UM News Digest - April 7, 2025

UM News Digest - April 7, 2025

Death doula helps navigate end-of-life care
Home sharing a ‘win-win’ for couple, student
Argentine ministry cooks up new ways to connect

“There’s a lot of ways that thinking and incorporating death into our world currently can enhance the way we live.” — Beth Elliot, death doula and teacher of the Foundations of Death Care class at Iliff School of Theology.

Iliff School of Theology in Denver is offering a course to help caretakers better comfort dying people and their loved ones. Photo by truthseeker08, courtesy of Pixabay.

Death doula helps navigate end-of-life care
DENVER (UM News) — A new Iliff School of Theology course aims to give pastors and others the foundation they need to support the dying and their families. Iliff, one of 13 United Methodist seminaries in the U.S., also has started a certificate program on the topic. Thirteen students signed up for the first Foundations of Death Care course. Jim Patterson reports.

Read story

Home sharing a ‘win-win’ for couple, student
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UM News) — When retired pastor the Rev. John Collett and his wife, Rita, heard that students at a nearby college needed summer housing, they stepped up to help. Through the innovative home-sharing platform Nesterly, the Colletts rented a room in their home to a young person who had been attending their church, Belmont United Methodist. Lilla Marigza has the story.

Watch video

Great Plains Conference
Argentine ministry cooks up new ways to connect
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Hub Argentine, a United Methodist ministry started in 2020 in the facilities of the closed Metropolitan Avenue United Methodist Church, plans to add a commercial kitchen. Neighbor’s Kitchen would be a shared-use community facility where budding entrepreneurs could work in a certified commercial kitchen to create goods for sale. The Hub’s first fundraising effort for the project brought in $150,000. David Burke has the story.
Read story

Missouri Conference
Church expands worship for visitors
NEOSHO, Mo. — Neosho United Methodist Church was doing fine with its traditional worship at its downtown home. But the congregation wanted to do more. The church had an unusual opportunity of having its family life center at a different location across town, and it’s now reaching visitors there who are looking for a modern worship experience. Fred Koenig reports.
Read story

United Methodist Communications
Hungry and wanting more during Lent
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Rev. Joseph Yoo says Lent is more than a diet; it’s a spiritual journey. He notes that fasting reveals our hunger and dependence on God. In a new episode of the Compass Podcast, Yoo walks listeners through some Lenten practices. “The Lent season offers us an opportunity to sit with our hungers. We give something up to learn what the hunger reveals about us,” he says.
Listen to podcast

WOWK-CBS
Churches pack meals in a mall
BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. — Volunteers from United Methodist churches in the West Virginia Conference’s Nine Rivers District gathered at Huntington Mall on April 5 to pack meals for communities around the world. The volunteers prepared around 25,000 nutritious, shelf-stable meals for United Methodist partner Rise Against Hunger. Christian Meffert reports.
Read story and watch video

Collective of Queer Christian Leaders
Group plans rally at US Capitol
WASHINGTON — The Collective of Queer Christian Leaders is uniting LGBTQ+ individuals, church communities, allies and advocates for a rally at the U.S. Capitol at 10 a.m. U.S. Eastern time April 14. The gathering is meant to serve as a declaration of resistance and hope in the face of escalating attacks on LGBTQ+ lives, according to organizers. The group is a collective of leaders of faith-based organizations in the intersectional work of LGBTQ+ justice. Registration is encouraged.
Learn more
To register