In 5 years, Courtwatch clocks 1000 hours, bonds out 51 people

The all-volunteer Athens Area Courtwatch Project is completing its fifth year of observing criminal proceedings in the Athens-Clarke County courts. 

By the end of 2023, volunteers will have logged nearly 1,000 hours in courtrooms, observing hundreds of hearings, providing moral support to families of defendants and encouragement to defendants’ lawyers. More than 100 unique individuals have volunteered in 2023.

The … Read the rest

What now? What next?

OSUMC will practice radical hospitality and intergenerational discipleship so that lives and the community are transformed by God’s love.

-Oconee Street UMC Vision Statement

What now?

You have the vision statement in front of you, so be in prayer for how we will inhabit it and be challenged by it. Aaron Farnham challenged the church to read Luke leading up … Read the rest

Celebrate new horizons for U-Lead students

Supporting U-Lead Athens is part of the immigrant justice mission of Oconee Street UMC. U-Lead Athens began in August 2014 to provide college mentoring, access, and scholarships to Athens-Clarke and adjacent county students who are un(der)documented immigrants (and thus banned from UGA and charged three to four times in-state tuition elsewhere) or children of immigrants. 

U-Lead would not exist without the … Read the rest

Jesus Says Stay with Me

— By Katie Greenwood —
I appreciate the space provided by the season of Lent and the events of Holy Week for hope to dialogue with despair, because both are inevitable elements in a life lived with awareness. 

In reparations work, we acknowledge the overwhelming cruelty and injustice of our history. We proclaim our willingness to mourn and our refusal … Read the rest

Lenten Devotion: April 1

Liberation with the Earth

— By Gabbi Pohlman

A theme that has permeated through all of my classes in Divinity School is interconnectedness.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth … God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 1

When addressing the … Read the rest

Lenten Devotional: March 30

Tirelessly Pursuing Shalom

— By Danny Malec

Blessed is the [one] who finds wisdom, the [one] who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare to her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and

Read the rest

Lenten Devotional: March 28

Learning from Those Around Us

— By Melanie Frick —

For the longest time, I did not consider myself an extremely religious person. But, I also used to think that religious behavior was restricted to praying before meals and bed, reading the bible, and attending church regularly. 

Yet, over the past couple of years, confined to being at home more … Read the rest