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The Rev. Callie Winn Crawford describes the process of reopening and restoring Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, sending the 60-foot steeple crashing through the roof. Crawford said the church hosted volunteer teams for almost three years. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Church’s light shines bright in New Orleans

In the early days of Katrina recovery, Rayne Memorial United Methodist became a hub for housing and deploying volunteer teams that came to muck and gut the houses around New Orleans.

Editor's Picks

Disaster Relief

E. Dwight Franklin helps with the gutting of his parents’ home in New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina. Virginia Tech student Ivy Gorman (background) was part of a team from her school working through the Louisiana United Methodist Storm Recovery Center during their spring vacation. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

Special series: Hope Beyond the Storm

Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina devasted the U.S. Gulf Coast, a team from UM News returns to some of the hard-hit areas to talk with church members who recall the devastation and the power of the United Methodist connection.

Disaster Relief

The Rev. Terry Lynn Hilliard talks about the challenges people in her Mississippi community faced after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hilliard stepped into the role of United Methodist disaster response coordinator for the Mississippi Gulf Coast area and also directed the construction of the volunteer center at Gulfside Assembly. Video image by Lilla Marigza, UM News.

Disaster coordinator recalls Katrina

Mississippi pastor recalls how Hurricane Katrina touched the hearts of both survivors and volunteers.

Annual Conferences

Dancer Briana Hanson joyfully helps introduce a report from United Women in Faith during the 2024 United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. After a season of church disaffiliations, United Methodists are moving forward with a new vision, declaring members should “love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously.” The Arkansas and Oklahoma conferences have created ad campaigns to support that work and showcase the denomination’s resiliency and values. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Bold new era declared for church

The Arkansas and Oklahoma conferences are planning advertising and social media campaigns this fall to follow up on The United Methodist Church’s new vision statement.

Latest News

Disaster Relief

Dr. Sue Berry recalls her service directing a special-needs shelter in Lake Charles, La., in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Berry is a member of Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New Orleans. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

New Orleans doctor answers call to serve after hurricane

Global Health

Medical students work in the lab at Luke’s House, a free health clinic in New Orleans. From left, with faces visible, are Ryan Barry, Zahra Naeini, Karla Gallegos Díaz and Amelie Jacobs. A United Methodist pastor helped start the clinic in 2006 in response to the health care gap left by Hurricane Katrina. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Faith-based free clinic serves community

General Church

Stephen Trowen (S.T.) Nagbe United Methodist Church in Monrovia, Liberia, recently reopened after being closed due to disruptions between current and former church members. The reopening came in the wake of a civil court ruling that affirmed the Liberia Conference as the owner of all properties registered in its name that are under dispute, including churches, schools, health facilities and universities. Photo by E Julu Swen, UM News.

United Methodists cheer court win in Liberia

Social Concerns

Some 40 faith leaders from across Washington, D.C., join Aug. 22 in leading a prayer vigil in the city’s ethnically diverse Columbia Heights neighborhood. The group aimed to present a vision of unity and hope in the face of Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital. At center in the green and white stole is the Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol, pastor of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, who spoke at the event. Photo by Sharon Groves, the Festival Center.

Churches push back on armed troops in US cities

General Agencies

Shirley Watkins, a member of Travis Park United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas, addresses the 90th anniversary celebration of The Upper Room on Aug. 21 at The Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Tenn. Watkins was one of three representatives from Travis Park, where the idea for The Upper Room devotional was born. Photo by Laura Buchanan, UM News.

The Upper Room devotional celebrates 90 years

Disaster Relief

The Rev. J. Andre Wilson (center) shares a message with children during Altadena United Methodist Church’s first Sunday worship service at its new temporary home on the campus of the former First United Methodist Church of San Gabriel, Calif. Altadena is one of two United Methodist churches destroyed by wildfires in January. Photo courtesy of Heather Wilson.

LA-area churches seek to rebuild after fires

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Local Church

The Rev. Bruce Robbins, former staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, speaks during a press conference at the denomination's 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh. Robbins died Aug. 3. He was 73. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Robbins was ‘shining light’ for ecumenism

Evangelism

Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa and his wife, Greater Nhiwatiwa (to bishop's right), attend Jubilee 2024 at a campground in Darwendale, Zimbabwe. The convention was one of two jubilee events that drew some 20,000 church members from the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area on Aug. 8-11. Many in attendance were members of Rukwadzano Rwe Wadzimai, the women’s organization, who were dressed in their signature red and blue uniforms. Photo by Tarisai Mubaiwa.

Church is alive and growing in Zimbabwe

Social Concerns

Amal Nassar shows a visiting delegation of U.S. church activists a trailer that has been moved onto land beside her family farm near Bethlehem. Known as the Tent of Nations, the farm is an educational and environmental center that sits on the last remaining Palestinian hilltop in the middle of the Gush Etzion settlement block near Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank. The Christian Palestinian family remains under constant threat from settlers and the Israeli military. The trailer was moved there in May 2024, in what Nassar believes is an attempt to establish justification for expelling the Christian family. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Embattled Christian farmers in Holy Land refuse to hate

Mission and Ministry

Bishop Joaquina Filipe Nhanala of the Mozambique Episcopal Area has helped launch an online giving platform to fund local projects that support community health, pastor salaries, evangelism efforts and more. File photo by João Filimone Sambo, UM News.

Mozambique conferences launch online giving

General Church

Bishop Tracy S. Malone addresses the 2024 United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C., after taking over as president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops from outgoing council president Bishop Thomas Bickerton (rear). The Council of Bishops is calling for a five-day leadership gathering in April or May 2026. The bishops plan to hold the gathering instead of the special session of General Conference that they previously announced. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Bishops plan for different kind of gathering

Commentaries

Nigeria church yearns for reconciliation

The Rev. Larry Pickens Photo courtesy of the author.

Advancing a theology of reparations

The Rev. Jung Sun Oh. Photo courtesy of the author.

The role of Confucianism in East Asian Christianity

Dr. Jonathan D. Avalos. Photo courtesy of the author.

Preventing overdose deaths gives God's people a second chance

Black clergywomen experience freedom to dance, operate, manifest

The Rev. Molly Vetter. Photo by Allison Knight.

General Conference delegate sees hope in decisions

Bishop Sally Dyck. Photo courtesy of the Council of Bishops.

Attending someone else’s ‘family reunion’

The Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli. Photo courtesy of the author.

Putting hope in the 'harder thing'

Multimedia

Violence

The Rev. Larry Clark, a United Methodist pastor from Toledo, Ohio, lights a candle in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Aug. 14. He and other members of a visiting delegation of U.S. church activists came to the Middle East to accompany threatened Christians and other Palestinians and call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Pilgrimage for peace in the Holy Land

As war drives away tourists, the Rev. Larry Clark joined 11 other Christians from the U.S. in a trip to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to mistreatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Photos and story by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

General Conference

Hollering for Change: The Rev. Dr. Aleze Fulbright

Faith Sharing

John 1:1. Trinity Sunday. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Social media graphics from UM News

Central Conferences

Edmond Assamoi directs the choir at the then newly opened United Methodist church in Gouabo, Côte d'Ivoire, in 2018. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Slideshow: A look back at Côte d’Ivoire

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