News Briefs

Visitors see old Bethlehem at San Antonio site tonight
Messiah chorus to sing Sunday in Corpus Christi
Young women can still get money for Dec. 28-30 event
Retired pastor Joe K. Ader, 82, dies Nov. 17 in Austin
Corpus Christi church offers holiday concerts
Former clergy member dies Nov. 17 in Austin
Fall online clergy journal now available on Web site
San Angelo District adds program director to staff
Austin ministry receives federal grant of $50,000
2nd UM ad urges people to help with disaster relief
2012 General Conference to meet in Richmond, Va.
UMs asked to pick up slack after storms wreck churches
UMs respond to tornadoes in South, Midwestern states

Visitors see old Bethlehem at San Antonio site tonight
Visitors can imagine the sights and sounds of Bethlehem on the night of Christ’s birth at a San Antonio church.
University UMC is presenting its eighth annual “Night in Old Bethlehem” Friday through Sunday, Dec 9-11. The village has been recreated across DeZavala Road from the church.
Admission is free, but a tax collector will accept canned food or money at the village gate. Donations support local mission work.
Last year more than 2,000 people walked through the outside village.


Messiah chorus to sing Sunday in Corpus Christi
The Corpus Christi Messiah Chorus is presenting G.F. Handel’s Messiah Dec 11 at 5 pm; First UMC, Corpus Christi.
Brad Kisner, director of music and fine arts at First UMC, conducts the chorus. Members of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra accompany the group and local soloists.
Tickets to the annual presentation cost $8 for adults and $5 for children.


Young women can still get money for Dec. 28-30 event
Scholarships are still available for “Young Women! Shine!” Dec. 28-30 in Kerrville.
The Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries has granted $10,000 to pay for 80 scholarships to the event at Mount Wesley Conference Center.
UM Women of the Southwest Texas and Rio Grande conferences are sponsoring the spiritual retreat for women 14 to 30. Registration fee is $135 per person, which includes five meals and accommodations for two nights.
Child care is available for children 5 and younger for $60.
For scholarship information contact Glenda Sanders at (361) 992-7985 or Glenda7010@aol.com. Information about “Young Women! Shine!” is available at www.gbgm-umc.org/swtxumw.


Retired pastor Joe K. Ader, 82, dies Nov. 17 in Austin
Services were Nov. 27 at Memorial UMC, Austin, for the Rev. Joe K. Ader, 82.
The retired clergy member of the Southwest Texas Conference died Nov. 17 in Austin.
Ader began his ministry in 1949. He served congregations in Austin, Corpus Christi, El Campo, Garwood, Los Fresnos, Mason, New Braunfels and San Angelo. He was associate director of the conference council on ministries from 1977 to 1983. He retired in 1987.


Corpus Christi church offers holiday concerts
First UMC, Corpus Christi, is presenting free Winter Wednesday Lunch Concerts Dec. 14 and 21.
Music is scheduled from 12:05 to 12:35 in the chapel on Water Street. Lunch is available in the church dining room from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Tenor Andy Boyle, a student at King High School, is singing Dec. 14. Organist Brad Kisner, First UMC music and fine arts director, is playing Dec. 21.
“These annual Wednesday midweek concerts are always well attended and popular with many in our community, especially those in the downtown area,” Kisner said.


Former clergy member dies Nov. 17 in Austin
The funeral for Robert R. Haringa, 42, was Nov. 20 at Twin Lakes Fellowship in Cedar Park.
The former Southwest Texas Conference clergy member died Nov. 17 in Austin.
Haringa began his ministry in 1994. He served congregations in Bastrop, Cedar Park, La Feria and Santa Rosa. He withdrew from ordained ministry in November 2001.


Fall online clergy journal now available on Web site
The latest issue of Los Compañeros is available at www.umcswtx.org.
Theme for the fall issue of the online journal for Southwest Texas clergy members is “transformation.” Contributors include Cynthia Kepler, Buck Ritchea, George Holcombe, Tina Carter and Roger Baker.
Los Compañeros is a project of the Order of Elders. The Rev. Nancy Mossman, First UMC, Pflugerville, is editor.


San Angelo District adds program director to staff
A program director is joining the San Angelo District staff Jan. 1.
Virginia “Gini” Christian, a longtime member of Cristoval UMC, is filling the newly created full-time position. She is to work with chairs of district program agencies in planning activities and arranging district events.
Christian is now managing a San Angelo dentist’s office. She has also worked at Angelo State University, San Angelo, and Schreiner University, Kerrville.


Austin ministry receives federal grant of $50,000
The UM-related Wesley Center for Family and Neighborhood Development in Austin has received a $50,000 faith-based grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The money is to help the center hire an executive staff, conduct fund-raising activities, implement a promotional program and develop a financial accounting system.
The nonprofit center works with at-risk youths and their families in Austin’s Dove Springs area. Dionisio Salazer, formerly pastor of Dove Springs UMC, is executive director.


2nd UM ad urges people to help with disaster relief
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The UMC bought a second ad in seven daily newspapers Nov. 28 to urge people to participate in Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.
Headlined “Remember Katrina Recovery in Your Holiday Giving, Prayers,” the message urged people to keep the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina in their prayers and to help the work with money and time.
The quarter-page “advertorial,” prepared by the General Commission on Communication, ran in major Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington, D.C., dailies.
The first ad, “In Rebuilding, Set a Place at Table for All,” ran Oct. 21 in the same publications. It urged broad local input and participation in the rebuilding process.


2012 General Conference to meet in Richmond, Va.
LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C.—The 2012 General Conference is to meet in Richmond, Va.
The Commission on the General Conference announced the decision Nov. 22. Richmond and Tampa, Fla., were finalist cities for the meeting.
The gathering of 1,000 delegates from the United States, Africa, Europe and Asia is to run at the Richmond Convention Center from April 25 to May 4, 2012.
The General Conference is the UMC’s top legislative gathering and meets every four years.
The 2008 meeting is set for April 23 to May 2 in Fort Worth.


UMs asked to pick up slack after storms wreck churches
LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C.—UM generosity will be needed more than ever for the remainder of 2005 and throughout 2006 as the Louisiana and Mississippi conferences struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
The General Council on Finance and Administration, which met Nov. 17-20, noted that need in a resolution. It asked that annual conferences increase their support for the church’s global outreach to help reduce financial shortfalls because of disrupted congregations along the Gulf Coast since Aug. 29.


UMs respond to tornadoes in South, Midwestern states
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—UMs in the South and Midwest are providing relief in communities after tornadoes swept through their areas in early and mid-November.
Some 35 tornadoes struck parts of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee Nov. 16, leaving at least two people dead.
Churches in all the affected states—as well as in Iowa, which had been struck earlier—responded by becoming relief centers, providing meals and supplies, and offering other support.