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Churches take Lent outside the building
 Hope Arise UMC, San Antonio, set up a booth at a food park off a busy highway on Ash Wednesday and offered ashes to lunch and dinner visitors.
By Rachel L. Toalson
Managing Editor
Rose, a homeless woman, was having cheese and crackers with a couple of men when Stella Burkhalter, associate pastor of Oak Hill UMC, Austin, walked up with her “free ashes” sign on Ash Wednesday.
Burkhalter offered ashes. One of the men said he wasn’t religious. The other said, “Sure.” Rose was unsure but let Burkhalter mark her. Tears rolled down her cheek as the ashes blackened a cross on her forehead.
“I stood on holy ground as I marked ash crosses on foreheads today and reminded so many precious people that while they are mortal and destined for dust, by the grace of Christ, we are promised abundant and eternal life,” Burkhalter wrote on the church’s blog on Feb. 13.
Burkhalter looked into the eyes of a woman who had recently lost a son, a man who, just a few days ago, was in an ICU bed with a tube down his throat, a woman who will soon leave a job she loves and more than one cancer survivor, she said.
And she met Rose.
Burkhalter said the idea took root in her mind when she saw that a friend had posted a picture of a couple of robed clergy people imposing ashes next to a sign that said, “Ashes to go” on Facebook on the morning of Ash Wednesday. They were from an Austin church that intersected with downtown. She thought it was a nice idea, but her church was situated on a highway.
 Dawn Barker Baird, associate pastor of Hope Arise UMC, marks Emily Alexander, a youth at Hope Arise, with ashes on the evening of Ash Wednesday. Hope Arise set up a station at a food park off a busy highway during the lunch and dinner hours.
“I tried to think of a reason not to do this, but the only reason I could come up with is that I was scared,” Burkhalter said. “And that’s not a reason, it’s an excuse.”
She admitted that she dragged her feet all day, but at about 4 p.m., she went home and put on her jeans, tennis shoes and a black shirt with the clergy collar, which she’s really only worn once.
“It was then that I realized that Ash Wednesday gave me an opportunity you don’t usually get—the chance to give away something unique and beautiful,” Burkhalter said. “As a clergy person, I get to wear the shirt. I have access to the ashes. Other people don’t have that.”
Burkhalter stood at the intersection for more than an hour, and besides the homeless people, she said, hardly anyone talked to her, made eye contact with her or accepted her offer of ashes. She was encouraged when she saw two church members and a friend, when she met a “friendly guy” who wanted to show her “the Jesus book he was reading” and when she got one “yes” to her ashes offer.
When Burkhalter walked back to her car, Rose was waiting to tell her she’d been watching her. “You didn’t ask for nothin’,” Rose said. She and Burkhalter talked for some time.
“I don’t know what I expected, but I hope I made people think,” she said. “It’s safe to say I saw the cross-the pain, heartbreak, hunger, hope, redemption.
Hope Arise UMC, San Antonio, did something similar on Ash Wednesday by offering ashes at a State Farm Insurance office in the morning and then at a food trailer court off Highway 281 during the lunch and dinner hour.
 “Evil: like a weed, it can start small but soon take over if not dealt with.”
“This means we have to think outside the box and find places within the community to be the church,” she said. “By doing the majority of the services at the food trailer court, it allowed people to be spiritually fed as they were physically fed.
“I believe people were touched by the spirit. I also believe it meant a lot to those who participated, that they could still receive and be part of a personally sacred tradition even though they could not go to their local church due to other time constraints or because their church did not do an Ash Wednesday service.”
She said she heard many comments during the day, like, “My wife saw this on the TV and told me to come by and get my ashes and pick up dinner,” and, “I haven’t had ashes since I was a little kid going to church with my grandma. I usually go to CBC, and they don’t do ashes.”
Baird said she hopes the Ash Wednesday activity will “let the community around Hope Arise know they are part of Christ’s family and the Hope Arise family and thus loved unconditionally.”
