UMPH Proceeding with Caution amid Worldwide Financial Uncertainty

Meeting March 24-25, 2009 in Nashville, the Board of the United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH) reviewed current and future plans in light of the worldwide financial crisis.

Hymnal Revision Committee Holds Inaugural Meeting

The 27-member Hymnal Revision Committee, authorized by the 2008 General Conference, held its organizing meeting at The United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH) in Nashville January 20-22, 2009.

UM Hymnal Co-Editors Named

Neil M. Alexander, President and Publisher of The United Methodist Publishing House, and Karen Greenwaldt, General Secretary of the General Board of Discipleship, The United Methodist Church, announced today that the role of editor of the new hymn and worship book authorized by the 2008 General Conference will be shared by Dean B. McIntyre and Gary Alan Smith.

UM Hymnal Revision Committee Named

The Hymnal Revision Committee, authorized by the 2008 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, was announced October 9, 2008.

The committee is charged with preparing and presenting to the 2012 General Conference a hymn and worship resource for adoption as an official hymnal of The United Methodist Church for congregational use in the United States.

Convocation Focuses on the United Methodist Way

United Methodist News Service report on Bishop Rueben Job's Abingdon Press book Three Simple Rules and the Convocation of Extended Cabinets at Lake Junaluska, NC.

Book Offers Blueprint for Wesleyan Way of Living

United Methodist News Service story: United Methodist Bishop Rueben P. Job used John Wesley's three general rules to give Christians a blueprint for faithful living in his new book, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living.

Publishing House Launches Take Time to Give Time Initiative

The United Methodist Publishing House, Abingdon Press, and Cokesbury staff are investing thousands of hours in service to their communities this year through a new program called Take Time to Give Time.

The Will of God by Leslie Weatherhead Receives ECPA Platinum Award

The Will of God is a little book consisting of five sermons that were preached to a congregation in London during World War II. The pastor, Leslie Weatherhead, was trying to help his parishioners think through a topic that was especially relevant to their lives. Two of Weatherhead’s friends thought others might also find these sermons helpful, and they urged him to seek publication. The Will of God was published by Abingdon Press in 1944 with no attempt to disguise the fact that the material was prepared for and delivered from the pulpit.

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

Radical hospitality. Passionate worship. Intentional faith development. Risk-taking mission and service. Extravagant generosity. People are searching for a church shaped and sustained by these qualities, asserts Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. Schnase is Bishop of the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church and previously was pastor of First United Methodist Church, McAllen, Texas.

Abingdon Press Receives Grant from Templeton Foundation Press

Templeton Foundation Press, through its Publishing Subsidy Program which seeks to support publishing projects that pursue research and discovery in the field of science and religion, has awarded $10,000 to Abingdon Press to help broaden the reach of Can You Believe in God and Evolution: A Guide for the Perplexed by Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett (Abingdon Press, 2006, 0687335515).

Central Conference Pension Inititative

The Central Conference Pension Initiative is the work of the Global Pensions Task Force, an inter-agency committee of The United Methodist Church. The Task Force is investigating the possibility of offering pension support to the clergy and lay workers of the central conferences.