“Hope Starts Here,” penned in colorful letters, is a small sign on the door of a big room where food is prepared at Mission First, a ministry located at the former First United Methodist Church in downtown Pottstown. And that …
Honoring Victims and Co-victims of Violence: An Urban Mini-Summit (Event Recording – 9/25/2021)
Honoring Victims and Co-victims of Violence: An Urban Mini-Summit September 25, 2021 View the recording.

Next Urban Summit to focus on victims, ‘co-victims’ of violence, Sept. 25
Honoring Victims and Co-victims* of Violence: An Urban Mini-Summit The Eastern PA Conference Urban Commission will sponsor an Urban Mini-Summit on urban violence on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 10 AM to 12 PM, via Zoom video-conferencing. That date has been the …

Phila. pastor hired to lead Urban Ministries
Terry Bridges, lay-supply pastor of Midtown Parish UMC in Philadelphia, will become the Eastern PA Conference’s new part-time Coordinator of Urban Ministries Sept. 1. Having served as a minister in Philadelphia Baptist churches for nearly 20 years, Bridges began assisting …
2021 Urban Ministry Awards
Members of the West Lebanon Mission Link receive a Herbert E. Palmer Urban Ministry Award for their collaborative food pantry ministry that also received an Urban Commission grant. Presenting the award to the Rev. Bruny Martinez (center) were (from left) the Revs. David Eckert and Myra …
UM Metro Ministries Technology Special Grant Application
UM Metro Ministries, Inc. Special Grants for Improvements in Church Technology & Media Ministries For UM churches in Chester, Norristown and Philadelphia, PA. Download the Technology Special Grant Application

Conference launches Dismantling Racism Facebook group
The Eastern PA Conference Commission on Religion & Race (CORR) has launched a timely new Facebook Group page aptly titled Dismantling Racism. It’s timely because it launches on the day that the U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden joyfully approved Juneteenth, June 19, also …

Seeking gun violence remedies, policing reforms
For the Rev. Myra Maxwell, a pastor in Philadelphia, the city’s escalation in shootings and murders hits hard and close to home. She has lost a family member and friends to violence.
The City of Brotherly Love recorded 499 homicides last year, a 40 percent increase from 2019 and the second most since 1960…
State of the Black Church
March 18, 2021 Co-sponsored by The Eastern PA and Peninsula-Delaware (Pen-Del) conferences, and The Eastern PA Urban Commission.
Policing in African-American Communities
April 22, 2021 Sponsored by the Eastern PA Conference Urban Commission’s Fight for Floyd and Beyond Initiative