green Mountain College goes full cycle when food waste from dorms and the dining hall is used to fertilize vegetables that are grown on the campus farm and then prepared for student meals. Such activities illustrate [...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Allegheny College, Duke University, Green Mountain College

UMCOR makes grants for Sandy recovery

For CBS series producer, focus on faith is key

Global Ministries photographer had eye on King

UMC launches new ecumenical, interfaith office

2013 hunger report: Goals are ‘within reach’

Church’s relief efforts continue at home, overseas

UM agency’s board enters new era of mission

‘Labor of Love’ – Construction ministry restores historic church

Concerns rising for Christians in Syria

Green UM colleges make ‘Cool Schools’ list

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