Original post at http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/05/umr-communications-including-united-methodist-reporter-to-close/

Board members and staff of UMR Communications hold communion after closure vote. UMR photo by Sam Hodges

Finding no viable plan for reversing financial losses of recent months, UMR Communications will cease operations on May 31.

UMR Communications (UMRC) publishes the United Methodist Reporter in print and digital formats and online, and provides printing and communication services to churches and other nonprofits.

The final print Reporter will carry the date June 7, but will be mailed and printed by May 31.

The UMRC board reluctantly but unanimously voted this morning to close during a tearful meeting at the nonprofit’s Dallas office.

“At one time, our ministry produced nearly 300 separate editions of the newspaper which integrated content created by our news staff with content provided by church and conference partners,” said Tom Palmer, board chair.  “That number has decreased over the past 10-15 years due to changes in publishing technology. The financial crisis of 2008 had a significant impact on both individuals and institutions. Local church and conference finances were also severely affected. As a result, a growing number of churches and conferences either ceased publishing Reporter editions or changed their publishing frequency. We now no longer receive enough revenue from our publishing and printing operations to sustain the overhead needed to maintain the ministry.”

Closure will cost the jobs of the 26 remaining employees, including some with more than 40 years of service. Thirteen others were laid off near the end of 2012.

Alan Heath, CEO since August 2011, said the ministry had struggled financially for several years. But the late 2012 loss of a major contract – for printing, as well as for warehousing and shipping curriculum materials – reduced revenue by about 40 percent.

Reporter editions have declined to 45, though UMRC has continued to print other newspapers, as well as doing a variety of specialty printing.

Since the beginning of the year, efforts to cut costs while seeking new income could not keep the ministry in the black. Mr. Heath noted that UMRC has operated as a fee-for-service ministry, with no strong donor base and no direct support from the United Methodist Church.

In recent days, various organizational alternatives were explored internally and with friends of the ministry, Mr. Heath said, but closure became the only realistic step.

“There was no solution that didn’t involve red ink,” he told board members.

Mr. Heath added, “This decision obviously affects not only our newspaper customers, but other customers that have relied on us for printing and mailing services for many other products. We are sorry to leave our partners in ministry who have been so faithful to continue their relationship with us. We will do our best to help these ministries find a new print provider.”

Customers with questions are encouraged to contact the following:

Debbie Christian, Director of Production, dchristian@umr.org

Kay Fielder, Sales and Customer Service, kfielder@umr.org

Cherrie Graham, Ad Sales and Customer Service, cgraham@umr.org

Wendy Campbell, Sales and Customer Service, wcampbell@umr.org

For departing employees, severance and vacation pay will not be available in the short term, for lack of funds, Mr. Heath said. He added that after liquidation of assets, any remaining funds will be used to pay former employees  proportionally.

The Reporter has its origins in pre-Civil War Methodist papers in Texas, and was long the main vehicle for news about Methodists in Texas and across the Southwest.

In recent decades, it has covered the full United Methodist Church, offering independent news coverage, features and commentaries. Staff members have regularly won religious press awards.

Mr. Heath said an appropriate home will be sought for the newspaper’s print and online archives.

The UMRC board celebrated communion at the end of this morning’s meeting, led by the Rev. Arthur McClanahan, a board member and director of communications for the Iowa Conference.

Before doing so, he said: “Many of us standing around these ordinary tables have received the gift of grace of people of the UMR family – the grace of an extra day, or days, or more when we’ve needed to send our copy for a paper, the grace of converting stick-figure ideas into beautiful designs, the grace of telling stories, offering commentaries, helping us to see beyond our own horizons. And we are the better for the gift that the UMR team is.”

shodges@umr.org

Original post at http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/05/thomas-v-wolfe-named-president-of-iliff-school-of-theology/

Thomas Wolfe

The Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe has been named president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver, a United Methodist School.

He’ll be the 14th president of Iliff, and comes from Syacuse University, where he has been senior vice president and dean.

“We are excited to have Dr. Wolfe join us,” said Jim Wilkins, chairperson, Board of Trustees, Iliff School of Theology.  “He currently leads more than 350 Syracuse University employees in the areas of Health and Wellness; Discovery and Engagement, Inclusion, Community and Citizenship; and Central Services.  His leadership and management skills will greatly benefit Iliff as the school moves forward with a number of strategic initiatives.”

