Hollering for Change: Self-care and the “ministry of rest”


Hollering for Change is the name of a series of commentaries by The Rev. Dr. Tori Butler for United Methodist News. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News. 

In this episode of “Hollering for Change,” the Rev. Martha Orphe, a United Methodist clergywoman on incapacity leave from the Louisiana Conference, shares with Rev. Dr. Tori Butler how prioritizing her ministry over her wellbeing led to a serious health condition. Orphe contracted sarcoidosis from breathing contaminated air while cleaning out dozens of churches after Hurricane Katrina.

View related video, Hollering for Change: Black clergywomen support one another

Read related report on the Black Clergywomen of The United Methodist Church caucus gathering in Washington July 31-Aug. 2, Attendees of Black clergywomen’s event encouraged to ‘Be You’

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Mission and Ministry
A woman laughs as she shakes hands with the Rev. Edicance Marange after attending service at the United Methodist Hilltop Circuit in the Sakubva suburb of Mutare, Zimbabwe. The church has a new minibus that picks up older members from their homes and returns them after weekly worship services. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News.

Zimbabwe church provides ‘lifeline’ for seniors

The United Methodist Hilltop Circuit offers a transportation ministry, special worship service and monthly visits to get older members involved in church life.
Church Leadership
Holding hands during a service of appreciation for African Americans who stayed in the church despite institutional racism at The United Methodist Church's 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh are, from left: Anne Marshall of the church's Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns; Juanita Bryant of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Jerry Ruth Williams; the Rev. Larry Pickens; and Bishops Violet L. Fisher and Charlene P. Kammerer. File photo by Mike DuBose.

Giving Methodist women their due

A new book brings Southern Methodist women and their social justice work to the forefront.
Church Leadership
Mary McLeod Bethune with some of her pupils in 1905. Bethune, the daughter of former slaves, was a pioneering American educator and civil rights leader. She founded what became the historically Black United Methodist college named in her honor, Bethune-Cookman College (now Bethune-Cookman University). Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress World Digital Library Collection.

9 women to know

“Southern Methodist Women and Social Justice: Interracial Activism in the Long Twentieth Century” features the stories of nine important Methodist women.

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