What if leaders from different walks of life committed themselves to finding ways to build more collaborative, fairer, more equitable economics? What if they worked together in a virtual peer-to-peer network to confront challenges and learn from one another’s experiences?…
Retired pastor’s book finds Methodist history ‘strangely lukewarm’ on confronting racism
If United Methodists are to fulfill the church’s current mission to dismantle racism, then its white members must come to terms with the denomination’s racist history, contends author John Elford. Elford’s conviction spurred him to write Our Hearts Were Strangely…
New Climate Fellow aims to get churches talking about creation care
If your church’s community garden didn’t fare well in this summer’s excessive heat or flooding rains, it’s time for the congregation to talk about how to deal locally with the global climate crisis. That’s the first message from Becca Edwards,…
Clearer picture emerging of UMC’s future
Even before its official year of splintering is completed, United Methodists are carving out a clearer identity for the denomination’s future and a clearer picture is emerging of who has stayed and who has left, about clergy health and the…
The climate canary is dead
I was on my way to a good friend’s installation to a new ministry when the climate crisis whomped me right upside my head. Maybe it was the heat radiating up from the highway overpass I’d just crossed that ignited…
Being ‘resilient’ isn’t good enough for climate justice, Malcom urges
“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” says a familiar adage. The longtime saying is getting a new, more urgent interpretation from United Methodists, who are acting to create more sustainable futures in the wake of…
Beyond the headlines, United Methodists muster new energy for doing good
Recent news headlines have screamed that The United Methodist Church in the United States has lost one-fifth of its congregations in a split over acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ Christians. What the articles typically don’t tell are the ways in…
Grieving and glimmers of hope mark United Methodist breakup status
When tiny but energetic Bartlett United Methodist Church in central Texas began to talk about the denomination’s split, member Tami Baker said she felt “a sense of dread and then grief as talk of the pending split increased.” Further into…
A Methodist church leads an interfaith response to Texas outlet mall shooting
A United Methodist congregation in Allen, Texas, is leading an interfaith response to the May 6 mass shooting at a local outlet mall that ended with eight deaths and multiple injuries. Suncreek United Methodist Church kicked off its interfaith effort,…