The community of Hope Arise, she said, “rose to the challenge with this outreach.”
“We hope it would serve as a reminder that Christ calls us to go out and be among the people in order to make disciples,” Baird said. “We cannot do that if we sit behind the four walls of a building.”
 Hope Arise UMC, San Antonio, set up a station for ashes at a food park off a busy highway on Ash Wednesday.
Missy Jenson, associate pastor of First UMC, New Braunfels, joined a handful of pastors in a Rethink Church challenge of introspection during the season of Lent. The United Methodist Church’s Rethink Church initiative included a page on the Web site that listed a word for every day of the season of Lent. Participants were challenged to snap a picture each day and share with their communities how they perceive the word of the day.
Jenson said she saw the opportunity for the photo-a-day on Facebook and “was intrigued by it, since it was a different way to see the world throughout Lent.”
After looking at the list of words for each day, she said, she thought there was “no way” she would “find” a picture to go with every word. But she decided to give it a shot, and she has.
“I’ve learned that having these focus words help me to look for God everywhere constantly throughout each day—in the mundane, ordinary scenery that normally surrounds my life,” she said. “In that sense, it has been a great, surprising adventure, bringing more intentionality in tending to my relationships with God. It’s also really helped me ‘break the mold’ in a new way as I explore a totally new spiritual discipline.”
She hopes that, for others, her pictures have done the same for them.
“I hope they are getting a sense that God is everywhere and speaking to us at all times,” Jenson said. “I hope these pictures will help them be more open to hearing and sensing God in their everyday lives as well as blur the lines between our traditional sense of the division between the sacred and the secular.”
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Hope Arise UMC, San Antonio, set up a station for ashes at a food park off a busy highway on Ash Wednesday.
As you and your family continue the Lenten journey, I ask you to do one specific thing for our Lord, the people God has entrusted to us, and our church. I ask you to be in a season of PRAYER.
We are in the process of discerning the underlying principles, purposes, and basic structure of a new annual conference in this Episcopal Area. Please pray for those leading this work. Pray for guidance and clarity of thought and purpose. Pray for the members of the Rio Grande and the Southwest Texas Annual Conferences as they work together toward a new future in Christ. Pray that their work will result in a new work of the Spirit in reaching new disciples for Jesus Christ that the world might be transformed. Pray that we don’t focus on the minor things but focus on the significant issues for a new life together. Please pray.
The Texas Legislature is in session. Please pray for our legislators and our other elected leaders. The decisions they make will affect men, women, children, the elderly, and the least among us. Their decisions will affect who has access to affordable healthcare and who doesn’t. Pray for clarity of thought and conscience. Pray that our legislators will make decisions based on what is right, not what is popular. Pray that our political discourse be civil, thorough, and Christ-like. Pray for us as citizens that we may not merely let others speak for us but have the courage and commitment to speak for ourselves to those making the decisions.
Pray for a new wind of the Spirit in our hearts, minds, and communities. In the midst of his most difficult and challenging days our Lord went on the mountain to pray. May we do the same. Please pray. As we do I am certain that “all will be well.”
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The work of the unification implementation team moves ahead
I have recently had the pleasure of working with members of the Unification Implementation Team, led by Byrd Bonner for the Southwest Texas Conference and the Rev. Robert Lopez for the Rio Grande Conference. These two workers in the vineyard have done a heady job of leading the joint task force in planning for the creation of a new conference from the membership of our two conferences. The meetings I have been in have been significant for the calm sense of community present always in the room, throughout each meeting. Even as significant steps are being contemplated for the future of The United Methodist Church in the San Antonio Area, I have yet to observe any conflict among the members of the team, something close to a miracle that I ascribe to great leadership.
