News Briefs
Bus riders see missions on way to UMW assembly
Special offering Sunday supports Native Americans
Saturday event to mark C.S. Lewis’ conversion
May 6 health fair planned at San Antonio church
22 UM congregations pay ’06 apportionments in full
Meeting in Allen to explore African mission partnerships
Connectional giving runs $136,000 ahead of ’05 totals
Hundreds of singers headed for May 5-7 youth choir rally
Many expected to watch how Judicial Council rules
Incident at Duke reveals deep issues, bishop says
Gallup analysis: UMs have poor church attendance
UMs in Northern Illinois, Muslims sign covenant
British Methodists, Muslims seek greater understanding
Wiley College begins effort to help burned churches
UM relief agency wraps up work in Bosnia, Herzegovina
Bus riders see missions on way to UMW assembly
Southwest Texas UM Women are leaving by bus April 3for the UMW Assembly in Anaheim, Calif. The every-four-year meeting runs May 4 to 7.
Along the way the churchwomen plan to visit various UM ministries. The list of stops includes Lydia Patterson Institute, a high school in El Paso; Border Ministry of the Desert in Tucson, Ariz.; Yuma (Ariz.) Indian Mission; Calexico (Calif.) Neighborhood House; and Toberman Settlement House in Anaheim.
The Southwest Texans are to return May 9.
Special offering Sunday supports Native Americans
Southwest Texans can join UMs around the globe April 30in collecting a special offering for Native American ministries.
The offering, one of six on the UMC calendar each year, supports scholarships for Native Americans attending UM-related colleges and urban ministries with Native Americans.
Saturday event to mark C.S. Lewis’ conversion
Church members can celebrate the 75th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’ conversion to Christianity April 28 in Austin.
St. Edward’s University is playing host to the third Austin C.S. Lewis Conference. Lewis scholars are to make presentations throughout the day about one of the 20th century’s leading Christian apologists.
Registration fee is $85 per person. Check www.hillcountryinstitute.org.
May 6 health fair planned at San Antonio church
Highland Terrace UMC and Aldersgate UMC, San Antonio, are sponsoring a health fair May 6 at Highland Terrace. The fair is to run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Services are to include blood pressure checks, diabetes screening, mammograms and prostrate cancer tests. Information about home health care and services for seniors is to be available.
For information or to make a mammogram appointment, call Nancy Parker, Wesley Nurse, at (210) 534-6179.
22 UM congregations pay ’06 apportionments in full
Twenty-two of the 346 Southwest Texas congregations had paid their 2006 apportionments in full as of March 31.
“Of particular note,” said the Rev. David A. Seilheimer, treasurer, “is Bee Creek UMC in the Austin District. Bee Creek is one of our new churches.”
The count of “100 percent” congregations by district was Austin, 7; Corpus Christi, 4; McAllen, 1; San Angelo, 3; San Antonio, 2; and Victoria, 5.
Apportioned amounts represent a congregation’s share of expenses for ministries across the state, nation and world.
Meeting in Allen to explore African mission partnerships
Southwest Texas UMs are invited to a May 5-6 meeting in Allen about mission partnerships with churches in Cameroon.
The meeting is to begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday and continue through 2 p.m. Saturday. Registration is $25 per person; childcare will be available.
The Rev. George and Wanda Holcombe of Austin, retired UM missionaries, are helping the General Board of Global Ministries promote the New Church Initiative in the African nation. It is intended to aid newly forming congregations become Methodist churches.
The Rev. Wes Magruder, a UM missionary, and Cameroon pastor Simeon Nomo are to tell about three-year partnerships between UM congregations in the United States and 19 new churches in Cameroon.
For more information contact the Holcombes at (512) 252-2756 or go to gbgm-umc.org/Cameroon.
Connectional giving runs $136,000 ahead of ’05 totals
Southwest Texas congregations gave $136,122 more to connectional causes through March than they did during the first three months of 2005.
Contributions to apportioned funds totaled $1.97 million. That’s 20.25 percent of the $9.7 million asking for the year. The remittance rate is up 0.8 percent from March last year.
The San Angelo District had paid the highest percentage of apportionments through March—26.64.
Other district percentages were Kerrville, 26.17; McAllen, 23.13; Victoria, 22.84; Austin, 19.8; Corpus Christi, 18.5; San Antonio, 16.14.
