Myles Burnett, 8, helps unload flood buckets at Hindman (Ky.) United Methodist Church as volunteers aid flooding victims. (Photo by Mike Dubose, UM News)
 
One of the journalism newsletters that comes to United Methodist Insight termed this past week a period when news was "everything-everywhere-all-at-once." The United Methodist response to this "all-at-once-ness" was compassion, and lots of it.
 
Topping UMC news was another disaster response, this time for flood-stricken southeastern Kentucky. Writer Kathy L. Gilbert and photojournalist Mike DuBose of UM News traveled to the vicinity of Hindman, Ky., where local United Methodists are doing all they can to bring relief supplies and emotional support to their neighbors who've lost everything to flooding. Kathy's prose and Mike's photos are always top-notch, but we especially like the image of 8-year-old Myles Burnett hauling cleaning buckets (see photo at top). Compassion knows no age limit.
 
While the faithful continue to bring help and hope to those in trouble, the division in the United Methodist Church rolled on, as Insight Editor Cynthia B. Astle documents in her analysis, "Disaffiliation Wave Faces Complexities, Lawsuits, Emotional Distress." This week, however, the focus shifted from those seeking to depart the UMC to those who want to stay UMC. The Rev. Daryl Fansler, a retired clergy member of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, hits a bull's-eye with his special-to-Insight article, "We Must Do Better at Honoring the Trust Clause's Moral Obligations." Rather than fret and fuss over who gets the property, Rev. Fansler proposes that annual conferences set up Ministry Response Teams to comfort those grieving their congregations' departure, and shepherd them to a new United Methodist community. Editor Astle takes inspiration from a Lutheran writer, the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, on how to cope in Christlike ways with each other as the division proceeds. The Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter caps the compassion trend with her take on "The Peace That Surpasses All Misunderstanding."
 

The Rev. Jeff Olive, a Texas Conference district superintendent, presides at an Aug. 7 meeting at The Woodlands Methodist Church called to consider disaffiliation. Members of The Woodlands Methodist, in The Woodlands community north of Houston, voted by a 96.3% margin to leave The United Methodist Church. (Photo courtesy of The Woodlands Methodist.)

There's still plenty of intellectual rigor over the UMC's splintering. The Rev. Dr. Robert A. Hunt refutes a common allegation that the UMC's dispute is about biblical authority, when in reality we resist bowing to any authority at all.  Dr. Hunt also examines how the UMC has tried and failed to legislate righteousness and morality through rules. Dr. David W. Scott reviewed essays by United Methodist Bishop Emerito Nacpil of the Philippines and Argentine Methodist Bishop Aldo Etchegoyen, finding common insights on the meanings of "connection" and "autonomy" for the UMC's future. Sam Hodges of UM News reported on disaffiliation votes at some large churches in Texas, a longtime United Methodist stronghold (see photo above).
 
While there was good news from Congress passing major climate actions in the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate crisis remained a top priority. The Rev. Jerry Eckert, a retired clergy member of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, kicked off the week's reflections with his essay, "Separation Distracts from Humanity's Primary Crisis." Rev. Eckert wrote to every active and retired bishop urging better UMC response to global scorching as shown in this summer's heat waves. Editor Astle devoted one of this week's two Crisis Watch columns to the climate crisis' effect on humans' health, especially how hot nights can wreck healthy sleep (see photo at left). A second Crisis Watch column invites the church to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women by planting a tree to help United Methodist agencies achieve their goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

 High gas prices and inflation are affecting the ministries of United Methodist pastors in the U.S., who are dealing with increased demand at food pantries and other charities, as well as their own paychecks not stretching as far. (Original photo by Paul Brennan, courtesy of Pixabay; graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.)

An Aug. 11 economic report that inflation hit zero in July was good news for a lot of United Methodist pastors and churches that have been struggling to keep ministries going in the face of rising prices, especially for gasoline, as Jim Patterson of UM News writes. In another encouraging development, several U.S. annual conferences took action on gun violence this summer, most urging legislators to adopt common-sense gun regulations, writes Heather Hahn of UM News.
 
Happily, we can close this week's issue with more upbeat news.
 
First, congratulations to longtime United Methodist pastor, the Rev. Dr. Mark Holland (at left), for winning the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate from Kansas. Dr. Holland has been the executive director of Mainstream UMC, one of the backers of the "One Church" live-and-let-live plan that was defeated by a slim margin at the special 2019 General Conference. If elected, Dr. Holland would join his Kansas City clergy colleague, the Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Cleaver II, who is serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's Fifth Congressional District. Don't know what's in the Kansas City atmosphere on both sides of the state line, but it seems to inspire leadership.
 


We've been commending the work of the Rev. Derek Weber in curating Discipleship Ministries' Daily Prayers for Anti-Racism, so this week we directly bring you one of his posts, "Steadfast Love and Faithfulness Will Meet." Finally, another of our favorite spiritual resources, "Abiding in Exile" from the Iowa Annual Conference, has changed its name and mission to "Abiding: From Exile to Hope." The Rev. Lee Roorda Schott describes how the Iowa writing team pondered our collective life experience of the past 2-1/2 years that led to its new name and purpose (see logo above).
 
As one of Nadia Bolz-Weber's readers suggested, we're thankful for small graces, especially the rain that blessed North Texas twice this week. We hope you'll be comforted and inspired by moments of grace in coming days.