As we contemplate these changes, what has been foremost throughout the process when I have been present is the recognition that we have the opportunity to make a new thing, to paraphrase Isaiah. Your representatives are reaching beyond the norm to find new approaches to fulfilling the requirements of the Church as we know them. It’s hard slogging, as my grandmother used to say when the roads got muddy, because the Book of Discipline has tied us up in a great deal of highly-detailed red tape. But then, you’ve heard me whine about that before. One of the biggest challenges facing The United Methodist Church is the over-abundance of regulation that faces its leadership, when trying just to do ministry.
Among other things, we will have to keep a number of conference boards and agencies of specific membership description, despite being able to carry out the actions called for with many fewer persons elected to those positions. The result, as we have learned over the years, is that we recruit unsuspecting local lay people to these positions to attend some meetings at which not much happens; not surprisingly, many of those folks want nothing further to do with a conference job, and it becomes more difficult to get more good people to participate.
We tried to clean up that problem at the last General Conference, and the effort got waylaid in the larger discussions around remodeling the general boards and agencies. I believe that such an effort will be made again; I am talking with leaders in other parts of the Church to help make that happen. In the meantime, the UIT is looking for ways to streamline our structure within the restrictions of the Book of Discipline. Applaud them when you see them, because they deserve all the praise we can give them for their work.
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The Massacre and the Missionary
By The Rev. John Feagins
San Antonio campus minister
Located at the center of San Antonio, Texas, the Alamo stands as a shrine and a treasure. Its story informs the very creation myth of the Lone Star State, evoking powerful images of patriotism, sacrifice, determination and freedom. It is also part of a larger story of conflict between Anglos and Mexicans, a story of colonization, conquest and disenfranchisement.
Most of the cinematic depictions of the Alamo reply upon a document written in 1860 titled The Fall of the Alamo, by Dr. John Sutherland, Jr, a devout Methodist. One of the only Texian troops to witness and survive the Alamo siege, Dr. Sutherland relates both his personal experience and facts gathered from Mexican troops and other witnesses.
The Fall of the Alamo communicates the siege the Alamo in precise yet macabre, forensic detail, the diseased Bowie, the disregard for warnings given by scouts of Mexican ancestry, the scarcity of supplies, the psychological impact of the siege, the disproportionate casualties, the indifference of neighbors, the violent death of Travis and Bowie and the vicious mutilation and desecration of the dead Texian troops, which in Sutherland’s words, invoked “the wrath of the Almighty upon the oppressors.”
At the time of the siege in 1836, Dr. Sutherland was serving as the physician of the Texan troops stationed at Bexar (San Antonio). As rumors of an invasion spread, Dr. Sutherland was given the duty to verify the proximity of Santa Ana. He writes:
“I then proposed to Colonel Travis that if any one who knew the country would accompany me, I would go out and ascertain to a certainty the truth or falsity of the whole. John W. Smith was soon at hand. When we started, taking the Laredo road, I remarked to Travis just as I mounted my horse, that “if he saw us returning in any other gait than a slow pace, he might be sure that we had seen the enemy.” This arrangement proved of some benefit. A moderate gait soon brought us to the top of town, when we were not surprised to find ourselves within one hundred and fifty yards of fifteen hundred men, well mounted and equipped; their polished armor glistening in the rays of the sun as they were formed in a line between the chaparral and mesquite bushes mentioned by the sentinel; the commander riding along the line, waving his sword, as though he might be giving directions as to the mode of attack. We did not remain long watching their movements, but wheeled around and started full speed back to town. In consequence of a heavy rain through the previous night, the road was quite muddy and my horse, being rather smoothly shod, began to slip and scramble and stopped at the end of fifty yards where, with a tumbling somersault, he pitched my gun out of my hand, throwing me some distance ahead of him, and followed himself, rolling directly across my knees. Smith dismounted and pulled him off of me. Having been slightly stunned, he had made no effort to rise but lay perfectly still holding me fast beneath him. After some moments he managed to get up when, by the assistance of Smith, I did likewise. Picking up the pieces of my gun I found it broken off at the breech. Being again mounted, we resumed our gait and were not long in getting to town.”