Hundreds of singers headed for May 5-7 youth choir rally
Several hundred young singers are expected in Austin May 5-7 for the 45th annual Youth Choir Rally.
Joseph Martin, composer and former music faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, is featured clinician for the event at Oak Hill UMC.
The Council on Youth Ministry sponsors the annual rally.
Many expected to watch how Judicial Council rules
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Many eyes were expected to be on the Judicial Council today as it continues meeting in Overland Park.
The council, which convened Wednesday, meets through Saturday.
Observers want to see how the UM “supreme court” handles requests that it reconsider two previous rulings on pastoral authority.
Those decisions, issued last fall, deal with the case of the Rev. Ed Johnson, pastor of South Hill (Va.) UMC. He blocked a practicing homosexual from joining the congregation.
The Judicial Council has received briefs from the active participants in the case, including Johnson, Bishop Charlene Kammerer and the Virginia Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. In addition, a number of “friend of the court” briefs have been filed.
Incident at Duke reveals deep issues, bishop says
DURHAM, N.C.—The sex scandal involving Duke University’s lacrosse team has raised multiple issues about privilege and cultural values within higher education, the church and wider society.
That’s the view of retired Bishop Ken Carder, director of pulpit and pew at the Center for Excellence in Ministry at Duke University Divinity School.
Issues at the UM-related school “are far more systemic and widespread” than the college and its larger community of Durham, N.C., Carter said.
A female black student at North Carolina Central University said three white team members sexually assaulted her March 13. The players deny any wrongdoing.
The alleged rape and “inexcusable racial slurs” reported in connection with it have brought to light “the dark realities” of systemic racism, economic disparity, sexual exploitation, alcohol abuse, “privilege-induced blindness and insensitivities and our ill-formed communities,” Carder said. “It is obvious that education and privilege do not eradicate endemic sin,” he said.
Gallup analysis: UMs have poor church attendance
WASHINGTON—An April 14 analysis released by the Gallup Organization finds that Church of Christ members and Mormons are most likely to attend worship services often.
UM attendance averages at 44 percent, poll results show.
Pollsters from the Princeton, N.J.,-based research organization found that 68 percent of Church of Christ members said they attend services at least once a week or almost every week. Sixty-seven percent of Mormons said they followed the same practice.
The survey found that denominations known for conservative or evangelical theology have higher reported attendance than those traditionally considered mainline denominations.
UMs in Northern Illinois, Muslims sign covenant
CHICAGO—UMs and Muslims in Northern Illinois have officially created a covenant relationship.
More than 100 leaders of the greater Chicago Islamic community and the Northern Illinois Conference celebrated that covenant at an April 6 interfaith banquet at the Islamic Foundation in Villa Park.
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung and Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, signed a “Declaration of Relationship” committing the two groups to “a relationship grounded in our mutual love for God and dedication to the ethical core of our faiths.”
British Methodists, Muslims seek greater understanding
BOLTON, England—The Rev. Doug Smith is grateful for the time his Muslim neighbors and colleagues devoted to him when he worked as an attorney for a Texas-based oil company.
Smith, who leads four Methodist churches near Bolton in northwest England, invited Moulana Faruk Ali to speak about Islam at a districtwide Methodist mission event in March. He and Ali serve as chaplains at the Bolton Royal Infirmary.
Smith said Ali has been “waging peace” there by making people feel better for the past 17 years. He said he hoped that by inviting Ali to talk about his experience as a Muslim, people would get to know there are many sides of Islam.
Wiley College begins effort to help burned churches
MARSHALL, Texas—The student government association at Wiley College has begun an initiative to help Birmingham-Southern College raise funds for rebuilding nine rural churches in Alabama that were burned by two Birmingham-Southern students.
Both schools are UM-related.
Joseph Morale, vice president for student affairs and enrollment services at historically black Wiley College, said students must be aware and responsive to the world outside Marshall. The college’s SGA has committed to matching all funds raised at Wiley during “The Alabama Church Burning Assistance Campaign.”
UM relief agency wraps up work in Bosnia, Herzegovina
STAMFORD, Conn.—After 13 years the UM Committee on Relief has officially concluded relief work in Bosnia and Herze-govina.
That work began in 1993 after Croatians destroyed a 16th century bridge at Mostar.
Over the years committee staff members have designed and managed 140 different programs, benefiting both individuals and communities. The committee spent $133 million to restore households and rebuild communities. An estimated 100,000 people benefited from those programs.
