With the Special Session of General Conference less than five months away, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling has a message for her flock: be informed, be engaged, be pro-active. The four-day meeting, Feb. 23-26, will take place in St. Louis, Mo., to receive and act on a report from the Commission on a...
By Erik Alsgaard Members of the Perryman community participate in a candle-light prayer vigil at Cranberry UMC Sept. 21 following the mass shooting at the Rite Aid Distributoin Center one mile away. Photo by Erik Alsgaard. For the Rev. Tiffany Patterson, it was déjà vu all over...
By Erik Alsgaard Following the mass shooting Sept. 20 at the Rite Aid Distribution Center in Aberdeen, the Rev. Tiffany Patterson knew what to do. That’s because she’d done it before, just 11 months ago. The Washington Post reports that the Rite Aid incident started around 9 a.m...
Beloved, As I attempt to process the reality that another shooting has occurred within the bounds of our Conference, taking the life of three persons and ending with the self-inflicted death of the shooter, the words of Thomas Moore's hymn, "Come, Ye Disconsolate" (UM Hymnal, #510), rose in...
By Heather HahnUnited Methodist News Service A tree fell on the parsonage of the Rev. Thomas M. Greener and his wife shortly after his wife came downstairs for dinner. No one was injured. The Greeners are among the thousands of people whose lives have been upended byFlorence’s wreckage in...
By Erik AlsgaardUMConnection Staff “Look, new things have arrived!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17b For the first time in decades, ministry within the Baltimore-Washington Conference is being organized in a new way. Thanks to a vote at the 2018 Annual Conference Session...
By Linda WorthingtonUMConnection staff In July, Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg became the first retirement facility in the Washington region to be certified as LGBT-friendly. It was certified by SAGE, a national advocacy organization specifically focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual...
By Beth Ludlum* "You just might be God’s answer to the question your community is asking.” This sentiment, articulated by a ministry partner in London, captured one impulse that drives the Change Maker’s Project. Launched this summer, the Change Makers Project supports young...
By Erik Alsgaard UMConnection Staff What do you call it when 90+ elementary-aged children spend four days a week for eight weeks during the summer, reading more than 1,450 books and maintaining or improving their reading skills? In Washington, D.C., this summer, it was called Project...
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. When I learned of the shooting at the Gaming Convention in Jacksonville, Fla., yesterday, I felt grief and profound sadness. But, if I’m honest, I also became angry – a bit enraged at this new instance of...