 A.H.Sutherland
Dr. Sutherland would later serve as a lay delegate to the West Texas Conference. Over the course of his life, he fathered 11 children. His youngest child, Alexander Hamilton Sutherland (b. March 1, 1848), arrived when Dr. Sutherland was 55 years old, 12 years after his brush with death at the Alamo. In 1868, just one year after his father’s death, A. H. Sutherland answered the call to ministry and was admitted on trial as a 20-year-old itinerant Methodist preacher in the West Texas Conference. At age 26, after having served appointments in Concrete-Victoria, Prairie Lea and Lockhart, and Corpus Christi, and following the appointment of the Rev. Alejo Hernandez to Mexico City, Bishop Keener selected A. H. Sutherland as presiding elder of a new “Mexican Missionary District” consisting of Sutherland and three Mexican preachers, Doroteo Garcia,
Felipe Cordova, and Fermin Vidaurri.
A. H. Sutherland responded to this new calling with zealous devotion. He became proficient in Spanish, traveled as a circuit rider and evangelist across Texas and Northern Mexico, lived in Monterrey and Mexico City, raised funds to build church structures, recruited clergy to missionary service and organized congregations that would include the La Trinidad UMC in downtown San Antonio, La Trinidad Methodist Church of Monterrey and Trinity First UMC in El Paso.
 Paul Watt celebrated Shrove Tuesday by cooking pancakes while other men of the First UMC prepared sausage and bacon for the church’s annual free pancake supper. By tradition, housewives cleared out the pantry for a last big meal before the austerity of Lent began the following day, Ash Wednesday.
The Mexican Mission District of the West Texas Conference achieved such success that on Oct. 28, 1885, just 11 years after the district was organized, it became the Spanish-language Mexican Border Mission Conference, serving territory in North America and Mexico, and the parent organization to the Rio Grande Conference and Eastern Conference of Mexican Methodism. Of its 17 elders and 15 candidates, nine of the elders were Anglo ministers who left other conferences to join the missionary effort.
A. H. Sutherland devoted the rest of his life and ministry to the cause of Latin American Christianity as a circuit rider, presiding elder, evangelist, author, missionary, organizer of churches, developer of leaders, and colporteur of Bibles into Mexico and South America. A window in La Trinidad UMC of San Antonio bears the name by which he was known and loved: Alejandro Sutherland.
The Discipline of the Methodist Church of Mexico credits the Rev. A. H. Sutherland and the Rev. Joseph Norwood with bringing Methodism to northern Mexico.
On the eve of one of the darkest moments in Anglo-Mexican relations, the massacre at the Alamo, a battle horse falls in the mud, a rifle is snapped in two and a wounded Methodist healer is delivered from certain death to become, 12 years later, the father of one of Methodism’s first and greatest Spanish-speaking missionaries, A. H. Sutherland.
A. H. Sutherland passed away on April 19, 1917 in El Paso, Texas. Like the conference he organized, he was a child of providence.
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The past reimagined: the necessity of youth camps is not new
The photograph was from 1943, when the world was at war, the country in conflict, the church in it’s hey-day. It was hanging in an obscure hallway off the chapel at the Mount Wesley Retreat Center in Kerrville when I discovered it.
The picture was of a summer camp or youth retreat gathering including hundreds of “white” students posing for a picture that I couldn’t help compare to our most recent Midwinter Retreat where we had a comparable 426 attendees (yet with much more ethnic diversity, thank goodness!)
What struck me wasn’t that it was an all “white” camp, although I am so glad the church has become more inclusive over the decades, but that it was not unlike what we are doing at Mount Wesley 70 years later.
People often visit my Facebook page or the Southwest Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church youth website, Reachingyouth.org, and say things like, “What you are doing has never been done before! Look at all the students showing up to camp!” And whereas this strokes my already inflated ego, the truth of the matter is this—it’s been done before.