Earlier, Dr. Wolfe served as dean and chaplain at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse and was a pastor of United Methodist parishes in New York.  He serves as a trustee of Lycoming College and the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC).  He also is a senator of the University Senate of the UMC where he has served as secretary from 2008-2012 and will complete a presidential term from 2013-2016.  He is an active member of many civic groups, including InterFaith Works and Vera House.

“As an ordained elder with the Upper New York Conference of the UMC, Dr. Wolfe has an impressive academic background with a bachelor of arts degree from Lycoming College, a master of divinity degree from Pacific School of Religion, and a doctoral degree in higher education administration from Syracuse University,” added Mr. Wilkins.  “His academic background and managerial skills will benefit our students, staff, and faculty.”

Dr. Wolfe will begin in his new position August 1.

Original post at http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/05/ums-get-give-help-in-hard-hit-west-texas/

The Rev. Jimmy Sansom apologized for his inability to recall exactly where he went first on the day after a fertilizer plant explosion brought death and widespread destruction to his small town of West, Texas.

“I can’t remember if I went up to the command post,” he said in a phone interview more than a week after the April 17 disaster. “I think I did. My mind’s just frazzled right now.”

Mr. Sansom, pastor of West United Methodist Church and nearby Wesley Chapel UMC, has been going hard ever since the explosion, which claimed 15 lives and damaged hundreds of homes.

Rev. Jimmy Sansom

He’s answered a rushing stream of phone calls, text messages, Facebook messages and emails, dealing with everything from trying to find missing church members to providing the Red Cross with temporary office space in the West UMC basement to working with UMC officials on how the denomination can best help.

Despite all the trouble Mr. Sansom has seen, and despite his fatigue, he’s grateful.

“In the midst of death and tragedy, there were blessings,” he said. “It could have been so much worse.”

The explosion at the West Fertilizer Co., still under investigation, occurred at 7:51 p.m., killing 12 first responders who had come to put out a fire at the plant, and three others.

West—just north of Waco and about 75 miles south of Dallas—is a close-knit farming community of about 2,800 people, most of them Catholic, and many of Czech heritage.

The days since the explosion have brought funerals, a memorial service in Waco attended by President Obama, and an ongoing, often agonizing, process of assessing property damage.

Authorities have divided the 350 homes nearest the explosion into three zones, with Zone Three being the hardest hit. Some 70 homes there were destroyed, with another 85 declared unsafe and requiring extensive restoration, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The explosion occurred well across town from West UMC. But the force broke seven church windows and knocked tile out of the ceiling.

“None of the stained glass received breakage. They may have been bowed a little bit,” Mr. Sansom said. “The church came through it structurally.”

West UMC, which usually has from 50 to 70 in Sunday worship, was a couple of days accounting for all its members. None had been killed, and the same was true for Wesley Chapel UMC, about 11 miles away in Gholson.

“Some people received scratches and had to go to the doctor to get shards of glass taken out of them, but nothing real serious,” Mr. Sansom said.

But there are first-responders in West UMC who lost colleagues, and given the size and cohesiveness of the town, everyone knows at least some of those killed.

West United Methodist Church offered its fellowship hall to the Red Cross in the days after the April 17 fertilizer plant explosion. PHOTOS COURTESY CENTRAL TEXAS CONFERENCE

Seven families within West UMC have suffered extensive damage to their homes, as did one person in Wesley Chapel UMC, Mr. Sansom said.

He’s among many who have contemplated how many people might have been hurt, had the blast come earlier in the day.

“School wasn’t in session, which was a blessing, because otherwise we would have had three or four hundred casualties,” he said, referring to West Intermediate School’s location near the fertilizer plant.

The Red Cross asked for and received permission to use the fellowship hall of West UMC as a processing center. The church was glad to make that space available free of charge, Mr. Sansom said.

While he has been busy checking on church members—and leading them in an emotional service the Sunday after the blast—the Rev. Laraine Waughtal, disaster relief coordinator of the Central Texas Conference, has been in charge of the UMC response.

Ms. Waughtal was a pastor in Abbott, Texas, a few miles from West, in the late 1990s, and knew the area well. She arrived in West the day after the explosion.

