| Two congregations become one FORT WASHINGTON The blended parish of the former Providence UMC and Fort Washington UMC began meeting as one congregation in January and was made official at annual conference. The charter for the new church will date bac k to 1870 when Providence UMC, the new congregations home, was founded. The Holy Spirit has been at work, said the Rev. Robert Bavender, who with the Rev. Ron Collier has pastored the congregations through the changes. The process of blending started two years ago when the joint United Methodist Mens group raised the idea of merger. Washington East District superintendent, the Rev. Mary Jane Coleman, conducted a joint Charge Conference, which approved the merger of the two congregations. It was then approved at Annual Conference Session in 2002. The combined church school opened its new education building Sept. 1. The blended congregation has approximately 230 members. Its been an absolutely unbelievable move, to move so quickly and so cooperatively together, Bavender said. Two youth are Good Samaritans  BRANDYWINE Kelvin Moore and Lauren Roots of Asbury UMC recently received Good Samaritan Awards from the General Commission on United Methodist Men. The award is the highest given to United Methodist young people.
Roots,  7, who just graduated and is headed to West Virginia Wesleyan, was recognized for collecting school supplies and toiletries for children in Sierra Leone, a Girl Scout project she did in cooperation with Locust UMC in Columbia. She co-founded the Asbury youth choir and spearheaded an effort to provide a nursery during worship services. Moore, 13, is an hon or student in the eighth grade and a member of the youth choir. He was featured in a Washington Post story on the first anniversary of Sept. 11, described as a guardian angel to Kenneth Foster, a neighbor whose wife was killed in the attack on the Pentagon. For information on the awards or making nominations for the award, contact the Office of Civic Youth-Serving Agencies/Scouting, P.O. Box 340006, Nashville, TN 37203-0006, or
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John Coleman Jr./UMConnection
Members of Washington-Columbia District bid farewell to their superintendent of the past six years, the Rev. E. Allen Stewart, at a banquet May 24 at LeFontaine Bleu in Lanham. The program interspersed Scripture and reflections with special music from soloists and choirs from various churches in the district. Bishop Felton Edwin May and fellow Cabinet members, the Revs. Edwin Ankeny and Marcus Matthews, shared reflections. Liturgical dancers from F.P. Nash UMC and Casa del Pueblo UMC performed.
Stewart, who also served as Annapolis District superintendent from 1995-1998, said its time to get back to the local church. He begins his new appointment at St. Paul UMC in Oxon Hill July 1. | 
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