The large crowds coming to camp, retreats and revival meetings isn’t a rarity for us as Methodists, it is the norm. The hundreds of students showing up to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ has not only happened before, but ensued for decades. I would be dishonest if I believed the revival that is occurring in our midst is something new. It’s certainly something exciting, but it’s simply the past re-imagined.
Our tradition consists of Holy Spirit camp meetings where teenagers rediscover the love, power and potential they have in Jesus Christ. My grandfather, the Rev. Alfred H. Freeman, preached during this time from the 1930s until his unexpected death in 1970. I have his sermons in my house that proclaim the gospel of Christ and the spark of the Spirit that was alive and moving in mid-20th century Methodism.
Just as 1943 reflected youth alive in the Spirit, so 2013 is a re-imaging of the past. A history where the call to ministry is revisited, where rededications are welcome, and casting down our nets to follow Jesus are encouraged.
I don’t know if you realize the importance of Mount Wesley and the conference youth camping and retreat ministry, but it is vital to the life of our conference. And by vital, I mean crucial. For it is at a camp that 90 percent of teenagers choose to follow Jesus. Nothing is as effective at reaching youth for Christ than a camp or retreat experience. Period.
If you don’t realize just how important this ministry is to the life of the church, just visit Mount Wesley. Find the obscure hallway behind the chapel on the way to the main office and you will find a dozen photographs decades and decades old. Stop, pause, and take a moment to find yourself in the pictures. Then ask yourself, “How important is youth camping to the life of the Church?”
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San Antonio District news
Standing in Front of Myself
Once upon a time, a little girl was putting on a dress that buttoned in the back. She struggled mightily but was not readily successful. “What’s the problem, dear?” her mother inquired. “The only problem,” she exclaimed in her frustration, “is that I am standing in front of myself!”
Now, that’ll preach any time of year, but particularly it resonates with the season of Lent. When looking for something to “give up” for Lent, why not begin with my self – particularly the things of self that are standing in front of me, keeping me from being and doing as Christ would dream for me to be and do?
Sometimes when Jesus spoke he addressed issues universally. When he spoke the Sermon on the Mount, he was speaking to all who assembled.
However, in other instances, Jesus addresses a specific issue standing in the way of a particular person. For instance, Jesus did not tell everyone they needed to be born again – only Nicodemus. Jesus did not tell everyone to sell all they have and give to the poor – only one particular inquiring mind. Jesus did not tell every disciple to place their fingers in the nail prints of his hands – only Thomas. Jesus did not tell everyone to “Unbind him and let him go” – just the friends of Lazarus.
So, set all the general teachings aside, what is the specific issue Jesus would address particularly to us? In other words, where am I standing in front of myself? Is it my adherence to “how it has always been” and Jesus is inviting me to be born again? Is it my addiction to the things that I hold too closely and Jesus is inviting me to let go and let God? Is it my reluctance to believe unless I can prove it for myself and Jesus is inviting me to touch, feel and see? Is it the wrappings of pain and old anger that bind me in the darkness of death and Jesus longs to see me unbound and becoming fully alive again?
Isaiah [43:19a] proclaims, “Behold, I am doing a new thing!” Paul [2 Cor. 5:17] proclaims, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The old passes away and the new comes. What is the “old” that has us standing in front of ourselves? As we let it go, God brings the new. It’s Lent, give it up. God will do even more! Thanks be to God!
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San Antonio District happenings
Confirmation Celebration to be held May 18!
Terry McCandless, District Program Director
Confirmands, their pastors, families and friends are all invited to attend the San Antonio District’s annual Confirmation Celebration! This year’s event will be held on Saturday, May 18th, from 10:00 a.m. to noon at Schertz UMC. Rev. Virgilio Vazquez-Garza, Assistant to the Episcopal Office, will preside over a service of worship and celebration to bless and affirm all those who have been or will be confirmed this year. In addition to celebrating Holy Communion, the service will include a ceremony during which each Confirmand will be yoked with a cross of olive wood from Israel. To advise the number of Confirmands coming from your church or for additional information, please contact Terry McCandless at the district office, 210-408-4533, or tmccand@umcswtx.org.
