Choir, singer to perform songs from Easter album
Singers sign up for April 25-27 Youth Choir Rally
UM faculty member earns fellowship for sabbatical
Clergy members must schedule picture times
Bishop honored April 3 as book goes multilingual
Free guide offers spiritual discernment for genetics
Leaders meet to explore disaster response efforts
Choir, singer to perform songs from Easter album
Christian singer David Kauffman and arranger Bill Gokelman are to join choir at Colonial Hills UMC, San Antonio, April 13 in a special worship presentation.
Kauffman and Gokelman are to perform selections from their Easter album, “Follow Me,” with the choir during the 11 a.m. service.
Kauffman heads San Antonio-based Good for Your Soul Music.
Singers sign up for April 25-27 Youth Choir Rally
Singers are signing up now for the 47th annual Youth Choir Rally next month.
The event, sponsored by the Council on Youth Ministries, is planned for April 25-27 at First UMC, McAllen. Early registration deadline is April 14.
Sally K. Albrecht, director of school choral and classroom publications for Alfred Publishing, is the featured clinician.
Registration fee is $40 per person until April 14 and $50 per person after that date.
For musical selection titles, schedules or registration information, visit http://www.reachingyouth.org/ycr.html.
UM faculty member earns fellowship for sabbatical
A UM faculty member at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary has received a special fellowship to support an upcoming sabbatical.
The Rev. Arun W. Jones, the John W. and Helen Lancaster associate professor of evangelism and missions, was named a Henry Luce III fellow last month. Funding from the fellowship is to help pay for his sabbatical research project, “Brown and White: The Emergence of Protestantism in North India, 1800-1980.”
The son of a UM missionaries, Jones grew up in India. He served as a UM missionary in the Philippines. He is a clergy member of the New York Conference.
Clergy members must schedule picture times
This year at annual conference Lifetouch Church Directories and Portraits is to take clergy portraits for a pictorial directory.
Pictures take 10 minutes. Clergy members can schedule a time for pictures June 5 and 6 between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Pictures will be taken in the vendor area. Visit www.umcswtx.org to schedule pictures.
Bishop honored April 3 as book goes multilingual
NASHVILLE, Tenn.––Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, a 2007 book by Bishop Reuben P. Job, is being printed in four other languages. The English version now has 130,000 copies in print and 60,000 in circulation, said Neil Alexander, president and publisher of UM Publishing House.
Job, a retired bishop, was presented two plaques celebrating his book during the April 3 meeting of the United Methodist Connectional Table. Alexander said Job has been “teaching the United Methodist way” all his life, but that “it took him 80 years to learn how to say it very simply (in this book). He’s given us back this gift.”
Translations in French, Spanish and Korean are expected to be available at General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative meeting, which begins April 23 in Fort Worth. The Portuguese version is expected to be available by early June. In the book, Job identifies the three simple rules from Methodism founder John Wesley as “Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.”
Free guide offers spiritual discernment for genetics
WASHINGTON––Spiritual Discernment: A Guide for Genetic and Reproductive Technologies is a new resource published by the General Board of Church and Society. A study guide is included that provides two options for study: a one-time, two-hour session or four two-hour sessions.
The case studies address subjects that underscore the complexities of bioethics related to genetic technologies. The case studies include prenatal testing, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia.
The guide also includes theological reflection, statements on genetics and reproduction by the denomination’s top lawmaking body and a glossary of medical terms in both printed and Web-based versions. For more information about obtaining the free guide, visit Spiritual Discernment.
Leaders meet to explore disaster response efforts
NASHVILLE, Tenn.––The Rev. L. George Abrams, the disaster response coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Conference, left full-time church ministry as a pastor in Washington two years ago to follow a call from disaster ministry. He was among disaster response leaders who met March 29-April 1 in Nashville with peers from other conferences and denominations for the 2008 Church World Service Forum on Domestic Disaster Ministry.
The Rev. David Watson, a UM theologian, led several worship services that helped participants examine the relationship between a hopeful faith and disaster-caused pain.
