News and Information
News and Information
Find articles written by our District Superintendents, Lay Leaders, Staff, and more here.
Love One Another
John 15:12 (New Revised Standard Version) 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Last Supper, Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Europeana CC0 In the Great Commission, where a resurrected Jesus gives his final instructions to the...
The Longest Year
This was initially given as part of a worship service for Clergy at their March Clergy Meeting. Numbers 21:4-9 In this reading for the fourth Sunday of Lent from the Book of Numbers, as the people of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years, the longest year is...
A Litany for the One-Year Anniversary of COVID
Adapted from the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia PA, An Episcopal church that aspirational values are Community engagement and social justice; Unconditional welcome and inclusion; A community that calls forth the gifts of its entire people;...
Bi-District Forms Workgroup to Focus on Race, Ethnicity and Culture
Several months ago, one of our clergy, Rev. Chenda Lee, associate pastor at Fairlington UMC, created a Facebook challenge called the dangling earrings challenge (#danglingearringschallenge) to speak out against the constant barrage of sexism against clergywomen at the...
A Message of Hope
Some of you may have seen the recent message (available through LaityNet) from our Conference Lay Leader Martha Stokes … it’s a message of hope – renewed hope, restored hope, and rekindled hope. Renewed hope in that the majority of adults in our country may be...
The Greening of the Church
Is your church green? If so, wonderful! If not, are you interested? Join in the Biblical mandate to care for and be stewards of all that God so lovingly created. It’s easy to become a Green Church, and there are lots of resources out there to help. How does a church...
Youth Ministry: What’s Now & What’s Next
When: Thursday, April 8 from 10:00-2:30 via Zoom.Speaker: Mike Crain, Lead Consultant, Ministry ArchitectsYouth ministry is difficult in normal times and the pandemic has made it even harder. The Youth Ministry: What's Now & What's Next event will offer...
Forty Days, Plus Six!
I heard someone comment recently that it seems like we have been in Lent for the whole past year. In the pandemic, we have had to give up some things, we have had to make sacrifices, we have experienced various degrees of suffering. Many of us have been praying more,...
Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. This is my one-sentence prayer for Lent this year. It is just one sentence from a prayer often attributed to St. Francis. For me, in these pandemic times which have forced us to simplify, this one line is good. I don’t know...
Beloved Discipleship: Where making disciples creates the Beloved Community
This quote is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer, one of the great theologians of the 20th century, was killed in a Nazi Germany concentration camp for working to overthrow the Nazi regime. While his book is a sobering reminder that the work...