San Antonio District Laity gather to celebrate a year of ministry and outreach!
Terry McCandless, District Program Director
On March 2nd, more than one-hundred-fifty folks gathered at St. Andrew’s UMC to celebrate the ministry of the laity and re-connect with friends at our annual Laity Celebration. One of the highlights of this day of sharing and celebration was recognition of the persons nominated to receive the Bishop’s Exemplar award. Those nominated were Nina Kupper of La Vernia UMC, Jack Pardue or Bracken UMC, Anita Springer of Universal City UMC, and the United Methodist Women of Floresville UMC. Mr. Jack Pardue was named as this year’s recipient of the Bishop’s Exemplar Award. Each and every nominee is more than worthy of receiving this award through their hard work and the example set by the visible fruits of their ministry.
Attendees to this year’s celebration were gifted by the talents of Mr. Richard Diaz DeLeon on his guitar as he accompanied the video presentation sharing highlights of many of the ministries through UM churches throughout the past year. St. Andrew’s bell choir, Plangentes Dei, provided the entertainment for the celebration. This magnificent bell choir consistently brings its audience to their feet and Saturday was no exception. The warm hospitality of St. Andrew’s UMC and the wonderful meal provided by Mary Kay Tenant and her staff provided the coda to a great day of community and fellowship.
PICTURES TO COME!!!
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Victoria District news
Prayer intention for the month of March
As we move closer to Easter we find days to celebrate our journey. Among them is the feast of St. Patrick. The United Methodist Book of Worship (529) includes a prayer attributed to St. Patrick. The Faith We Sing Hymnal (2166) includes a musical setting of the prayer attributed to St. Patrick.
Therefore, let us pray that during this journey in Lent we all rediscover our relationship with the Trinity and that through our prayers and our works we lead others to Christ.
Let us pray the last two stanza’s of St. Patrick’s Breastplate.
“Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The three in one and one in three.
By whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.”
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Victoria District happenings
Writing a New Future
Rev. Bernard Ritchea
Our United Methodist Book of Worship offers us an invitation to observe Lenten disciplines.
On Ash Wednesday, February 13 at 5:30 PM at First United Methodist Church of Edna we will gather in the Chapel to hear this invitation and begin our Lenten journey of prayer, exercise, and nutrition.
We will read the scriptures, apply the ashes, and join for our Wednesday “Nite” Live meal.
I believe this Lenten time of Prayer, Exercise, and Nutrition can help us begin writing a new future in our individual, local church, conference, and denominational lives. We can see Black History month as a time to begin appreciating other persons and cultures more as gifts from God rather than merely an imposition on our calendars and regular television schedules.
We can see unification of the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas Conferences into one bold, new conference as a mission and stewardship opportunity rather than an imposition on stretched budgets.
We can use the impositions of ashes to remind us of our opportunities to count on the forgiving grace and strength of God rather than flailing in frustration at our weaknesses.
We can rise up from our knees with new commitment to be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The invitation to observe Lenten disciplines calls you to write a new future with the pen of prayer, exercise, and nutrition.
I pray we will use the 40 days and 40 nights of Lent to prepare for discipleship and write a new future by moving beyond merely complaining about the condition of the boat.
United Methodist Women’s Legislative Agenda 2013
At the Annual Legislative Conference in Austin, January 27-19th, UMW members from all seven of Texas’ United Methodist Annual Conference adopt a consensus Legislative Agenda that reflects their priority concerns. UMW place particular emphasis on issues impacting the well-being of women, children and youth.
This year’s concerns are five:
A. Water: Texas’ long-term needs
B. Education: The Legislature’s constitutional obligation to provide high quality public education for the benefit of all its citizens.
C. Predatory Lending: Expect the Legislature to build on the foundation of sensible regulation of Payday and Auto-Title lending established in 2011.
