Today, in Holston Conference News Briefs for October 26:
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TOP STORY: A United Methodist call for withdrawal from Iraq
The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has passed a resolution calling on the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
"As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq," the Oct. 17 resolution stated. "We urge the United States government to develop and implement a plan for the withdrawal of its troops. The U.S. invasion has set in motion a sequence of events which may plunge Iraq into civil war."
Bishop James Swanson is a member of the Board of Church and Society.
Read the United Methodist News Service report
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Florida Conference examines Hurricane Wilma damage
As the sun began to shine across parts of Florida hit by Hurricane Wilma, United Methodist disaster response coordinators started determining the extent of damage from the storm, the state's eighth hurricane in 15 months. With widespread power outages and orders from emergency management officials to stay indoors, disaster coordinators were having trouble making contact with many churches as of Oct. 24.
Read more about Wilma in the Florida Conference
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Resources: Special United Methodist days in November
Prepare now for these dates on the United Methodist calendar:
* Organ and Tissue Donor Day on Nov. 13
* United Methodist Student Day on Nov. 27
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Alternative Halloween celebrations for your community
Halloween is next Monday. The General Board of Discipleship offers a list of ways to make Halloween safe for children in your community.
Visit the GBOD site
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Want to attend this evangelism meeting in Nashville?
The United Methodist Council on Evangelism has announced that its January 2006 meeting, originally scheduled in New Orleans, has been relocated to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. The meeting dates are Jan. 3-6.
A limited number of scholarships are available for pastors and lay leadership from local churches, under the age of 40, attending the Council on Evangelism meeting for the first time. In addition, seminary students and part-time and full-time local pastors, who do not qualify for a scholarship, are invited to attend without registration fee.
Find out more about the meeting
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Holston clergywoman featured in national news
The Rev. Betty Shirley, a Holston clergywoman appointed as associate pastor to a Baptist church, is featured this week by the United Methodist News Service. Shirley's story originally appeared on the front page of the Oct. 21 edition of The Call.
Read the UMNS story
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Megachurches rule: Who said that?
"It takes small groups and good leadership in them to draw everybody together in a large parish. If we don't find ways to recognize people, welcome them and develop ministries that will involve them, then we're going to find that, in the end, bigger isn't better at all."
-- The Rev. Stanley Ulman, a priest in the Detroit area, commenting on a trend to consolidate parishes into megachurches