| College, churches cooperate to help
students Florida Southern College and 59 United Methodist
churches worked together through the Advancing-the-Flame Matching Scholarship program to
provide $195,790 in scholarships for 103 Florida Southern College (FSC) students.
For the 1999-2000 school year, 54 conference churches and five from
other states contributed $109,130. Florida Southern matched $87,660 of those funds.
Established during the 1997-’98 year, the scholarship program
offers matching scholarships of up to $1,000 for United Methodist students attending FSC.
United Methodist churches pledge a scholarship gift for a member of
their congregation who attends or plans to attend FSC. All of the funds are credited to
the student’s account for tuition, room and board.
For details on the program, call FSC Church Relations at
863-680-6211.
Florida United Methodists Travel to Cuba
Representatives of the Florida Conference are currently in and
traveling to Cuba to attend the Jan. 21-Feb. 20 district conferences of the Methodist
Church there. Each district conference lasts two days and includes church reports, worship
services and training workshops.
A total of 23 Florida Conference United Methodists, including two
district superintendents, will attend the district meetings, representing nine of the
conference’s 14 districts, according to Larry Rankin, director of the Florida
Conference Council on Ministries’ Missions office. Many of them will spend up to 12
days in Cuba, observing and participating in the district meetings and visiting partner
churches.
Archives halfway to goal
The Florida Conference’s Commission on Archives and History is
halfway to its goal of $600,000 needed to build the new Florida United Methodist Heritage
Center at the conference center in Lakeland, according to Nell Thrift, conference
archivist.
The money pledged so far has come from 120 individuals and 166 of
the conference’s 750 churches, Thrift said.
“A lot of the churches that have responded have been small
churches, Hispanic churches and missions,” she said. “It is a sacrifice for a
lot of them to do that.”
Among the pledges are two $25,000 memorial donations that allow the
giver to name a room in honor or memory of someone who has made a significant impact on
United Methodism. One will honor the Norton family and the other, the Rev. Charles T.
Thrift Jr. A group in the conference is raising money to name the third room in honor of
Bishop Charlene Payne Kammerer, the first woman bishop elected from the Florida
Conference. A fourth room is still available.
A large gift was also given by Carol and Barney Barnett in memory of
his grandfather, R. Ira Barnett.
An official date has not been set for the groundbreaking, but Thrift
hopes it will happen within the next year.
For more information contact Dr. Robert R. Barber, chairman of the
center’s campaign committee, by phone at 941-853-3665 or mail at P.O. Box 3767,
Lakeland, FL 33802.
Corrections
In the last issue of the “Review,” the amounts raised and
distributed by the Council of Bishops’ Initiative on Children and Poverty (BICAP)
were incorrect. As of Dec. 15, the conference’s BICAP task force had collected
$391,503 and given $375,154 in grants.
In the Hope for the Children of Africa article, the phone number to
order support materials was incorrect. It should be 1-888-862-3242.
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