By Ted Campbell, Special Contributor Editor’s Note: The Rev. Ted Campbell preached this sermon Saturday, Jan. 26, at the “final homecoming” for UM-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. The venerable two-year school filed for bankruptcy last summer after years of deficits, and recently saw its campus auctioned off. Morris, Morris, dear Lon Morris, Surely thou […]
Celebrating Lon Morris College: a sermon on Isaiah 51: 1-3
January 27, 2013 By 1 Comment
Editor’s Note: The Rev. Ted Campbell preached this sermon Saturday, Jan. 26, at the “final homecoming” for UM-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. The venerable two year school filed for bankruptcy last summer after years of deficits, and recently saw its campus auctioned off. Morris, Morris, dear Lon Morris, Surely thou wilt be ever worthy […]
All In – Don’t look now, but Methodists are getting dunked
October 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Rev. David Lee had a request this summer from a girl finishing confirmation class. She wanted to be baptized by immersion. Mr. Lee, in his second clergy appointment, had never done a baptism that way. And the church, Covenant UMC in Charlotte, N.C., had no place to immerse anyone. But a woman helping with […]
Committee votes to retire Bishop Bledsoe
July 17, 2012 By 8 Comments
OKLAHOMA CITY – The South Central Jurisdiction’s episcopacy committee voted Tuesday night to retire Bishop Earl Bledsoe involuntarily, citing concerns about his administrative abilities. Such a move by a jurisdictional episcopacy committee apparently is a first for the United Methodist Church. The committee’s decision followed a negative performance review it gave Bishop Bledsoe for his four-year tenure in the […]
Consider the consequences of a UMC breakup
By Ted Campbell, Special Contributor… The possibility of dividing the United Methodist Church as a way out of persistent conflicts over homosexuality has been raised enough times in recent years to warrant serious reflection on what it would entail. The fact that Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Lutherans have all seen either formal divisions or significant withdrawals […]