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,…
A church trial will be better for suspended bishop and the UMC
The protracted investigation of church complaints against The United Methodist Church’s first Latina bishop appears headed to trial. The trial “appears” to proceed because an alternative remains available, a negotiated settlement known as “just resolution” still can be pursued by…
Two Mississippi UMC clergy face expulsion for officiating nonbinary wedding
Two United Methodist clergywomen face expulsion from ordained ministry for officating the wedding of a nonbinary couple. Elder Paige Swaim-Pressley and deacon Elizabeth Davidson performed the legal ceremony for Matty and Myles Cafiero because they ministered with them while chaplains…