“Your word is firmly fixed in heaven.” —Psalm 119:89b “The only constant in life is change,” Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century BCE, taught us. But when is too much change just too much for a system to …
Saturday is Leadership Academy Planning Day
While the Philadelphia Eagles will spend Saturday preparing to win Sunday’s Super Bowl, about a hundred EPA&GNJ church, district and conference leaders will gather to prepare for something far more important and more lasting: a new and improved Leadership Academy …
Justice for Our Neighbors needs Spanish-English interpreters now!
Justice for Our Neighbors of the Delaware Valley (JFON-DV), which provides affordable immigration legal services to low-income clients in our region, urgently needs Spanish-English language interpreters now to help busloads of migrants arriving in Philadelphia seeking asylum. The small agency, …
Bishop mourns fatal police violence, calls for justice, grace, love
Bishop John Schol expressed in a letter to EPA & GNJ United Methodists Saturday the anguish many felt when viewing the video of Tyre Nichols being brutally and fatally beaten by Memphis, Tenn., police officers. “It was painful to watch,” …
World Methodist Council nominations sought
Bishop John Schol seeks persons—clergy, lay adults and youth—to nominate for membership and leadership on the World Methodist Council, for the remainder of its current term, 2022-2024, and also for 2024 to 2030. The Eastern PA and Greater New Jersey …
Support groups: a new chapter in youth ministry
I have been in ministry with youth, young adults and families for over 25 years; and over time I have seen ministry with young people change as their needs have changed. Still, I felt there was more we could do. …
Holding on together
Cabinet epistle prescribes remedies to clergy stress, burnout
“In the midst of deeply felt challenges to our health, our churches and our society, it is normal for stress and anxiety to increase.” Thus begins a letter sent recently by the joint EPA&GNJ Cabinet to all clergy and chairs …
UMC scholarships aid EPA students pursuing careers of service
Seventeen Eastern PA Conference students are among over 2,000 United Methodists who received a total of $4 million in financial assistance in 2022 from the denomination’s Office of Loans and Scholarships. The total awarded to EPA recipients was $20,800. “These …
Church’s ministry serves 30,000 breakfasts, opens warming center
New ministry aided by EPA Wholeness Center grant Anchor Lancaster, a ministry at First UMC Lancaster, served 30,000 hot breakfast meals in 2022. The breakfast ministry, which serves every weekday, including holidays, was recognized as “the best non-profit in Lancaster.” …
EPA clergy of color invited to renewal retreat in June
Just weeks after an Annual Conference focused on the theme “Possibility,” Eastern PA clergy of color will get to explore their own possibilities of learning self-renewal and restoration through a joyful, guided process of spiritual and emotional nurture. And they …