Turmoil in Africa
By Thomas Lambrecht Two weeks ago, the African Colleges of Bishops released a statement criticizing the Africa Initiative and the Wesleyan Covenant Association for, in their words, “working to destroy our United Methodist Church.” The statement also accused the Africa...
The Young Adult Methodist Connection
By Elizabeth Fink Would you believe me if I told you that from the age of 18 to the present, I have had at least 13 different addresses and attended eight different churches? I think it is safe to say that I had good reason to refer to myself as a nomad during my...
Overcoming Hatred and Fear
By Bishop Sharma Lewis- Brothers & Sisters: As we continue to process the disturbing events from Charlottesville, Virginia, we need to turn to God for understanding, guidance, and strength in our next steps. As Christians and United Methodists, we are to act....
Heroes and Heroines of Our Faith
By Jeff Walton- More than 250 million Christians are suffering persecution of some kind around the world today, according to Baroness Caroline Cox, founder of the U.K.-based Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART). Many live under the oppression of Communism,...
Is There a Way Forward?
By Walter Fenton- For nearly nine months now the Commission on a Way Forward has been meeting behind closed doors in an attempt to fulfill two almost impossible tasks: producing a plan to definitively resolve the deep disagreement over The United Methodist Church’s...
Poet of the Valiant Heart
By Faith McDonnell- In 1989, People magazine reviewed Ratushinskaya’s prison memoir, Grey is the Color of Hope. The review recounted how the then-exiled-in-the-West poet had been arrested in 1983 at the age of 29 and sentenced to seven years’ hard labor for...
The Risk of Renewal
The Risk of Renewal By Riley B. Case- When Charles Keysor wrote his article “Methodism’s Silent Minority” in the Christian Advocate in 1966, an article that basically launched the Good News movement, he spoke about numbers of Methodists who affirmed historic Methodism...
Doctrine and the People called Methodist
By James V. Heidinger II- Debate has been renewed in recent months about the role of doctrine for United Methodists. What is the place, for example, of orthodox Christian doctrine in our church? For years we have heard that we are not a creedal church; that Methodists...
