News Briefs

Singers in Corpus Christi to stage ‘Broadway by Bay’
Advanced lay speaker class set for March 7-9 in Kerrville
Cathedral Oaks offering 2 silent-retreat weekends
Church opposes cloning to produce human babies
2nd woman takes sanctuary in Adalberto UMC, Chicago
News briefing offers look at planned meeting changes

Singers in Corpus Christi to stage ‘Broadway by Bay’
Diners can hear the music of stage, screen and TV Feb. 22 and 23 at First UMC, Corpus Christi.
Members of the church’s adult and youth choirs are to present their annual “Broadway by the Bay” dinner, musical revue and silent auction both days at 6:30 p.m. Theme is “Corpus Christi Idol.”
Tickets cost $17 per person and are available from the church music office, (361) 884-0391. Reservations are required.


Advanced lay speaker class set for March 7-9 in Kerrville
Lay speakers can receive advanced training next month in Kerrville.
Southwest Texas Conference Lay Speaking Ministries, a unit of the Board of Laity, is sponsoring a March 7-9 class at Mount Wesley Conference Center.
The Rev. Diana Hynson, director of learning and teaching ministries at the General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tenn., is leading the session.
The topic is “Lay Speakers Teach Adults.”
Registration fee before Feb. 22 is $130 for people staying at Mount Wesley or $85 for people staying off campus.
A $10 late fee applies to registrations after Feb. 22.
For information contact Sam Dubberly, conference director of lay speaking, at (830) 741-3416 or sdubb27@aol.com.


Cathedral Oaks offering 2 silent-retreat weekends
Southwest Texas UMs can spend time in quiet reflection at two “Seasons of Prayer Retreats” next month near Weimar.
Cathedral Oaks Worship and Retreat Center is playing host to the events March 24-26
and March 31-April 2.
Participation is limited to six men and six women each weekend. Each is to stay in a private room. Silence is expected except during spiritual-direction appointments.
The retreat is open to both clergy and laity.
The Victoria District Office is handling registration. A donation of $25 per person is suggested. Contact Pastor Ardie Nelson at (979) 234-3288 or ardiejnelson8282@sbcglobal.net for information.

Church opposes cloning to produce human babies
WASHINGTON—The announced creation of human embryos through cloning stands “in stark opposition” to UM teaching, said an executive with the UMC social action agency.
“The United Methodist Church position on this issue is very clear,” said Linda Bales of the General Board of Church and Society. “Our opposition to such developments is based on a belief that God is the creator, and our identity as humans is much more than our genetic inheritance, our social environment, or the sum of the two.”
Scientists at Stemagen, a biotechnology company in San Diego, announced Jan. 18 they used skin cells of two men to create cloned embryos.


2nd woman takes sanctuary in Adalberto UMC, Chicago
CHICAGO––Adalberto UMC began providing sanctuary Jan. 28 to second woman seeking protection from deportation to Mexico.
Flor Crisóstomo, 28, says she is “picking up the torch” from Elvira Arelleno, another congregation member who lived in the church for a year before leaving last August.
Arelleno was arrested and deported within days of leaving Chicago and arriving in Los Angeles, where she had planned to speak out for compassionate immigration reform.
“Today we respond as a church to another request for sanctuary from one of our members,” said a statement released Jan. 28 by the church. “We respond by standing together with her as Jesus calls us to do.”
Crisóstomo has three children, ages 9 to 14, and an elderly mother she supports in Mexico with her U.S. wages. She came to the United States illegally in 2000, she said, because the North American Free Trade Agreement had put many farmers out of work in Mexico. She could not feed her children in her hometown of Guerrero.


News briefing offers look at planned meeting changes
FORT WORTH––When UMs gather for their worldwide assembly in April, they can expect wider international representation, a budget built around four new focus areas and an opening session aimed at fostering unity through common ministry.
The new approaches were among a bevy of changes outlined during the Pre-General Conference News Briefing Jan. 24-26. More than 200 delegation representatives and church journalists attended.
The 2008 General Conference is to meet for 10 days––April 23-May 2. That’s two fewer than the 2004 gathering in Pittsburgh. But the meeting must still must sort through more than 1,500 petitions, about the same legislative load as in 2004.