Methodist News

The Rev. Roger Alan Vest has been appointed senior pastor of Chatsworth, Ga., United Methodist Church.

Matavai's new building at Faleula. Members of the Church in front of the new house.

The Red Bluff First United Methodist Church, 525 David Ave. will welcome their new pastor "Fili" Vaikona to the pulpit at the 9:30 a.m. service on Sunday.

United Methodists provide artificial limbs in Africa >Jul. 2, 2008 NOTE: Photographs and a related story are available at http://umns.umc.org . >By Phileas Jusu* FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --A limb-fitting center ...

The Townsend United Methodist Church will host the lawn party at the Townsend Military Band's Thursday evening, July 10 band concert on the Townsend Common.

After 113 years of ministry, the doors of the Abrams United Methodist Church will close for good after its final service on Sunday.

Two United Methodist agencies, disappointed with a U.S. Supreme Court decision on handgun ownership, are urging church members to advocate for legislation that would tighten federal laws on gun control.

In a joint statement July 1, the United Methodist Board of Church and Society and the Commission on Religion and Race said they were "deeply disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strip local municipalities of the right to enact sensible and necessary gun restriction laws." A week earlier, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that a Washington, D.C., ban on handgun ownership was unconstitutional.

"The Supreme Court’s decision stands in direct contrast to the stance of our denomination," the church agencies said.

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the minister who presided over the recent marriage of President Bush's daughter Jenna, has launched a pro-Barack Obama Web site sharply critical of conservative stalwart James Dobson.

COLUMBUS - A church leader says Gov. Ted Strickland betrayed fellow Methodists and went back on a campaign promise not to expand gambling when he lent his support to a new lottery game.

United Methodist ethicist James Thobaben, speaking at the April 2008 Wesley Colloquium in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, highlighted the difficulties for Christians serving in government in a “fallen world.” But he insisted that it is God’s will for Christians to participate in the world, and that Methodist founder John Wesley would support coercive force to institute justice among lawless nations.

Explaining the concept of “dirty hands,” Thobaben defined it as “a necessity to compromise in a fallen world.” He said that while dirty hands are permissible, they should never become “stained hands.” He asserted that the Lord requires believers “to act justly, to love mercy and . . . to live a life of purity.” Thobaben contended that it is consistent with the teachings of Wesley to judge the behaviors of others, and other nation states. Based on the above criteria, he argued that justice is the criteria to judge whether a nation is “relatively better or worse.”

Sacred Tapestry is the name of a new church start in Marietta, Georiga, in the North Georgia Annual Conference. It was featured on CNN, Sunday, June 29, 2008. It held its first service on February 24, 2008, and featured a "jazz vespers brunch." Every Sunday since, the church has offered live jazz, a fully catered brunch, a quiet play area for children integrated into the worship area, a professionally staffed nursery in a separate room, and coffee. The brunch line, complete with eggs, pasta, cereal, French toast, cereals, and oatmeal opens thirty minutes prior to worship (free, but donations accepted). The people eat and sit at tables while the pastor, the Rev. Teresa Angle-Young, teaches as she sits at a table on the stage. The church offers weekly Communion. The service concludes with thirty minutes of jazz music.

At the end of May I started a project that will not be completed for six or seven years. Over the next six or seven years we hope to provide a leadership, preaching and evangelism training program for all 16,000 United Methodist clergy and at least one layperson from all 32,000+ United Methodist churches. The program consists of three 90 minute sessions: Essentials of Leadership, Improving Preaching and Worship, and Evangelism and Outreach in the United Methodist Tradition.

We’re providing this training exclusively through the sessions of annual conference so that every pastor and a lay member of every annual conference must attend. There are sixty-six annual conferences in the United States and they are all held in late May through mid June, which will require speaking at 8 to 10 a year - two to three a week. To my knowledge this has not been done since the time of Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke - the first two General Superintendents of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America in the late 1700’s.

In response to Dobson's comments Tuesday criticizing Barack Obama for misinterpreting the Bible, a group led by a Houston pastor - who is also a friend of George W. Bush's family - created a Web site, jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com. The site post a statement critical of Dobson as a religious leader, then asks people to register their agreement and post comments. More than 10,000 people have responded, according to the Web site.

The site was created by Obama supporter Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of Windsor Village Methodist United Church in Houston, Texas. Caldwell, who was a spiritual adviser to President George W. Bush and officiated at Jenna Bush's recent wedding, said he came up with the Web site idea Wednesday to create a "cost-efficient and effective way, not to attack Dr. Dobson, but to communicate the truth about Obama."

COLUMBUS, OH — Gov. Ted Strickland betrayed fellow Methodists and reneged on a campaign promise not to expand gambling when he lent his support to a new lottery game, a prominent church leader said Thursday.

UM NeXus: How will a Bush Institute benefit SMU?

Brad Cheves, Vice President for Development and External Affairs: Although your question focuses solely on the Bush Institute, we believe the Institute should be viewed as a component of the Presidential Center of Library and Museum. As a unique resource for research, dialogue and debate, the Presidential Center supports SMU’s commitment to academic excellence. The archives of a president who served during a time of unprecedented events in U.S. history will put SMU at the center of national and international inquiry into this era.

Along with the Library, the Bush Institute will attract visiting scholars, dignitaries and others for programs and study. As SMU political science experts have pointed out, these programs and visitors will reflect areas of interest to President Bush. As such, topics could range from immigration policy to the role of religion in public life, from national security to international health issues such as AIDS. The important topic of the war in Iraq will be among a variety of issues examined and discussed. We, and the Presidential Foundation, expect that the issues of this period will be studied, discussed, and debated at the Institute.

Both the United Nations and ecumenical Christian groups are calling upon the government of Zimbabwe to end the violence there and postpone the June 27 presidential runoff election.

And, as United Methodists and other Christians participated in a worldwide day of prayer for Zimbabwe on June 22, the leader of the opposition party candidate for president withdrew from that election.

"On Sunday, June 22, we celebrated in prayer our hope for peace and justice in Zimbabwe, and in every country in the world where there is discord, oppression, and war," he said. "We continue that prayer today. We pray that peace and justice will become an everyday reality for the people of Zimbabwe," said Bishop Felton E. May, currently serving as interim top executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

By Monday afternoon the top bid was $40,100, but the auction is likely to fetch far more before it wraps up late Friday. Last year's winning bidder forked out more than $650,000 for lunch with Buffett and up to seven others at Manhattan steakhouse Smith & Wollensky.

Proceeds of the lunch with the 77-year-old Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, benefit the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that offers programs for the poor, hungry and homeless. Buffett began donating the lunches in 2000.

Buffett began donating the lunches after his wife Susan introduced him to the Rev. Cecil Williams, who founded Glide and runs the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA — The Time Check neighborhood was one of the first to get flooded, now, it's one of the last to allow residents inside. A Methodist Church, on Ellis Boulevard also received extensive flooding. But even though the Church is not useable, the ministry is moving on.

Bush mused about that possibility Monday when riffing on freedom, a subject that always loosens his tongue.

The white, Methodist president was challenging anyone who believes stability in a society such as Iraq might be more important than democracy.

"Perhaps freedom is not universal,'' Bush offered. "Maybe it's only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe it's only, you know, white-guy Methodists who are capable of self-government.

CORNING -- Bishop Violet Fisher will deliver the message at the First United Methodist Church of Corning during the 10:30 a.m. worship service on Sunday.