Home Center Position 2

UMR Communications, including United Methodist Reporter, to close

May 16, 2013 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor 13 Comments

Board members and top staff of UMR Communications hold communion after closure decision.

Finding no viable plan for reversing financial losses of recent months, UMR Communications will cease operations on May 31. UMR Communications (UMRC) publishes the United Methodist Reporter in print and digital formats and online, and provides printing and communication services to churches and other nonprofits. The final print Reporter will carry the date June 7, but will be mailed and printed by May 31. The UMRC board reluctantly but unanimously voted this morning to close during a tearful meeting at the nonprofit’s Dallas office. “At one time, our ministry produced nearly [...]

Two clergy hit the highway to save lives

May 13, 2013 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor Leave a Comment

The Rev. Charles Maynard crossed four counties in his 100-mile walk. PHOTOS COURTESY OF FIRST UMC MARYVILLE

The goal of beating malaria in Africa put two United Methodist clergymen on the road in hilly East Tennessee. And they weren’t riding in automobiles, either. The Rev. Charles Maynard walked 100 miles from April 21-25 in the Holston Conference’s Maryville District, visiting 17 United Methodist churches to promote Holston’s ambitious goal for assisting the UMC’s Imagine No Malaria campaign. As he walked, the Rev. Randy Pasqua pedaled, covering 130 miles by road bike over two days, and visiting 19 churches with the same message. Mr. Pasqua described his journey [...]

Filed Under: Features, Home Center Position 2 Tagged With: Charles Maynard, Imagine No Malaria, Randy Pasqua, sam hodges

Bishops ‘get act together’ in San Diego meeting

May 9, 2013 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor Leave a Comment

Bishop Sally Dyck of the Northern Illinois Conference hands out health kits during at the California-Mexico border.

Active bishops of the UMC wrapped up their meeting in San Diego on Thursday, emerging with no action items or joint statements, but insisting the time had been fruitful. The sessions at The Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa were not open to the press, though the bishops did invite press coverage of a visit they made to the gritty California-Mexico border, to underscore the importance of the immigration issue. Greater Northwest Area Bishop Grant Hagiya compared himself and his colleagues to dysfunctional family members who have been too polite to one another. He said [...]

Retired UM pastor faces possible church trial for officiating at gay son’s wedding

May 6, 2013 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor 5 Comments

A new, high-profile episode in the United Methodist Church’s struggle over homosexuality has emerged, with a retired UM pastor and Yale Divinity School dean, the Rev. Thomas Ogletree, facing a possible church trial for presiding at the wedding of his gay son to another man. The UMC’s Book of Discipline forbids clergy from officiating at same-sex unions, and also holds that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. The New York Times reported that Dr. Ogletree had refused a complaining pastor’s request, in a mediation meeting, to apologize or say [...]

RVers work for parking at UM camps in Florida

May 2, 2013 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

The Rev. Gary Judson, a retired pastor working with NOMADS, helps transform a former storage building into a nature center for kids who will attend Warren Willis Camp this summer.

By Susan Green, Special Contributor… FRUITLAND PARK—Keeping the peace can be hard, even labor-intensive. The pastoral settings of the camps and retreat centers operated by the Florida Conference might look natural, but they don’t stay that way without human intervention. They require groundskeeping, housekeeping and structural maintenance. All that upkeep can run up quite a tab for the retreat ministry. Enter the NOMADS and Workampers, travelers who often are retired and seeking a place in the sun to ride out harsh northern winters. In exchange for a set number of [...]

Photo challenge gives us ‘companions on the journey’

April 30, 2013 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

By Sophia Agtarap, Special Contributor… I have served since last September as minister of online engagement for the UMC’s Rethink Church campaign. My task? Reaching out, engaging in and encouraging conversation on social media with 18- to 34-year-olds who feel disconnected from the church—as well as those who have chosen to stay—about the intersections of faith, spirituality and culture, and what the church is and could be. As a 30-something young adult who spends much of her life immersed in social media, I see over and over the ways the church [...]

Rabbi speaks again, thanks to Perkins School of Theology archivist

April 26, 2013 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor Leave a Comment

The prophetic voice of a late Dallas rabbi, one who had close ties to Southern Methodist University, will be heard again, thanks to a curious archivist who wasn’t content just to file away some reel-to-reel tapes he found in a library storage room. SMU’s Perkins School of Theology will, on May 5, hold an event to mark the debut of the Rabbi Levi A. Olan Digital Collection. It contains more than 200 sermons that Rabbi Olan preached over Dallas radio. Perkins’ Bridwell Library is making both text and audio of [...]

Bob Edgar, UM pastor, led NCC and Common Cause, and served in Congress

April 23, 2013 Posted by Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service Leave a Comment

The Rev. Bob Edgar, a Democratic congressman and United Methodist minister who went on to lead the National Council of Churches through a painful series of restructuring cuts, died suddenly Tuesday (April 23) at age 69. The man religious leaders remembered as a “bridge builder,” suffered a heart attack and had been exercising on a treadmill in his home in Burke, Va., said Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for Common Cause. Edgar became president of the Washington-based nonpartisan advocacy group in 2007 after serving two terms as the general secretary of the [...]

Bishops to hold second straight private meeting

April 19, 2013 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor 1 Comment

When active United Methodist bishops gather in San Diego, May 5-8, that will be the second consecutive large gathering of bishops closed to the press and other visitors—a move that is prompting criticism within the UMC. The Council of Bishops, including retirees, met in private in November at St. Simons Island, Ga. In announcing that meeting would be closed, Bishop Rosemarie Wenner of Germany, president of the Council of Bishops, described it as mainly a spiritual retreat. She said it would be focused on preparing the bishops, including those newly [...]

UMs warming up for Home Run movie

April 17, 2013 Posted by Mary Jacobs, Staff Writer Leave a Comment

The Rev. Jorge Acevedo is heading to the movies this weekend with a group of folks from his church. They’ll see Home Run, a fictional film portrayal of a ministry that’s at the core of his United Methodist congregation, Grace Church in Fort Myers, Fla. Home Run, which opens in 400 theaters on April 19, tells the story of Cory Brand (Scott Elrod), a professional baseball player whose alcoholism and anger issues send his career into tailspin. When he runs into trouble with the law, his agent (Vivica A. Fox) [...]