D. Medicaid: Extend Medicaid to adults under 138% of the Federal Poverty level.
E. Criminal Justice and Mental Health: Guarantee humane treatment for all Texans caught up in the state’s criminal system, especially the most vulnerable, including women, children, and youth.
Victoria District representatives to the 25th Legislative Event were: Joyce Brown, Maxine Ross, Marsha Priesmeyer, Judy Johnson, Evelyn Burleson.
Pine Cove Base Camp is coming to First UMC
First UMC, Victoria
Base Camp is Pine Cove’s newest summer day camp right in our neighborhood and they’re coming to First United Methodist Church, Victoria, with fun activities, great staff, and life-changing ministry!
Base Camp is a place where kids can start a special journey. After five days with some of the most fun and exciting college students in the country, your child will be energized for the upcoming year and ready for their own spiritual journey. Campers will experience Jesus through Bible study, worship, and time with their counselor as well as participate in these awesome camp activities: water slide, slip-n-slide, climbing wall, euro bungee, laser tag, obstacle course, team sports, messy games and more!
When? June 3-7, 2013Who? Kids Completed K-5th GradesWhere? 407 North Bridge Street, Victoria, TX 77901Price? $235 (Lunch and Snacks Provided)*Scholarships available through our website:
http://www.fumcvictoria.com/TheSCOOPONCHILDRENSMINISTRIES
REGISTER NOW at www.campiscoming.com or contact Brooke Mercer at
361.578-2701 ext. 107 or fumckids@hotmail.com for more information. Brooke Mercer Director of Children’s Ministries FUMC Victoria TX call 361-578-2701 or fumckids@hotmail.com.
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Briefs
Staff supervision work-shop
to be April 23-25
Alban Institute Consultant Susan Beaumont will lead a Staff Supervision Workshop April 23-25 at the Oblate Renewal Center in San Antonio. The workshop is sponsored by the Office of Clergy Development and is made possible in part by our partners at Methodist Healthcare Ministries. It is open to all clergy of the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas Conferences. Pastors of all church sizes from the small church with part-time lay staff to the large church with multi-clergy staff will find this workshop useful. Register by Feb. 15 for $75. After Feb. 15, registration is $125. The event begins at 1 p.m. on April 23 and concludes with lunch on April 25. Meals are included in the registration. Those wishing to stay at the Oblate Center can do so for an additional $110 (single occupancy), or $130 (double occupancy - $65 per person). To register for this event contact Conference Registrar Cynthia Bedford at cynthiab@umcswtx.org or (210) 408-4527. For more information contact Rev. Teresa Welborn at twelborn@umcswtx.org or (210) 408-4511.
San Antonio District
Carl Rohlfs
Superintendent
carlds@umcswtx.org
Kathy Kafora
Admin. Assistant
ksk@umcswtx.org
Terry McCandless
Program Director
tmccand@umcswtx.org
Address:
16400 Huebner Road
San Antonio, TX 78248
District Office
(210) 408-4520
Fax: (210) 408-4521
Program Office
(210) 408-4533
www.unitedmethodistsadistrict.com
District calendar
April
1 Newsletter articles due into District Office.
7 Vital Signs due to District Office.
29 Newsletter articles due into District Office.
May
7 Vital Signs due to District Office.
12 San Antonio District Annual Conference briefing, location and schedule TBA.
18 Confirmation Celebration, Scherts UMC, 10 a.m. to noon.
June
6-8 Annual Conference, Corpus Christi.
7 Vital Signs due to District Office.
Victoria District
Terrence Hayes
Superintendent
Linda Curl
Admin. Assistant
Judith Johnson
Program Director
judith@satx.rr.com
Lori Koonce
District Editor
lflemingkoonce2003k@yahoo.com
Address:
5606 N. Navarro, Ste. 217
Victoria, TX 77904
District Office
(361) 573-4233
Fax: (361) 573-4392
Program Office
(361) 573-4233
New District Web site
www.umcvictoriadistrict.com
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