“I sat down with [Mr. Sansom], to help him go through the process of how to get in contact with all his members,” she said. “Of course, church members were coming in, and I was getting to meet them.”

There were plenty of hugs and expressions of support to go around before and after worship at West UMC on the Sunday after the blast. PHOTO COURTESY CENTRAL TEXAS CONFERENCE

Ms. Waughtal said she has attended numerous meetings with local officials and other relief groups. Her focus lately has been lining up early response teams from within the Central Texas Conference.

“The early response teams will strictly be debris removal, cleanup, securing the homes and getting ready for the long-term recovery,” she said.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has provided $10,000 for West relief efforts, and will be sending cleanup kits as needed, said Cathy Earl, executive secretary for U.S. disaster response.

Some United Methodist churches, such as Christ UMC in Farmers Branch, Texas, have taken up offerings for West UMC. Bishop Mike Lowry of the Central Texas Conference has made a special appeal to conference churches for relief funds, while also encouraging contributions through UMCOR.

“We are not prepared to release how much we have received to date,” Vance Morton, director of communications for the Central Texas Conference, said of the bishop’s appeal. “We can tell you that we have received donations ranging from $1 to $10,000—from individuals, churches and organizations—both from within the conference and from across the state, country and world.”

Mr. Morton added: “One sizable donation came from a church down on the Texas coast who stated in the letter that accompanied it that they remembered the generosity of our conference during their recovery from Hurricane Ike and felt called to respond in kind—to reaffirm the connection that Christians share.”

How to Help

Donations to help survivors of this and other disasters, payable to “Advance GCFA” and marked in the memo line for “U.S. Disaster Response, UMCOR Advance #901670,” can be left in church offering plates or sent to: Advance GCFA, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068. Contributions are also accepted online at umcor.org or by phone at (888) 252-6174.

Bishop Lowry has visited West, going with Mr. Sansom to visit UM families whose homes were badly damaged.

Mr. Sansom said the town has been nearly overwhelmed by contributions from a wide range of groups and individuals. His wife, Shannon, found herself sorting donated goods with fellow Protestants, but also with Buddhists, Muslims and Sikhs.

“They were all working together,” he said. “The love of God has been very much present during such times.”

Mr. Sansom acknowledged dealing with a peculiar form of survivor’s guilt. Not only was he not hurt, he was at a Dallas Mavericks game with his son, Jeff, when the blast occurred.

Though he left for West as soon as he got the call from his wife, and was up until 2:30 a.m. trying to help in the chaotic aftermath, he still blamed himself for being away from town, at an entertainment venue, when disaster struck.

“I had a colleague call me while I was coming back, and he said I just need to calm down and be there for everybody else. I can now see that God’s hands were involved and that I wasn’t there during the blast so that I could be freed up to minister to others … I feel a whole lot better now.”

shodges@umr.org

The Reporter is a ministry of UMR Communications.
We value your support and appreciate your tax-deductible donation.

Original post at http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/05/two-clergy-hit-the-highway-to-save-lives/

The goal of beating malaria in Africa put two United Methodist clergymen on the road in hilly East Tennessee.

And they weren’t riding in automobiles, either.

The Rev. Charles Maynard walked 100 miles from April 21-25 in the Holston Conference’s Maryville District, visiting 17 United Methodist churches to promote Holston’s ambitious goal for assisting the UMC’s Imagine No Malaria campaign.

The Rev. Charles Maynard crossed four counties in his 100-mile walk. PHOTOS COURTESY OF FIRST UMC MARYVILLE

As he walked, the Rev. Randy Pasqua pedaled, covering 130 miles by road bike over two days, and visiting 19 churches with the same message.

Mr. Pasqua described his journey as plenty tough, given the Appalachian foothills terrain, but not as demanding as Mr. Maynard’s.

“I got to sit down the whole way, and he had to walk,” Mr. Pasqua said. “I got to coast downhill, too.”

Holston set a goal at last summer’s Annual Conference to raise $1 million for Imagine No Malaria by the time of their 2013 session, planned for June 9-12 at Lake Junaluska, N.C. As of April 15, the conference was a little over halfway there.

