Press Release from UMCMA Executive Committee

The Coordinating Committee of UMCMA wants to let you know what we have been doing since we met in Fort Worth last summer.

Below is an article that the executive committee of UMCMA wrote for "Campus Ministry Matters" (a publication of GBHEM.)


We will also be posting this info on the umcma.org website.

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The United Methodist Campus Ministers Association is beginning a visioning process to coordinate with the new strategic timeline that GBHEM has developed. At the Nashville meeting in December, the coordinating committee of UMCMA met with the Executive Staff of the board and representatives of the GBHEM Board of Directors, to engage campus ministry issues. A fruitful question and answer period was followed by time spent with Dr. Jerome King Del Pino, General Secretary of GBHEM. A total of twelve GBHEM staff met with UMCMA leaders and campus ministers over a four-day period, exploring together vision, leadership, funding, development, program issues, changes on campuses, and changing dynamics in United Methodism.

UMCMA also learned about the work GBHEM has done to reinvigorate Campus Ministry, including the approval of two new staff positions related to the Campus Ministry Section and the overall mandate given to the Division of Higher Education by the Board’s strategic plan. They plan to get further updates and to work with GBHEM on future events and the overall mandate given the DHE by the Board’s strategic plan.

The coordinating committee of UMCMA voted to oppose the Paul Schultz petition that calls for a study of campus ministry with GBHEM and the possibility of moving campus ministry to GBOD. The coordinating committee also voted to send this information to all General Conference delegates, notify GBHEM, include its rationale on the UMCMA website, and request that the petition website remove the UMCMA link and add a statement indicating that UMCMA does not support the petition. UMCMA voted that persons lobbying for the Paul Schultz petition cannot lobby for UMCMA legislation.

In other business, UMCMA made decisions about its General Conference presence, updating the UMCMA website, preparing for the Bi-Annual Gathering in the summer of 2009, and providing resources and support to United Methodist campus ministers.