“While I pray it never happens again, I am thankful to know that there is room for effective ministry and care in the face of tragedy and pain and appreciate the opportunity to serve in this manner, ” writes the Rev. Jen Bowden, who was in Boston April 15 with fellow members of her Coast Guard unit saying farewell to a shipmate.

The Amity Foundation, a partner of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is expanding its relief efforts to earthquake survivors in China’s Sichuan Province.

The gathering will be more like a retreat to exchange ideas, say bishops. Still, some longtime church observers say the meeting should be open.

A 10-year financial dispute between the Western Pennsylvania Annual (Regional) Conference and the East Africa Annual Conference that wound up before The United Methodist Church’s top court has ended with a split decision that likely will not please everyone.

Signing a peace accord is just the first step in reuniting a country where conflict has divided the population. The Methodists of the East Belfast Mission in Northern Ireland have been living into that reality ever since the 1998 Good Friday agreement declared peace between Catholics and Protestants there.