A friendly challenge among delegations at General Conference, aided by a match from William Gates Sr. of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, raised more than $400,000 for the Nothing But Nets anti-malaria campaign. Read more...
Invited to present a 15-minute “silent witness,” demonstrators peacefully entered the legislative floor on May 1 during the United Methodist 2008 General Conference to oppose the church’s policies on homosexuality. Read more...
Vadim Perelman's The Life Before Her Eyes explores the consequences of tough decisions made in life or death situations. The direction is sometimes muddled, but the film's message is clear. Read more...
Katherine Commale, age 7, has collected more than $40,000 for the Nothing But Nets campaign. Her presentation was part of a report on the work of the Connectional Table, a 60-member body created to bring "vision, mission and money" together. Read more...
The Hope for Africa Children’s Choir sang during the 2008 United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. Many of its 23 members are orphans who have lost their families to civil war violence or AIDS. Read more...
"Make This My Homepage"
Instead of going through other Internet portals like MSN or Yahoo!, people of your congregation can go through the UMPortal, or your church's own customized version of the UMPortal, whenever they go online.
If you'd like to learn about how your church can have its own UMPortal, please email us.
Collaborative Partners
UMR Communications didn't develop the UMPortal by itself. Collaborative partners include The General Board of Global Ministries, The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry and The Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship.
Want to Learn More?
To see more of the UMPortal, click around this page. Visit our sample local church Portal. Then, contact us for a demonstration of features, including its content management system.
Contact Amy Forbus via email by clicking on her name, or call toll-free, 800-947-0207, ext. 187.
Reminders of the depth and breadth of hate are inescapable, says Bishop Woodie W. White. But just as some hate wills itself to keep going, there are ways to avoid hate altogether. Read more...
Lyn Powell urged laypersons to reclaim their call to be "disciples transforming the world" during her April 24 Laity Address at the 2008 General Conference. Laypeople are uniquely equipped to reach the unchurched, she said. Read more...
Delegates and visitors attending the United Methodist 2008 General Conference received a message of hope, reconciliation and a blueprint for Christian life. In a prayer for the church and the rest of the world, Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference said people “in God’s human family” hunger for hope. Read more...
The United Methodist Church in Côte d’Ivoire, the largest regional conference of the worldwide denomination with almost 700,000 members, has received its full rights and responsibilities. The decision of the 2004 General Conference to let the church join was ruled incomplete. Read more...
The Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, a U.S. Congressman (D-Mo.), spoke April 28 at the General Board of Church and Society luncheon at the 2008 General Conference. Mr. Cleaver compared today's social ills to how Old Testament conquerors exploited the weak, the poor, and the dead. Read more...
Four church leaders gathered to explain the four areas of focus to General Conference delegates. Those four areas are: engaging in ministry with the poor, creating new places of worship and renewing existing ones, stamping out diseases of poverty, and developing Christian leaders for the church and the world. Read more...