News and Views

With 55 EMS (Every Man Shares in Evangelism, Mission and Spiritual Life) members and support for scores of community projects, Queen’s Chapel UMC in Beltsville, Md., breezed away with the top award in the second annual national contest to select a UM church with the most effective ministry to and with men.

Bishop James E. Swanson Sr., president of the General Commission on UM Men, and Dan Ramsey, president of the National Association of Conference Presidents of UM Men, announced the winner during the March 3-6 meeting of conference presidents of UM Men and conference prayer advocates.

Queen’s Chapel has more EMS members than all the churches in 32 annual conferences. The church is a major contributor to the record 316 current EMS members in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.

In 2015, the 62-year-old organization raised a total of $26,760 from a fish fry, a crab feast, citrus fruit sales, and the sale of shirts, hats, jackets and fan gear. The funds supported a score of mission projects and ministries.

The men participate in Sunday morning men’s Bible study and sponsor Easter sunrise and Thanksgiving Day breakfasts.

Last November and December, the men worked with the Society of St. Andrew to make two deliveries of 1,000 pounds of potatoes to three churches and one soup kitchen.  In the same months they provided 100 turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for families in need.

Each Valentine’s Day, the men remember widows of UM Men with a dozen long-stemmed roses delivered by two UM men.

They donated a 60-inch television set to the church’s Soul Echoes Café, and helped defray the costs for youth to attend a conference retreat.

Five years ago, the men purchased a 15-passenger van for the church and they continue to pay the cost of maintenance, insurance, and an EZ toll pass.