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Four churches achieve, one repeats
welcoming status
ORLANDO — Tampa’s Hyde Park and St. James
United Methodist churches, Cason United Methodist Church in Delray
Beach and First United Methodist Church, Tavares, received national
recognition for their welcoming skills when United Methodist
Communications named them Welcoming Congregations last month. The four
churches bring the total number of Welcoming Congregations in the
Florida Conference to 11.
Jacksonville’s Avondale United Methodist
Church became one of six United Methodist churches in the United
States to be recognized for the second consecutive year.
The national Welcoming Congregations recognition
is part of the Igniting Ministry Planning Kit and is one of many ways
churches can measure and improve their welcoming skills, according to
Deann Bogle, a project associate with UMCom’s Igniting Ministry
office who heads the Welcoming Congregations effort.
A 38-item work sheet spells out many of the ways
a congregation can be welcoming. Each item has a different value
between one and 50, and congregations must achieve 100 points to
qualify for the recognition. Qualifying churches receive a plaque and
are tagged as Welcoming Congregations in Igniting Ministry’s
Find-a-Church database.
Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker and the Florida
Conference Igniting Ministry design team have set a goal for every
congregation in the Florida Conference to become a Welcoming
Congregation. For more information on Welcoming Congregations
recognition and the Florida Conference goal, visit http://www.flumc.org/ignitingministry.
Correction
In the Nov. 22 issue of the “Florida United
Methodist Review,” the cosponsor of a resolution opposing capital
punishment passed at the 2001 Florida Annual Conference Event was
incorrectly identified as Lynette Fields. She was not a cosponsor of
that resolution. The Rev. Vicki Walker of Tampa’s Hyde Park United
Methodist Church was the cosponsor.
“Review” staff apologize for this error and
regret any inconvenience it may have caused.
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