News in brief

Response team training set in San Antonio, Pflugerville
Retired Zimbabwe bishop to preach in San Antonio
McAllen District begins running new TV commercial
Giving to Easter offering surpasses $74,000 mark
2 churches receive grants from Youth Service Fund
35 UM congregations pay ’07 apportionments in full
Panel proposes changes in General Conference
Bishops’ president calls for new church movement
Oprah Winfrey’s magazine taps UM pastor for feature
UM TV, radio commercials address campus shootings

Response team training set in San Antonio, Pflugerville
Church members have two opportunities this month to attend Early Response Team training.
St. Matthew’s UMC, San Antonio, is playing host to a two-part training session Monday and Tuesday from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Cost is $30 per person.
First UMC, Pflugerville, is playing host to a 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. training session May 19. Cost is $20.
The UM Committee on Relief certifies specially trained Early Response Teams for initial response after a natural disaster.
Training orients participants to special needs that commonly follow natural disasters. Sessions cover how to equip a team, work with disaster victims, prevent further damage to property, apply tarps and use tools safely.
For information about the San Antonio session, contact Eugene Hileman at aehileman@sbcglobal.net or (210) 646-9003.
For the Pflugerville session contact Emmett Eary at (512) 251-2145.

Retired Zimbabwe bishop to preach in San Antonio
Retired Bishop Abel T. Muzorewa of Zimbabwe is to preach May 13 at Trinity UMC, San Antonio.
Leader of the Zimbabwe Conference from 1968 to 1992, Muzorewa, 82, is to speak during the 9:30 and 10:50 a.m. services. His sermon is titled “Meet the Risen Christ at Work.”
Muzorewa was the first black prime minister of independent Zimbabwe. His son, Tendekai, is a member of Trinity.

McAllen District begins running new TV commercial
The McAllen District began running a new TV commercial last week.
The 30-second spot replaced one that had been running on KRGV TV, Weslaco, for four years. That message featured Bishop Joel N. Martinez.
The new commercial asks, “What are you yearning for? A place to belong? Meaningful relationships? A place to make a difference? God? We’ve got what you are looking for at The United Methodist Church. Come visit us and see.”
The McAllen District began producing its own TV commercials, paid for by district apportionments, several years ago. The goals are to create better UMC name recognition and help Hispanics view the church more positively.

Giving to Easter offering surpasses $74,000 mark
Southwest Texas congregations reported more than $74,000 in contributions during April to the Easter offering for the planned Volunteers in Mission Training Center and Disaster Response Warehouse in Fair Oaks Ranch.
Eighty-eight of 344 congregations had sent in offering proceeds as of April 30, conference Treasurer David A. Seilheimer reported.
In the wake of the Eagle Pass tornado April 24, he noted, the proposed center is “one of the most important ministries we will support this year.”

2 churches receive grants from Youth Service Fund
The Council on Youth Ministries has awarded $500 grants from the Youth Service Fund to two congregations.
First UMC, Bloomington, plans to use the money to help at-risk youths in the community through three outreach programs.
First UMC, San Marcos, is using the money to purchase materials for a junior high mission trip to Austin. Teams from First UMC and two other congregations are to help needy families.
“Penny Wars” at summer camps, midwinter retreats and other youth events generate money for the Youth Service Fund. Any UM youth group may apply for annual grants up to $1,000. Application deadline is April 1 each year.

35 UM congregations pay ’07 apportionments in full
Thirty-five of the 344 Southwest Texas congregations had paid their 2007 apportionments in full as of April 30.
Bruni UMC led the list. The McAllen District congregation has paid 101.04 percent of its share of expenses for ministries across the state,
nation and world.
The count of “100 percent” congregations by district was Austin, 10; Corpus Christi, 5; Kerrville, 3; McAllen, 2; San Angelo,
6; San Antonio, 3; and Victoria, 6.

Panel proposes changes in General Conference
FORT WORTH—Future sessions of the UMC’s top legislative assembly could be smaller than the 1,000-delegate conferences of recent decades.
The Commission on General Conference, which plans the assemblies, will propose limiting the number of delegates to between 500 and 600. The petition was one of several considered April 17-19.
The commission adopted petitions aimed at refining the process for submitting petitions to General Conference and enabling annual conferences to set term limits for delegates if they choose. All these proposals go to the 2008 General Conference for consideration. If approved, they would take effect for the 2012 assembly.

Bishops’ president calls for new church movement
SPRINGMAID BEACH, S.C.—The Council of Bishops president called on the denomination last month to reclaim its
heritage as a Christian movement.
Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Houston told her council colleagues that the church “must be led more by a clear vision and mission than by rules and regulations” if it is to make disciples for the transformation of the world.
In her April 30 address, Huie said John and Charles Wesley began a Methodist movement by ministering to people with no economic, religious or political power and helping them become what God intended.
The UMC is growing throughout the world but shrinking in the United States at a time when 50 percent of the U.S. population has no ongoing relationship with a faith community, she said.

Oprah Winfrey’s magazine taps UM pastor for feature
HOUSTON—A Houston pastor is serving on a panel for a new feature called “What Do I Do Now?” in talk show host Oprah Winfrey’s publication O, The Oprah Magazine.
An introductory article in the May issue includes a photograph of the Rev. Rudy Ramus, pastor of St. John’s UMC, Houston, along with five other contributors to the monthly feature.

UM TV, radio commercials address campus shootings
BLACKSBURG, Va.—The region surrounding Virginia Tech received a faith-based message of comfort and hope from the
people of UMC last month.
During the week of April 23, more than 300 television spots and radio commercials reminded viewers and listeners in southwestern Virginia that UMs in Virginia were praying with them. A full-page ad in the Sunday Roanoke Times proclaimed that “fear is not the only force at work
in the world today.”
The $32,000 effort was expected to reach about 378,000 households, or 83 percent of the Roanoke area market. Funding came from the Virginia Conference, the General Commission on Communication and the UM Committee on Relief.