Online Archives

Local ERT on the spot to help

BALTIMORE - During the past year nearly 100 people in the conference have taken training to become members of ERTs, Emergency Response Teams. Their mission is to be ready to respond when a church has an emergency.

On May 18, one team, led by the Rev. James “Jay” DeMent, pastor of the St. Johns-Idlewylde Cooperative Parish in Baltimore, came to the rescue of Dobson Chapel UMC in Nashville, following the horrific flooding that city suffered.

The walls of the church basement had collapsed and the floor of the sanctuary above was seriously compromised, making it unsafe to hold services.

After the church repairs, the ERT team did repairs to two nearby houses.

Church grows through community outreach

JESSUP - Asbury UMC used to be known as “the little white church on the side of the road,” but no more. It’s tripled its membership, outgrown its building and grown out to the community.

In May, the Asbury Jessup Health Walkers participated in the 2010 Path to Wellness in Catonsville, sponsored by Health Freedom, Inc. They wore T-shirts displaying a replica of a “Freedom Slave Tag,” which in 1790, freed men and women were required to wear. On this occasion it was “a sign of freedom from poor health habits,” the Rev. Gayle Green-Carden said.
“To reach the unreachable means you have to take worship to the streets where people are,” Green-Carden said.

BCC breaks ground on Eastern Shore

BALTIMORE – Some homeless, parentless or disadvantaged youth on the Eastern Shore will soon have a place to live. The Board of Child Care broke ground June 22 on two new group homes for youth near Denton, Md.

The new facility, slated to open in 2011, will include two homes, each with eight single bedrooms for young men, ages 14 to 18, referred by social service departments. One home will be for short-term and the other for long-term placements.

Begun as three orphanages that opened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Board has grown to serve more than 1,300 children and families with facilities in West Virginia and the District, as well as the home base in Baltimore.

To learn more, visit www.boardofchildcare.org.

Strawbridge descendents celebrate 250th

NEW WINDSOR – United Methodists celebrated the 250th anniversary of Robert and Elizabeth Strawbridge coming to America from Ireland in 1760, at the Strawbridge Shrine June 19.

Among the nearly 300 guests were three generations of the descendents of Robert and Elizabeth Strawbridge.

Jane Donavan, professor of Religious Studies at West Virginia University and a member of the General Commission on Archives & History, spoke on the significance of the Strawbridges to United Methodism. A praise band from Hamstead, 50 senior singers from Carroll County and liturgical dancers from Fairview UMC added to the festivities.

To learn more, visit http://strawbridgeshrine.org.

BRIEFS:

WASHINGTON, D.C. The Rev. Laura Lee C. Morgan was inducted into the National Campus Ministry Association’s 2010 Hall of Fame during its meeting at American University June 21-25. She was Executive Director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Delaware from 1991 to 2005 and served Mt. Olive UMC in Randallstown until she retired last year.

- Compiled and written by Linda Worthington. To submit your church's news, send information to "Making a Difference," 7178 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD 21046-2132, or to .