Neither Mr. Maynard, superintendent of the Maryville district, nor Mr. Pasqua, who leads camping ministries for the conference, has been to Africa. But they both strongly support the conference’s goal, convinced that many lives are being saved through the spread of mosquito nets, which go for $10 each and can provide protection for an entire family.

Mr. Maynard has a close friend from seminary days, the Rev. Fred Dearing, who with his wife Libby has been working in South Sudan for the last couple of years. Their communications about the extent of malaria and the effectiveness of the UMC’s effort helped get him more deeply involved.

“It’s been more than theoretical because of that connection,” Mr. Maynard said.

Mr. Maynard, 58, is an author, and won an award from the Southeastern Environmental Law Center for a collection of his essays titled The Blue Ridge: Ancient & Majestic. He’s in demand as a storyteller, as well.

And Mr. Maynard has been an avid mountain hiker since his youth. It was on a hike with a couple of friends a few months ago that he first talked about walking 100 miles for Imagine No Malaria.

“I said, ‘How crazy is this idea?’ They said, ‘Pretty crazy, so it should suit you just fine,’” Mr. Maynard said.

Mr. Pasqua, 61 and a longtime bicyclist, recalls getting recruited by Mr. Maynard. They agreed their effort would be to raise awareness, not to raise funds directly. And they decided to start from different directions, Mr. Maynard going south to north, and Mr. Pasqua going west to east.

The Rev. Randy Pasqua (center) gears up with riding partner Don Washburn, as the latter’s wife, Jackie, looks on.

They met along the way, serving communion together at First UMC Maryville, in a service marking World Malaria Day.

“That was a neat moment,” Mr. Maynard said.

In their separate journeys through four counties, they often had company. Don Washburn, a UM camp director, rode both days with Mr. Pasqua. The Rev. Laura Rasor and her husband, David Cheney, rode with him one day.

Mr. Maynard’s companions included one of his daughters and a longtime hiking buddy, Hal Hubs.

In one of the five days, Mr. Maynard hiked alone, and covered 21.5 miles—the most he did in a day. Deeply read in the history of the region, he found himself moved to be in the same territory that naturalists John Bartram and John Muir walked, and that Methodist leader Francis Asbury traveled as well.

He also found himself thinking about Africa.

“I thought about the fact that for most people [there], health care is a walk, not a drive, away,” he said.

The effort by Mr. Maynard and Mr. Pasqua—dubbed “Next Mile”—got considerable local media coverage. Proof that they had in fact raised awareness about anti-malaria efforts came to Mr. Maynard when he was walking one day, and a young woman pulled over in her truck.

“She walked up to me and said, ‘Are you a Methodist?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘Does it show?’ She said, ‘Well, here.’ And she handed me a bottle of water and a bag of nuts and $10 dollars. She said, ‘We’ve been talking about this at our church, and I just wanted you to know that a lot of us support you.’”

Another poignant encounter was with an elderly woman who had been told by her pastor that Mr. Maynard would be walking by, and might need refreshments.

“She had lemonade and cookies, and she was literally at her front door, waiting,” he said.

Mr. Maynard thought about sleeping in churches along the way, but decided he would need to be well-rested to complete 100 miles.  So he arranged car transport to get him home each night.

The last stretch, for him, came at Eden UMC, where three churches collaborated on a covered dish supper, erected a “Finish Line” banner and played music from Chariots of Fire.

“It was kind of nice to be walking toward Eden,” Mr. Maynard said. “There’s something poetic in that.”

shodges@umr.org

The Reporter is a ministry of UMR Communications.
We value your support and appreciate your tax-deductible donation.

Original post at http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/05/united-methodist-woman-helps-arrange-burial-of-boston-marathon-suspect/

Martha Mullen

A United Methodist woman in Richmond, Va., said she was acting out of Christian compassion in helping to arrange the burial of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.

“Jesus tells us to love our enemies, not hate them after they’re dead,” said Martha Mullen, in a phone interview. “That’s why I kind of got this ball rolling.”

Ms. Mullen, a 48-year-old counselor in private practice who studied at a United Methodist seminary, was distressed at news accounts about the difficulty of finding a burial place for Tsarnaev, who died in an April 19 shootout with police.

The body had been kept at a funeral home in Worcester, Mass., as cemeteries in Massachusetts and some other states refused to accept it for burial.

