By Jessica Connor. A surprise fund freeze is sending S.C. campus ministers scurrying for new ways to support their programs this fall.
Read MoreAuthor Archives: Dwest
Lowcountry Church Greets Hispanic Influx with New Ministry
By Jessica Connor. NORTH CHARLESTON – As the Hispanic population surges in the Lowcountry, one United Methodist church is opening its arms.
Read MoreNew Structure Takes First Steps
By Jessica Connor. A new structure for Connectional Ministries now heads to the next stage, with progress on two fronts.
Read More80 Years of Refuge: Spartanburg’s Bethlehem Center struggles to stay afloat while helping community
By Jessica Connor. Like a fortress of refuge, the Bethlehem Center has stood sentry in a poor, troubled community in the southwest section of this city.
Read MoreLove Not in Word but in Action
By Jessica Connor. On page 9 of this month’s edition, I draw your attention to guest columns written by two Salkehatchie alumni – one a teenager, one an adult. What touches me especially about these columns is the do-gooder Christ-inspired sincerity these volunteers have about the annual summer service project. It’s a spirit I’ve heard echoed by a host of people since I started as Advocate editor in June.
Read MoreBethel UMC, Other Churches to Hold Green Festival Sept. 25
{mosimage}Six congregations in the North Trenholm Road area are collaborating on a project that encourages sustainable living and building practices.
Bethel United Methodist Church, along with Beth Shalom Synagogue, Forest Lake Presbyterian, North Trenholm Baptist, St. Michael and All Angels’ Episcopal and Tree of Life Congregation are planning the Forest Acres Green Festival.
Read MoreVital Churches
By Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor. Does your church have life and vitality? Is it an essential part of your life? There are some ways you can help your church thrive.
Read MoreBy what power: S.C. asks Judicial Council to decide authority of GC secretary
By Jessica Connor. Are there any limits on the authority of the secretary of General Conference to decide the number of delegates? That’s what the United Methodist Judicial Council is being asked to determine when it convenes Oct. 27-30 in New Orleans.
Read MoreAll Children of God: Columbia’s new Hispanic ministry reaches out to local community
By Jessica Connor. So many times, she has sat across a kitchen table and heard the all-too-familiar stories of hardship and desperation. The mother who hasn’t seen her children in 10 years because she’s working like a slave to support them. The husband facing a deportation hearing, scared he’ll never see his wife again.
Read MoreRestructuring: what’s next?
By Jessica Connor. Work has begun on a new district-level structure for Connectional Ministries designed to better equip local churches and increase connectionalism conference-wide.
Read MoreThe sky’s the limit: Rising freshman credits Epworth, Asbury with her success
By Jessica Connor. When Meagan Rogers was 14 years old, she lost her mother to ovarian cancer. In that moment, her world was forever changed. The solid foundation that had been her life began to crumble; her father had trouble taking care of a teenager by himself. She found herself beginning a cycle of “shuttling” – home to home, relative to relative.
Read MoreSpirit, spark draw laity
By Jessica Connor. Organizers are calling the 2010 Laity Convocation a stellar gathering that raised the bar on events to come – despite attendance from a crowd of fewer than 250, likely because of the holiday timing.
Read MoreThe Wow Factor
By Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor. Every once in a while, the only word that can begin to describe it is “wow.” It is the spontaneous expression reserved for those times when something stops the routine, wakes us up and grabs our attention. In wonder and amazement, we are stopped right in our tracks. Our expectations have been exceeded. Something has touched us deeply, and we want to talk about it.
Read MoreWhat’s on your UM T-shirt?
By Jessica Connor. At Laity Convocation last month, Columbia District Superintendent the Rev. Tim McClendon talked about something I just can’t get off my mind. He called it the “T-shirt test” and wondered how, on such a small piece of cloth, we could possibly fit the message of United Methodism. After all, T-shirts are supposed to be quick-reads. And while meaningful, let’s face it – the vision and purpose of the S.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church is pretty long.
Read MoreWorship is action-oriented for Earth-Day
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‘If there were no bees, the flowers would not bear ruit.
If the flowers were stricken, what of the butterfly’s fate?
If all the butterflies died, beauty would suffer.
If beauty were diminished, what of the songs of the soul?’
This was part of a two-part congregational prayer at Shandon United Methodist Church in April.
Read MoreGreen and Rethink Church
{mosimage}When we read the Bible, we often focus on the relationship between humans and God. Yet, the foundational stories of our faith reveal the importance of another set of relationships—the relationships between God and Creation and between humans and Creation. From the ancient Israelites to the early followers of Christ, caring for the Earth was an important means of offering thanks and praise to God.
Read MoreBishop Tutu, 500,000 call for ‘climate justice’
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Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu (right) and U.N. climate chief 
Yvo de Boer greet the crowd Dec. 13 at City Hall Square in Copenhagen. 
Tutu presented de Boer with 500,000 signatures calling for climate justice. 
UMNS photos by Peter Williams, World Council of Churches.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, right, and Bishop Sofie Petersen of Greenland, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, led a procession during a Dec. 13 ecumenical celebration.

Meghan Roth called it “a life-changing experience” when Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu spoke Dec. 13 in Copenhagen to those concerned about the impact of climate change on the world.
Read MoreChurches Taking Steps to Save the Earth
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A very old church in Charleston is taking a very new approach to evangelism and, simultaneously, caring for the Earth.
Similarly, a United Methodist church in Hartsville is reaching out to its whole community through its recycling program.
The Rev. Albert Keller Jr., pastor of Circular Congregational Church in Charleston, found a pocket of children living between the coastal city’s two rivers who had never seen a river, much less the ocean. The church’s Environmental Mission group, about 15 people, now mixes fun with ecology education, taking 15 to 25 children to participate in their beach sweeps (clean-ups), on trips to swampland and on boat-trips to barrier islands.
Read MoreGet an Energy Audit for your Church
{mosimage}The choir was always sweating and those in the pews were freezing at College Place United Methodist Church.
It took a professional energy audit to realize what was going on, something anyone could have seen, but who goes climbing around in the pipe room or attic spaces in the church?
Joseph Gilmore, of Gilmore Consulting Services in Columbia, let his high-powered equipment lead him to the rooms above the chancel that house the organ pipes. On one side, a door to the attic had been set aside rather than putting it back to close up the attic.
Read MoreYou Can't Afford NOT to Build Green
{mosimage}Building or adding on? You can’t afford NOT to build green
If you think cost is the reason you can’t build a new church green, architect Deborah Snow has a quick response: “You can’t afford not to.”
Snow, a principal in McCreary/Snow in Columbia, and Allen Taylor, a principal in the Columbia office of LS3P, met with Green Theology in October to discuss how churches might approach green building. Both are certified LEED architects.
(Green Theology is a group convened by the S.C. United Methodist Advocate earlier this year to cut though the maze of new technologies available today to help United Methodist churches in particular reduce their energy budgets. It has become an interfaith group and continues to meet periodically at the conference center. All United Methodist churches are invited to send a participant.)
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