 The Rev. Cynthia Meyer moved a step closer to a church trial after she and Bishop Scott Jones failed to agree on a just resolution to the complaint that she is a “self-avowed, practicing” homosexual.
One option the Great Plains Conference bishop offered Meyer was that Edgerton (KS) United Methodist Church, where she is now pastor, could withdraw from the denomination and retain Meyer as pastor in a new denomination. Meyer rejected that choice. “I thought that was a surprising and disappointing request. That he would want those who disagree with the formal position of the church to simply leave the denomination was troubling,” Meyers told United Methodist News Service. “Certainly, on that point I knew this was not anything I would willingly accept or sign. It does not seem to me to be just.” Rev. Meyer – a pastor in The UMC for 25 years – also rejected a proposal to delay the proceedings until after the 2016 General Conference votes on human sexuality petitions during the May 10-20 international conference in Portland, Oregon. More than 800 delegates from across the country and around the world will meet in Portland, Ore. from May 10-20 to consider more than 70 proposals on whether to confirm or rewrite the denomination’s biblical understanding of human sexuality. From United Methodist News Service reports http://www.umc.org/ |
Texas Impact – Better Neighbors – Human Trafficking
April 12, 2016 — Rio Texas MFSA
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Many consider 1863, the year the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, as the year slavery ended. Perhaps others cite 1981, the year Mauritania became the last country on earth to abolish slavery. However, this ancient form of exploitation continues in our time and in our nation in the form of human trafficking. Human trafficking is typically divided between two types: labor trafficking and sex trafficking. Labor trafficking can occur in domestic work, restaurant/food services, traveling sales crews, bars/clubs, construction, health/beauty services, and begging rings. Sex trafficking venues include hotels/motels, commercial-fronts, residential brothels, escort services, online ads, truck stops, and bars/clubs. Victims of these illicit markets include foreigners who are brought across international borders as well as U.S. citizens and legal residents who are trafficked within U.S. borders. On a global scale, approximately 600,000–800,000 people are trafficked each year. Of the 14,500-17,500 people who are trafficked into the United States each year, the U.S. government believes that 80 percent are women and approximately 50 percent are minors. While human trafficking occurs in many places both nationally and globally, rates of trafficking are alarmingly high in our state. Texas is a hub for international human trafficking because of its many busy interstate highways, international airports, bus stations, shipping commerce through the Gulf of Mexico, and its shared border with Mexico. Specifically, Harris County and the North Texas region serve as major areas for trafficking. In addition, Texas is home to the I-10 corridor, which the U.S. Department of Justice recently designated as the number one route for human trafficking in the U.S. |
Vital Conversations Series
April 12, 2016 — Rio Texas MFSA The General Commission on Race and Religion of The United Methodist Church (GCORR) presents Vital Conversations on Realities of Race and Racism: A Guide to Small-group Discussions about the Video Series. This Vital Conversations series features contemporary theologians, sociologists, laity, clergy, and other thought-leaders dealing with challenges of race, culture, and oppression in the Church and world today. http://www.gcorr.org/series/vital-conversations-series-1/ |
Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action 