News Briefs

Volunteers head to classes for disaster-response teams
The Rev. Paul A. Grout.Q dies June 28 in Austin at 76
40 UM congregations pay ’06 apportionments in full
Board of Laity sets dates for 2 assemblies in 2007
UM magazine carries item on Southwest Texas church
Corpus Christi congregation slates free July concerts
Connectional giving runs $315,000 ahead of ’05 totals
Session to help church members meet legislators
4 UM congregations make list of influential churches
Singer Willie Nelson buys boyhood church building
British Methodists won’t bless same-sex unions
Conferences assess damage from East Coast flooding

Volunteers head to classes for disaster-response teams
Volunteers are to gather this weekend in San Antonio and Kingsville for early disaster-response team training.
“The purpose of team training is to orient people to the special needs and situations that are common after most natural disasters,” said Barbara Trip, a UM Committee on Relief trainer. “In the first few days following a major disaster, only teams that are trained and self-contained are useful.”
Trip, executive director of a UM disaster-response facility in North Carolina, is leading the two seven-hour training sessions. One runs Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Laurel Heights UMC, San Antonio. The other is scheduled for Sunday from 1 to 8 p.m. at First UMC, Kingsville.


The Rev. Paul A. Grout.Q dies June 28 in Austin at 76
Memorial services were June 28 in Austin for the Rev. Paul A. Grout.Q.
The retired Southwest Texas Conference clergy member died June 25 in Austin. He was 76.
Grout.Q began his ministry in 1950 in the Southwest Texas Conference. He transferred to the Rio Grande Conference in 1951. He returned to the Southwest Texas Conference in 1958.
He served Southwest Texas congregations in Austin, Bastrop, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Garwood, Goldthwaite and LaGrange. He retired in 1995.


40 UM congregations pay ’06 apportionments in full
Forty of the 346 Southwest Texas congregations had paid their 2006 apportionments in full as of June 30.
Skidmore UMC led the list. The 54-member congregation had paid 104 percent of its share of expenses for ministries across the state, nation and world.
Bruni UMC had paid 101 percent of its apportionments.
The count of “100 percent” congregations by district was Austin, 11; Corpus Christi, 9; Kerrville, 6; McAllen, 5; San Angelo, 6; San Antonio, 3; and Victoria, 10.


Board of Laity sets dates for 2 assemblies in 2007
The Board of Laity has set the dates for two 2007 Laity Assemblies.
The “sooner” assembly is scheduled Feb. 23-24 at Mount Wesley Conference Center, Kerrville. The “later” assembly is slated for March 2-3 at First UMC, Kingsville.


UM magazine carries item on Southwest Texas church
The “Idea Mart” in the July-August Interpreter features an item about St. John’s UMC, Rio Grande City.
The official UMC program magazine reports on how the 59-member congregation observed Open House Month during September 2005.
St. John’s invited teachers new to the community to worship, played host to a hymn sing and ice cream party, and conducted a prayer service for the world community.
The prayer service remembered people who had died as a result of natural disasters or acts of violence.


Corpus Christi congregation slates free July concerts
First UMC, Corpus Christi, plays host to the second of three free July Jubilee Concerts Sunday.
Robert Hammitt is to play the church’s grand pipe organ at 7 p.m. Others from the music ministry are to join him.
Joseph Daniel, associate director of music at the Cathedral of Detroit, is to play an organ recital July 23 at 7 p.m. The Portland native has a doctorate in organ from the University of Michigan.


Connectional giving runs $315,000 ahead of ’05 totals
Southwest Texas congregations gave $315,000 more to connectional causes through June than they did during the first six months of 2005.
Contributions to apportioned funds totaled $4.2 million. That’s 43.1 percent of the $9.7 million asking for the year. The remittance rate is up 1.9 percent from June last year.
The Kerrville District had paid the highest percentage of apportionments through June—55.
Other district percentages were San Angelo, 53; Victoria, 50; McAllen, 45; Austin, 40; San Antonio, 39; and Corpus Christi, 38.


Session to help church members meet legislators
Southwest Texas UMs can learn July 21 in Austin how to develop relationships with state lawmakers.
Texas Impact, an interfaith legislative advocacy group supported by the Board of Church and Society, is offering the training session.
Training is scheduled from 8 to 9:30 a.m. in the Capitol Extension. Members of the Travis County legislative delegation are to take part.
The July 21 gathering is the second session in Impact’s “Advocacy Summer Camp.”
Future sessions are titled “Media Savvy” (Aug. 4) and “Backstage at the Capitol” (Aug. 18).
For more information check www.texasimpact.com.

4 UM congregations make list of influential churches
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—At least four UM congregations are listed among the “50 Most Influential Churches” in the July issue of The Church Report.
The churches and their rankings are Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kan. (7); Ginghamsburg UMC, Tipp City, Ohio (9); Glide Memorial UMC, San Francisco (24); and Windsor Village UMC, Houston (43).
Topping the list is the nondenominational Saddleback Church of Lake Forrest, Calif. It is led by the Rev. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life.
The Church Report sent its 2005 survey to 2,000 church leaders. For details, go to www.thechurchreport.com.


Singer Willie Nelson buys boyhood church building
ABBOTT, Texas—Country singer Willie Nelson has bought the Methodist church building in Abbott where he honed his musical skills as a boy.
Nelson, 73, celebrated preservation of the 1899 building during a special service July 2.
The Central Texas Conference merged the Abbott congregation with one in nearby Hillsboro. The last UM service at the Abbott church was in May.


British Methodists won’t bless same-sex unions
EDINBURGH, Scotland—The British Methodist Church won’t bless same-sex relationships. That decision followed a lengthy and passionate debate on the floor of the church’s annual conference, which met June 23-29 in Edinburgh.
The ruling disappoints those who hoped the church would allow liturgical recognition of same-sex civil partnerships, legal in Britain since December 1994. Civil partnerships give many of the rights and privileges enjoyed by married couples—including survivor benefits, pension rights and paternal responsibility for children—to same-sex partners.
The ruling puts British Methodist pastors in a similar position to United Methodist clerics in places where the state, in varying degrees, recognizes same-sex relationships but the church does not.


Conferences assess damage from East Coast flooding
WASHINGTON—Conferences along the East Coast are assessing damage after massive flooding in late June. Four days of heavy rain dumped up to 13 inches on parts of the region.
The UM Committee on Relief expects to receive emergency grant requests soon. At the committee’s request, New Jersey received 400 flood buckets from Mission Central in Pennsylvania.
Donation for cleanup supplies can be put into any church offering plate and designated for Advance No. 901670, Domestic Disaster Response.