By Melissa Lauber Lay people throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s 631 churches volunteer countless hours to ministry. Or do they? Words matter, and the word “volunteer” may need to be stricken from the church’s lexicon in favor of “disciple,” many...
By Bishop LaTrelle Easterling Families are often torn apart by divorce. Persons who once had love and concern for each other, spent holidays and celebrations together, who claimed one another beyond bloodlines suddenly are not speaking at all. Persons once so close you couldn’t slide a...
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...
