Making a Difference – April 28, 2010
Committed congregation helps Haiti BALTIMORE – Ettadean Hyman, lay member to annual conference, and William Parrish, chairperson of finance, from John Wesley UMC presented a check for $6,545 to Bishop John Schol for Haitian relief April 6. Inspired by the bulletin flyers from UMCOR and the Rev. Alfreda Wiggins’ plea from the pulpit, most of the church leadership quickly responded with pledges of $100, as did some of the youth. “If they didn’t have $100, they did the best they could,” Hyman said.
Radical hospitality extended to all
HEREFORD – Hereford UMC opened its new Family Life Center in December, a large new extension that includes space for regulation size volleyball and half-court basketball, a
commercial kitchen and classrooms.
In recognition of their good fortune, the
congregation made a commitment to serve a free dinner to anyone who wanted to come on every Thursday night of the year.
More than 100 people come for a full meal, served free of charge, said the Rev. Steve Cochran. About 70 families from the Food Bank, elderly, Latinos and people who live alone are among the guests. So are members of the congregation who want to make everyone welcome and assure no one eats alone. After the meal, leftovers are packed up and given out.
The meals are financed through gifts and grants, Cochran said. “We have enough food for six months.” Someone donated all the paper goods needed for a year.
“It’s real, radical hospitality,” said the Rev. Karin Walker, the church’s district superintendent.
Shared UMW ministry supports student
WASHINGTON – More than 175 United Methodist Women of the Greater Washington and Washington East Districts met March 9 for their 46th spring luncheon in support of Epworth House.
Epworth House is not a place but a “vital pathway for foreign women … to study the Word of God at Wesley Theological Seminary,” said Ethel Watson, Epworth House president.
The Rev. David McAllister-Wilson, president of the seminary, accepted the $10,000 donation. The scholarship will go to Tabea Daniela Muenz from Germany, helping her to fulfill her calling into ministry. She will arrive in August.
Also recognized at the luncheon was Dorothy Boyd, a member of Good Shepherd UMC in Silver Spring, who received the first Epworth House Life Achievement Award. She was Washington-Columbia District UMW president from 1998 to 2002.
Easter visitors surprise church
BALTIMORE – “Can we come in?” was the greeting a dozen girls and their chaperones gave to the Rev. Ed DeLong early on Easter Sunday when he passed by the gates of Old Otterbein UMC. The girls were in town for a volleyball tournament and worship at their hotel had been cancelled.
DeLong opened the doors and the girls, from West Virginia, New Jersey and Connecticut, broke into small groups and read the Bible and prayed together. DeLong provided copies of that morning’s bulletin and they sang hymns. He also prayed with them.
The girls had to leave to begin play before the congregational worship began, but the people of Old Otterbein recognized the opportunity. They have already contacted organizers of the volleyball tournament to set up a service for all interested people at the church next Easter.
Pastor helps remember Holocaust
BETHESDA – The Rev. Chuck Leger, a United Methodist pastor who directs pastoral care at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, read the names of 100 of the victims killed during the Holocaust at Auschwitz April 12, as he participated in the Days of Remembrance at the U.S, Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, D.C.
The reading was held in observance of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the camps.
“The world must always be reminded there once lived persons called by these names,” he said. Leger has worked with many Holocaust survivors in his hospital ministry.
Radical hospitality extended to allHEREFORD – Hereford UMC opened its new Family Life Center in December, a large new extension that includes space for regulation size volleyball and half-court basketball, a
commercial kitchen and classrooms.
In recognition of their good fortune, the
congregation made a commitment to serve a free dinner to anyone who wanted to come on every Thursday night of the year.
More than 100 people come for a full meal, served free of charge, said the Rev. Steve Cochran. About 70 families from the Food Bank, elderly, Latinos and people who live alone are among the guests. So are members of the congregation who want to make everyone welcome and assure no one eats alone. After the meal, leftovers are packed up and given out.
The meals are financed through gifts and grants, Cochran said. “We have enough food for six months.” Someone donated all the paper goods needed for a year.
“It’s real, radical hospitality,” said the Rev. Karin Walker, the church’s district superintendent.
Shared UMW ministry supports student WASHINGTON – More than 175 United Methodist Women of the Greater Washington and Washington East Districts met March 9 for their 46th spring luncheon in support of Epworth House.
Epworth House is not a place but a “vital pathway for foreign women … to study the Word of God at Wesley Theological Seminary,” said Ethel Watson, Epworth House president.
The Rev. David McAllister-Wilson, president of the seminary, accepted the $10,000 donation. The scholarship will go to Tabea Daniela Muenz from Germany, helping her to fulfill her calling into ministry. She will arrive in August.
Also recognized at the luncheon was Dorothy Boyd, a member of Good Shepherd UMC in Silver Spring, who received the first Epworth House Life Achievement Award. She was Washington-Columbia District UMW president from 1998 to 2002.
Easter visitors surprise church
BALTIMORE – “Can we come in?” was the greeting a dozen girls and their chaperones gave to the Rev. Ed DeLong early on Easter Sunday when he passed by the gates of Old Otterbein UMC. The girls were in town for a volleyball tournament and worship at their hotel had been cancelled.
DeLong opened the doors and the girls, from West Virginia, New Jersey and Connecticut, broke into small groups and read the Bible and prayed together. DeLong provided copies of that morning’s bulletin and they sang hymns. He also prayed with them.
The girls had to leave to begin play before the congregational worship began, but the people of Old Otterbein recognized the opportunity. They have already contacted organizers of the volleyball tournament to set up a service for all interested people at the church next Easter.
Pastor helps remember Holocaust
BETHESDA – The Rev. Chuck Leger, a United Methodist pastor who directs pastoral care at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, read the names of 100 of the victims killed during the Holocaust at Auschwitz April 12, as he participated in the Days of Remembrance at the U.S, Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, D.C.
The reading was held in observance of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the camps.
“The world must always be reminded there once lived persons called by these names,” he said. Leger has worked with many Holocaust survivors in his hospital ministry.
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