News Briefs

Church in Corpus Christi to host Thanksgiving event
First UMC, Alice, joins list of welcoming congregations
Asian group plans meeting on work in India, Pakistan
Victoria District schedules spiritual retreat Sept. 23-24
Gospel trio to sing Sept. 24 at church in San Antonio
Top theologian to deliver 2 lectures in Georgetown
UMC Web site features video story from Boerne
Southwest Texas churches make news in Interpreter
Application deadline nears for youth school at SMU
Historic Gulfside Assembly destroyed by hurricane
UM relief agency raises $900,000 for Katrina aid
Texas UMs seek $1 million to feed storm evacuees
Bishop resigns episcopacy after complaint resolution

Church in Corpus Christi to host Thanksgiving event
First UMC, Corpus Christi, is playing host to the 2005 Bishop’s Thanksgiving Gathering Nov. 20.
Bishop Joel N. Martinez announced the site for the fifth annual event Aug. 26.
The service, a time for people from the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas conferences to celebrate their many blessings from God, is to begin at 5 p.m.


First UMC, Alice, joins list of welcoming congregations
First UMC, Alice, was recognized Aug. 22 as a certified welcoming congregation for 2005.
The 320-member congregation is the 18th certified in the Southwest Texas Conference and the 14th in the McAllen District.
Southwest Texas has more certified welcoming congregations than any conference in the eight-state South Central Jurisdiction.
Granted by the General Commission on Communication, certification means First UMC has systematically evaluated its hospitality and intentionally embraced a lifestyle of welcoming newcomers. Congregations are to renew their certification annually.
The certification program is part of the denominationwide Igniting Ministry hospitality and image campaign.


Asian group plans meeting on work in India, Pakistan
An unofficial UM interest group is seeking Southwest Texans of Asian decent who would support mission work in India and Pakistan.
The Southern Asian National Caucus of UMs has scheduled a Sept. 16-18 meeting in St. Louis to discuss the mission outreach.
The caucus is open to all UMs from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and other South Asian countries.
For information contact Jacob S. Dharmaraj at (914) 245-4682, (914) 245-3114 or jdharmaraj@aol.com.


Victoria District schedules spiritual retreat Sept. 23-24
Victoria District UMs can spend a weekend exploring the environment and renewing their spirits Sept. 23-24 near Weimar.
The district Council on Ministries is sponsoring the event at Cathedral Oaks Retreat Center. The agenda includes sessions on our place in the environment, meditating on scripture, contemplative prayer and walking a labyrinth.
Registration fee is $30 per person. For more information contact Pastor D. Camille Bryant at camillebryant@yahoo.com or Judy Johnson at Judith@satx.rr.com.


Gospel trio to sing Sept. 24 at church in San Antonio
“David’s Song,” a southern gospel trio, is to perform a free concert at 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at Laurel Heights UMC, San Antonio.
The group includes David McKain, South Texas Gospel Music Association “Musician of the Year” for 2005. All three singers are named David.


Top theologian to deliver 2 lectures in Georgetown
One of America’s top theologians is to deliver two Wilson Lectures Sept. 29 at UM-related Southwestern University, Georgetown.
The Rev. Stanley Hauerwas is to discuss “The End of Religious Pluralism” at 11 a.m. and “Why No One Wants to Die in America” at 7 p.m. Both free lectures are to be in the Lois Perkins Chapel.
Time magazine named Hauerwas “America’s Best Theologian” in 2001. A Texas native, he is Gilbert T. Rowe professor of theological ethics at UM-related Duke University Divinity School in Durham, N.C.


UMC Web site features video story from Boerne
The official UM Church Web site features a video story about an outreach ministry in Boerne.
UMTV, a Web-based video service, reported on First UMC’s inviting members and neighbors during the summer to free weekly drive-in movies in the parking lot.
“There are people from our neighborhood here,” the Rev. Russell Miller is quoted as saying. “There are some families I don’t recognize.”
To see the story, titled “Drive In, Reach Out,” go to www.umc.org and click “Video Stories.”

Southwest Texas churches make news in Interpreter
Two Southwest Texas congregations made the pages of Interpreter, the official UM program magazine, for September.
“Transition Ministry helps older adults cope with change” tells how First UMC, Austin, helps older members cope with life changes, such as moving to a retirement center. Robbie Youngblood, director of older adult ministry for the 2,171-member congregation, developed the outreach.
The Rev. Stephen Sanders and Jordan Garcia of Coker UMC, San Antonio, are quoted in “The Power of Holy Communion: Pastors, members share weekly celebration.”


Application deadline nears for youth school at SMU
Sept. 30 is the deadline for high school juniors to apply for the Perkins Youth School of Theology in Dallas.
The two-year program at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology is designed for teens interesting in becoming church youth leaders.
For more information contact the Rev. Tonya Burton at (214) 768-1333, or check www.smu.edu/youthschool.


Historic Gulfside Assembly destroyed by hurricane
WAVELAND, Miss.—The UMC’s historic Gulfside Assembly suffered catastrophic damage from Hurricane Katrina Aug. 29.
Aerial photographs, news accounts and reports from the federal disaster agency indicate that little is left of Waveland or Gulfside. The assembly sat on 60 acres facing the Gulf of Mexico along U.S. 90.
Deaconess Marian Martin, director of Gulfside, and Wilma Dunbar, a missionary assigned there, were safe, but the fate of several employees reluctant to leave Waveland wasn’t known.
Gulfside opened in 1923 as a retreat and recreation center for African Americans. At the time they were not permitted to use most resorts in the segregated South.


UM relief agency raises $900,000 for Katrina aid
NEW YORK—The UM Committee on Relief had received more than $900,000 in online donations for Hurricane Katrina aid as of Sept. 2.
The total reflected only online giving and not contributions made by mail, telephone or through local congregations.
Every dollar that UMs give to the committee for the hurricane recovery will be used for that purpose, said Sandra Lackore, UMC treasurer.


Texas UMs seek $1 million to feed storm evacuees
HOUSTON—The Texas Conference has committed to raising $1 million to feed thousands of people fleeing to Houston for shelter following Hurricane Katrina.
“We have sent an appeal out to all of our churches asking them to take up a special offering this Sunday (Sept. 4) that would come in here to the conference office for that million dollars to do as Jesus said in Matthew 25 and feed the hungry,” Bishop Janice Riggle Huie said.
The Texas Conference issued a plea for money specifically to feed evacuees. The conference is to provide 75,000 meals a day Sept. 14 to 20 at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center and the Hewlett-Packard Center shelters, Huie said.
To serve the food, the conference needs to recruit 240 trained volunteers per shift.


Bishop resigns episcopacy after complaint resolution
WASHINGTON—Bishop Hae-Jong Kim, who retired in 2004, resigned from the Council of Bishops Sept. 1.
The action was part of the resolution of a complaint filed against him, said Bishop Peter D. Weaver, council president. Weaver, who leads the Boston Episcopal Area, said he could not discuss details of the resolution.
“The Discipline calls for confidentiality around those matters,” he said. Kim could not be reached for comment Aug. 30.
Though Kim, the UMC’s first Korean bishop, resigned from the episcopacy, he retained his clergy credentials in the Greater New Jersey Conference.