Global Ministries News & Stories

Fernandes succeeds Thomas Kemper as head of mission and development agency.

As a director of Global Ministries from 1984 to 1992 and president of the agency from 1988 to 1992, Hearn helped to shape mission witness and service in the last two decades of the 20th century.

To mark his final day as general secretary and reflect on ten years in the role, Thomas Kemper looks back – and forward – and reminds us that mission is both global and local, and that we are stronger in mission together.

As Thomas Kemper completes his tenure as General Secretary, members of the United Methodist family from around the world share their appreciation, well wishes and bid him a grateful farewell for his many years of dedicated service.

By Kathy GriffithSeptember 2020 | ATLANTA The United Methodist Church’s Abundant Health Initiative is committed to reaching a million and more children with life-saving interventions, a goal…

Joining as one in spirit despite being physically separated due to the pandemic, seven GMFs on the US-2 track were blessed for ministry during a virtual service on August 26.

Leaders of the agency and its board of directors recall the influence Bishop Yambasu had on the church as a whole and specifically within the work of mission.

Thomas Kemper reflects on the meaningful personal and professional relationship he had with Bishop Yambasu, who died on August 16 in Sierra Leone.

Global Ministries joins the World Council of Churches in celebrating "The Light of Peace: Churches in Solidarity with the Korean Peninsula." This important new work includes reflections on peacemaking from Bishop Hee-Soo Jung and Thomas Kemper and recognizes the continuing conflict in Korea, seventy years after it began in 1950.

United Methodist missionaries from around the world gathered virtually on August 11 to hear a farewell message from and pay tribute to Thomas Kemper who is leaving the post of general secretary at the end of the month.

Like many places in the world, Vietnam is facing economic impacts from the novel coronavirus. The Vietnam Mission Initiative partnered with Global Ministries Asia Pacific Regional Office, Scranton Women’s Leadership Center, and the Wesley Foundation to offer concrete love and compassion to its neighbors.

Shirley Townsend-Jones, a Church and Community Worker missionary in South Carolina, works with a rural African American cooperative ministry. Her ministry pulls together people from nine churches to face challenges, transform their communities, and celebrate the small victories of each day.