During one of the breaks at General Conference, I was having conversation with two of the English-speaking African delegates.  I asked them how they felt about the discussion taking place on the floor of the conference about pastoral authority and readiness for membership.  They both seeme...

It is no secret: at the same time that the United Methodist Church in America is declining The United Methodist church in Africa is experiencing spectacular growth.  In 1968, only 1.5% of United Methodists lived in Africa.  In 2006, 32% of United Methodists live in Africa.  African me...

This past July, RENEW Network, the evangelical renewal group working with women’s ministry in The United Methodist Church, announced a significant change in focus of its ministry.  A review of that decision to refocus and what led to it might serve as a discussion starter on how and if renewal ...

The last Happenings article discussed “The State of the Church” report, an in-depth study authorized by the Connectional Table (www.umc.org/stateofthechurch),  and commented on the fact that while the report identifies a number of trouble spots i...

 “The State of the Church,” an in-depth study of United Methodism conducted by the Connectional Table has been around for some months now.  Its purpose is to “promote conversations…about our life together and our faithfulness in the future.”  It was (and is) to serve as a starting poi...

While annual conferences of the Western Jurisdiction take action to defy the Discipline of The United Methodist Church by declaring themselves in support of homosexual marriage as a “civil right”, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), one of the most influential of the historic Civil Righ...

There are undiscovered blessings in being United Methodist.  According to a study published in the June issue of Social Forces, a leading journal in the field of sociology, United Methodists live longer.  To be more precise, people in communities with a high number of Catholic and mainline...