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Children and ukuleles, who can beat that?

OLNEY –Oakdale Emory UMC is expanding with building and launching of two new campuses. One of those is The Solana Olney, an assisted living facility. Oakdale volunteers staff the weekly services at the facility, attended by residents and visitors.

Making the Nov. 3 service extra-special to the residents was “Shine”, the church’s children’s choir, leading the service.

Children read the Scripture, offered prayers and provided the prelude and postlude. They also sang songs, some accompanied by ukuleles played by some of the children and the choir director, Peggy Manion.

The children also played for the residents in the memory care unit “The smiles and reactions of obvious joy from the residents certainly gave you God bumps,” said Terri Axtell, who leads the ministry. After the service the children who played ukuleles, let the residents who wanted to give ukulele-playing a try play on their instruments and offered assistance.

Manion and Axtell plan to return to Solana in the spring with ukuleles in hand to see if the residents would like to learn to play them. “We all know how the gift of music stirs the soul,” Axtell said.

Church aids homeless female veterans

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Douglas Memorial UMC has become the headquarters for the Women Veterans Resource Center, largely due to the effort of its pastor, the Rev. Helen Fleming.

More than 10-12 percent of the nearly 7,000 homeless people in Washington are veterans, according to a 2012 report. And many of them are women.

When Fleming learned of the number of homeless veterans who were victims of rape and abuse, she decided it was time to act.

The Women’s Veterans Resource Center invites any veteran regardless of religious affiliation or none, to use the facility and services. Some dozen churches are involved and offer services such as computer labs, a career closet, prayers, hot meals, a thrift store, and counseling services.

In collaboration with the White House, other government and private veterans’ affairs offices, Douglas Memorial has hosted benefit conferences, job development sessions, social media training, job fairs and orientation training for pastors, Fleming said. 

“We’re in the middle of planning another collaborative effort with several veteran agencies to have a holiday celebration service with give-a-ways for the military families,” she said

Bishop Fisher inspires youth

JESSUP – Organ, keyboard, drums, bongos and the Youth and Young Adult Praise Team greeted Bishop Violet Fisher, retired, at a Student Day service at Asbury-Jessup UMC Nov. 21.

The church, with a capacity of 99, had 136 in attendance, ranging from 87-year-old Hilda Hebron to 4-year-old Bridgette Colbert.

Bishop Fisher told of preaching her first sermon at age 16 in Jessup at a Baptist Church. She focused on the many young people present and preached on forgiveness.

She told the congregation that  her only adopted son is not in the church and has piercings and tattoos. But, she said, it doesn’t matter what our young people look like, we have to learn to embrace them and not mold them into what we prefer them to be.

Recognition and awards went to 37 students, from young Bridgette to a senior graduating with honors from Strayer University and freshman Chad Carden, the son of Pastor Gay Green-Carden, with 4.0 in business administration from the University of Maryland, University College.

Bishop Fisher’s message reached the students. At the close of the service, “three came to the altar in tears thanking God for allowing her to minister to their hearts,” Green-Carden said.

Church serves Thanksgving dinner

GAITHERSBURG – The United Methodist Women at Mt. Zion UMC (Brookeville) prepared Thanksgiving dinner and hosted the meal at the Montgomery Avenue Women’s Center on Thanksgiving Day. 

The Center provides support services to vulnerable women faced with homelessness. It is a place where women are assured of their safety and well-being; it provides food and clothing for them, said the Rev. Debbie Tate.

Sochi church seeks support

STAVROPOL, RUSSIA – The Rev. Irina Mitina, who attended last May’s  session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, is now serving as superintendent of the North Caucus District. She invites United Methodists to support the church in Sochi, Russia, where the Winter Olympics will be held in February. Contact her at

Viewpoints: How do we move forward as the Church?

On Nov. 19, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a pastor in Lebanon, Pa., was found guilty of not upholding the United Methodist Book of Discipline and performing the same-gender wedding of his son in Massachusetts in 2007 (see story, page 1). On the following day, the jury of 13 of his peers punished Rev. Schaefer with a 30-day suspension during which he must decide if he will embrace the entire Book of Discipline or surrender his credentials as a United Methodist minister.

United Methodists have expressed a broad array of responses to the verdict and the issue of clergy performing same-gender unions. In the midst of these responses is the question of how we will live together, moving forward as a Church, united in Christ.