Next month, 32 lay and clergy delegates from South Carolina will head to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, for the first in-person Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church since 2016. The Advocate will be at SEJ to cover the news. Here, we explore what is a bishop, what conferences are in the SEJ, and who are the episcopal nominees. By Jessica Brodie.

On July 28 through the first part of August, large amounts of heavy rain fell, in some areas up to 11 inches in a day’s time. This was a “perfect storm” of adverse conditions leading to a deadly crisis in Eastern Kentucky. Into this situation came the South Carolina’s United Methodist Early Response Team, which responded to a plea for help. By Billy Robinson.

An Open House for South Carolina Camps & Retreat Ministries’ new Sea Islands Camp, held Sept. 16, was a great success.

Churches should be safe spaces. When we enter a church, just like when we enter a school, most of us feel a reasonable expectation that we are entering a place where no harm is supposed to occur. A lot of that assumption has to do with the inherent trust we place in such institutions. An editorial by Jessica Brodie.

Life has the capacity to break all of us, yet we draw comfort in knowing that we are stronger at the broken places. A column by Bishop L. Jonathan Holston.

What you have learned since March 2020? Has your perspective changed? How you have grown as a child of God? By Advocate Editor Jessica Brodie.