BRIEFS

Seguin UMs mark birthday with jazz concert Saturday
Connectional giving runs $430,000 ahead of ’06 total
Oct. 31 fall festival draws 800 visitors to Schertz UMC
Corpus Christi church offers holiday concerts
Church histories can vie for 2008 Texas award
UMC mission magazine includes article by bishop
Program magazine reports on Cedar Park, Edna events
McMurry University offers full freshman scholarships
Global participation ups General Conference costs
Bishops pick Greg Palmer as 2008-10 council president
Northeastern Jurisdiction to consider new boundaries
Good News caucus affirms 4 areas of future UM focus

Seguin UMs mark birthday with jazz concert Saturday
Wesley Harper UMC, Seguin, marks its 130th anniversary with a saxophone concert Saturday and a homecoming service Sunday.
Jazz saxophonist Shaakir is to play inspirational and soul music Saturday at 7 p.m. in The Palace Theater, 314 S. Austin St. Tickets cost $25 at the door.
The Rev. Terrence Hayes is to preach at the 9 a.m. homecoming service Sunday. The worship order includes dance and special music.
A catered fellowship lunch at Texas Lutheran University is to follow the worship service.

Connectional giving runs $430,000 ahead of ’06 total
Southwest Texas congregations gave nearly $430,000 more to connectional causes through Oct. 31 than they did during the first 10 months of 2006.
Contributions to apportioned funds totaled $7.45 million. That’s 73.79 percent of the $10.1 million asking for the year. The remittance rate is up 1.67 percent from October 2006.
The Kerrville District had paid the highest percentage of apportionments through October—87.6. Other district percentages were San Angelo, 86.2; Victoria, 79.3; San Antonio, 73.1; McAllen, 70; Austin, 68.5; and Corpus Christi, 66.4.

Oct. 31 fall festival draws 800 visitors to Schertz UMC
More than 800 visitors came to Schertz UMC Oct. 31 for the eighth annual fall festival.
The free event featured 23 activity booths following the theme “Wild West Fall Fest.” Youngsters visited Buc’s Cowboy Shoes, Shadow’s Cattle Roundup, Ranger’s Ringtoss, Clip the Tail on the Pony and Pecos Pete’s Pumpkin Patch.
Each game ended with a reminder to participants that God loves them.
The 393-member congregation began the annual fall event in 2000. About 350 guests attended that year.

Corpus Christi church offers holiday concerts
First UMC, Corpus Christi, is offering free lunch hour holiday concerts during the first three Wednesday of December.
Robert Hammitt, First UMC organist, is to play in the sanctuary from 12:05 to 12:35 p.m. Dec. 5.
David Pinter, a Gregory-Portland High School junior, is to sing Dec. 12.
King High School singers are to perform Dec. 19.
The church dining room serves a light lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each day.

Church histories can vie for 2008 Texas award
Congregations that have published church histories this year have until Jan. 31 to enter the Kate Warnick Award competition.
The Texas UM Historical Society established the award in 1978 to recognizes the best historical accounts produced each year by congregations across Texas. The honor is named for the longtime Methodist collections librarian at Southern Methodist University.
Awards are given in three classes: large, medium and small congregations. Winning congregations receive a plaque at the historical society’s annual meeting each spring.
Contact the Rev. William J. Bryan III at wbryan@smu.edu or (214) 768-4900.

UMC mission magazine includes article by bishop
The September-October issue of New World Outlook includes a message from Bishop Joel N. Martinez.
Titled “Gospel Seeds and Mission Harvests,” the article reviews how mission work in Latin America and the Caribbean has not only benefited the region but enriched the UM understanding of ministry.
New World Outlook is a publication of the General Board of Global Ministries. Martinez is president of the mission board.

Program magazine reports on Cedar Park, Edna events
The November-December issue of Interpreter includes reports about two Southwest Texas congregations.
A story about how UM congregations celebrate Epiphany reports on what The Rock UMC, Cedar Park, and First UMC, Edna, do.
Interpreter is the official UM program magazine. Articles can be read at www. interpretermagazine.org.

McMurry University offers full freshman scholarships
UM-related McMurry University, Abilene, is offering full-tuition honors program scholarships to incoming freshmen.
Application deadline is Feb. 1. Contact Patrick Middleton at middleton.patrick @mcm.edu or (800) 460-2392.

Global participation ups General Conference costs
FORT WORTH— General Conference is becoming costlier to run and falling more in the red, partly because of the growing number of international delegates.
Convened once every four years, the 2008 gathering next spring in Fort Worth is projected to cost $6.6 million, up from $5.3 million for the 2004 Pittsburgh assembly. The increase comes even though the meeting length has dropped from 12 to 10 days.
A business report on the gathering was presented during the Nov. 12-13 meeting of the Commission on the General Conference, the convention’s planning agency.
Gathered at a hotel within a block of the 2008 meeting site, the commission heard projections that the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Fla., may face a record bill of more than $9 million.

Bishops pick Greg Palmer as 2008-10 council president
LAKE JUNALUSKA , N.C.—Iowa Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer was elected Nov. 8 to lead the worldwide Council of Bishops beginning in May.
Palmer is to succeed Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Houston, whose term expires during the 2008 General Conference next spring in Fort Worth.
A native of Philadelphia, Palmer is to lead the council until spring 2010. He has presided over the Iowa Conference since 2000, when he was elected to the episcopacy.
The council includes 69 active and 98 retired bishops.

Northeastern Jurisdiction to consider new boundaries
NEW YORK—When delegates to the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference meet next July, they could merge two episcopal areas, folding four conferences into one.
The jurisdictional boundaries committee is expected to consider the proposal—coming from four conferences largely based in New York—when it meets in February.
The proposed episcopal area and its one conference essentially would replace the current New York West and Albany areas and reduce the number of bishops in the jurisdiction from 10 to nine. Proposed date for the change is 2010.

Good News caucus affirms 4 areas of future UM focus
MEMPHIS, Tenn.—Good News, the unofficial evangelical advocacy group within the UMC, has affirmed the four areas of focus developed by denominational leaders as the future UMC agenda.
Meeting Oct. 25-26 in Memphis, the executive committee of the organization’s board supported the initiatives. They are to develop principled Christian leaders, start new congregations and renew existing ones, minister to the poor, and stamp out killer diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.
“All of us should be excited about a vision for our church’s future that includes ‘living Wesley’s principles,’ which always reflected a proper balance between faith and works,” said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president Good News.