Ms. Mullen said she suspected his religious background was part of the problem.

“I understand he’s a terrorist and he did something terrible, but it seemed like the hatred was coming out of the fact that he was Muslim, uniquely – and that bothered me,” she said.

Ms. Mullen said she reached out by email to representatives of local Muslim, Jewish and Hindu congregations. An offer of a donated burial plot came from Al-Barzakh Cemetery in Doswell, Va., run by a group called Islamic Funeral Services of Virginia.

Ms. Mullen said she contacted Worcester police, who worked with the funeral home in Worcester and Tsarnaev’s family, resulting in the burial this week in the Doswell cemetery, in accordance with Islamic law and practices.

“I just kind of coordinated things and took a step back and let the family make their decision,” Ms. Mullen said. “They had many, many offers of burial places.”

Ms. Mullen would not identify her United Methodist church in Richmond.

“I don’t want to put the church out there because I think it would be perturbing to some members,” she said. “Not everybody is going to agree with me.”

Ms. Mullen said she informed her pastor about helping arrange the burial.

“She said she understood what motivated me and she supported my faith journey,” Ms. Mullen said.

United Theological Seminary, a UM seminary in Dayton, Ohio, verified that Ms. Mullen graduated from there in 2002, with a master of arts in Christian ministries.

Ms. Mullen said her Wesleyan background informed her decision to get involved in the burial matter.

“John Wesley advocated practicing a social gospel,” she said. “I take that very seriously – that I am to be involved in life, and I am to be an ambassador for Christ, even if it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient or dangerous.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that some neighbors of the Al-Barzakh Cemetery were upset to learn Tsarnaev was buried there.

shodges@umr.org

The Reporter is a ministry of UMR Communications.
We value your support and appreciate your tax-deductible donation.

Original post at http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/05/bishops-get-act-together-in-san-diego-meeting/

Bishop Sally Dyck of the Northern Illinois Conference hands out health kits at the California-Mexico border/UMNS PHOTO

Active bishops of the UMC wrapped up their meeting in San Diego on Thursday, emerging with no action items or joint statements, but insisting the time had been fruitful.

The sessions at The Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa were not open to the press, though the bishops did invite press coverage of a visit they made to the gritty California-Mexico border, to underscore the importance of the immigration issue.

Greater Northwest Area Bishop Grant Hagiya compared himself and his colleagues to dysfunctional family members who have been too polite to one another. He said the bishops must become more candid and accountable to lead the church in troubled times.

Having the press at the San Diego gathering  might have had bishops worrying about being misquoted or misunderstood, he said, rather than opening up with one another.

“We really did need some time to get our act together in this kind of setting,” he said in a telephone press conference Thursday afternoon.

This week saw a New York Times story about ongoing divisions within the UMC over homosexuality, but the bishops did not discuss that issue in plenary, nor did they agree on any new emphasis on immigration, said Bishop Rosemarie Wenner of Germany, president of the Council of Bishops.

She called the San Diego meeting a “wonderful week of learning together” and noted that only a full Council of Bishops meeting, involving both active and retired bishops, can take actions on behalf of the Council.

The active bishops formed small, self-selected accountability groups, and heard from such speakers as Brian McLaren, popular author and leader of the emergent church movement, Maria Dixon Hall, a professor at Southern Methodist University, and retired Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, a consultant for the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

The Tuesday trip to the border had the bishops traveling in four groups, meeting at the end of the day for a Holy Communion Service, with some bishops on the Tijuana, Mexico side of the border and some on the U.S. side.

One group hiked 1 ½ miles through the Tijuana Estuary, an undeveloped area, and another crossed into Mexico to an open-air migrant encampment, and distributed health kits.

Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey of the Louisiana Conference blogged about how deeply moved she had been by the trip. The trip was “a powerful experience, a spiritual experience,” said Bishop Warner Brown of the San Francisco Episcopal Area, who joined in the post-meeting press conference with Bishops Wenner and Hagiya.

The Council of Bishops decided last year to create a “Forum of Residential Bishops,” consisting of active bishops only, and this was the first meeting of that group. The full Council of Bishops meets next in Lake Junaluska, N.C., from Nov. 10-15.

The Reporter is a ministry of UMR Communications.
We value your support and appreciate your tax-deductible donation.