September is Deaf Awareness Month. It's a time to learn about Deaf culture, sign language (and even learn some sign phrases), and Deaf history. It's also a good time to become more sensitive to Deaf culture, improve accessibility in our churches, and do a better job of empowering Deaf and hard...
The Commission on a Way Forward has started sketching models to share with the Council of Bishops as options for finding a way forward for The United Methodist Church (UMC) regarding human sexuality.
Finding the right shades and perspectives to forge a portrait of a leader is an art. But sometimes leadership begins with just an invitation. On Aug. 9 and 10, several people in the Baltimore-Washington Conference responded to an invitation to discover “why in the world we are here in the...
On Capitol Hill in 1917, Rev. Clarence True Wilson spotted a muddy, billboard-cluttered corner lot. Wilson, executive director of the Board of Prohibition, thought it was the perfect site for Methodism's social reform presence in Washington, D.C.
This was some summer of discontent. We witnessed many divisions in our politics and culture spilling into the streets in marches and protests, and most vividly in the violence in Charlottesville. We see in data increasing evidence that our polarization as a society is growing wider; the...
The Rev. Diane L. Rainey, 72, wife of the Rev. Joe S. Rainey, both Elders on extension, died Sept. 10, 2017, from cancer in the Halquist Memorial Inpatient Hospice Center in Arlington, Va. A Memorial service was held Oct. 7 at Bethesda United Church of Christ with the Rev. Darla Dee Ledger...
The cluster includes the United Brethren founding place at the Peter Kemp house, homes and graves of Bishops Newcomer and Russell; the Geeting house and Geeting Meetinghouse/Mt. Hebron site continuing as Salem UMC, Keedysville; Trinity United Church of Christ tower and Centennial UMC both in...
Bishop LaTrelle Easterling is requesting prayers for the people of Puerto Rico as Hurricane Irma brings its destructive force to that country. Our Conference has a covenant relationship with the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico.
The Rev. Mary Brown Oliver, a retired Elder, died Sept. 5, 2017. A Celebration of Life service was held Sept. 16 at National UMC (Metropolitan Memorial) in Washington, D.C., following viewings at Ebenezer UMC on Sept. 15 and preceding the service. The Rev. Bresean A. Jenkins officiated at...
Churches throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference are responding to the flooding in Texas after Hurricane Harvey in significant and tangible ways. At Emmanuel UMC in Laurel on Sept. 3, for example, members took time between morning worship services to put together flood buckets.