umc - The United Methodist Reporter

Leaders: Ethnic diversity critical to church future

December 21, 2012 Posted by Heather Hahn, UMNS 1 Comment

Tia Tucker (l) and Robin Pearce participate in worship at First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans. UMNS FILE PHOTO BY KATHY L. GILBERT

CHICAGO—Just about everyone agrees that the United Methodist Church needs to draw more people and younger people to reverse decades of declining membership in the United States. Add to the list the need to bring more people of color into the United Methodist fold. That was an overarching theme of a Nov. 29-Dec. 1 meeting hosted by the United Methodist General Commission on Religion and Race. The gathering, called “Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Changing the Conversation on Race in the UMC,” brought together about 110 clergy and lay people to exchange [...]

Dawn Wiggins Hare named to lead Commission on Status and Role of Women

December 17, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

By Susan Keaton, Special Contributor… Dawn Wiggins Hare, an Alabama circuit court judge who was honored this year for leadership in her Alabama-West Florida Annual (regional) Conference, has been named [...]

Will it be revolution or strangulation for UMC?

December 4, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 8 Comments

By Christy Thomas, Special Contributor… The United Methodist Church cannot be re-formed. It’s over for us with our current structure. The Judicial Council’s decision to revoke the involuntary retirement of Bishop Earl Bledsoe over issues of violation of procedural minutia found in the Book of Discipline (not over the question of his effectiveness, which was not being ruled upon) has forever made this clear. It is over. It’s easy to get frustrated with the Judicial Council for the rulings of the last few months. Their work has thoroughly reversed decisions [...]

Bishop Bledsoe to be reassigned – but how?

November 13, 2012 Posted by Sam Hodges, Managing Editor 2 Comments

No doubt about it: the UMC’s Judicial Council has overturned Bishop Earl Bledsoe’s involuntary retirement and said he must immediately be given an episcopal area to oversee. But how is that assignment to be made? Head scratching could almost be heard around the South Central Jurisdiction. “The circumstances before us are new ground,” said Bishop Janice Huie, president of the South Central Jurisdiction College of Bishops, in a brief, carefully worded statement. The decision to retire Bishop Bledsoe involuntarily was made in July by the South Central Jurisdiction episcopacy committee, [...]

Judicial Council upholds guaranteed appointment for clergy, overturning GC 2012 action

October 29, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 7 Comments

By Neill Caldwell for United Methodist News Service… ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. (UMNS) — The top court of The United Methodist Church has upheld church rules that ensure security of appointment for elders and associate clergy members, striking down legislation passed by the denomination’s lawmaking assembly last spring. The church’s General Conference, meeting in Tampa, Fla., had approved on May 1 a much-debated piece of legislation that would have deleted language in the church’s Book of Discipline ensuring security of appointment. The legislation also would have added steps for discontinuing elders [...]

Local pastors fill big gap for UMC

October 10, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 2 Comments

By Michael A. Riegler, Special Contributor… The September 7 Reporter included a fine article by the Rev. Jay Vorhees. If present trends continue, the article reported, the United Methodist Church will no longer have adequate numbers of ordained elders to serve all of our churches by the year 2032. Simply put, we are retiring elders faster than we are ordaining new ones. Mr. Vorhees also reports that the UMC’s General Board of Higher Education and Ministry held a summit meeting this past August to address our need to be intentional [...]

A ‘dark night’ revives memories

August 14, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

By Kevin Anderson, Special Contributor… On May 20, 1988, a mentally ill woman named Laurie Dann walked into Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Ill., armed with three handguns, shot [...]

Archives and History not ‘purely administrative’

June 25, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

When the General Commission on Archives and History is referenced in an opinion piece as it was in “Judicial Council did Not do the UMC a favor” (by Lonnie Brooks, UMR, June 15, page 6A), I must respond to clarify statements of fact and opinion. The writer refers to GCAH as “a purely administrative agency.” Book of Discipline par. 703.6 clearly states that it carries program-related responsibilities and par. 906.1c makes it accountable to the Connectional Table as a program-related agency. It is true that GCAH is funded through the [...]

Some hard truths about the UMC, including that homosexuality isn’t to blame

June 19, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 3 Comments

By Sky McCracken, Special Contributor, … It’s a quote from a Star Trek movie (First Contact), admittedly with a gender bias, but it certainly applies: “Don’t try to be a great man. Just be a man, and let history make its own judgment.” I think if you’re going to be an elder in the United Methodist Church, it is good advice – and if you are going to be a district superintendent, you really need to be a man/woman and let God be the judge of what you do. That means [...]

You go, Girl Scouts! At 100, group still a UM presence

June 14, 2012 Posted by Mary Jacobs, Staff Writer Leave a Comment

Girl Scouts served as greeters and ushers on Girl Scout Sunday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Va., part of a weeklong celebration of the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary, held at the church in March. PHOTO BY MICHAEL J.P. MORAN

Jillian Cooper, 13, and her Girl Scout troop are looking forward to a trip this fall to Savannah, Ga., to visit the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912. And they’re going with the help and blessing of her church, East Ridge United Methodist in East Ridge, Tenn. As the Girl Scouts of the USA celebrate their 100th anniversary, many United Methodist churches like East Ridge are celebrating right along with them. Since the beginning, United Methodist churches have supported the Girl [...]