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
Each year in every UMC, new leaders are elected from within the church to serve important roles and seasoned leaders leave their roles. This constant exchange of duties is a healthy pattern that keeps ministry rooted in the laity as a whole and not in any single person or small group.
This year, we are seeking three new Leadership Team … Read the rest
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
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
— By Aaron Farnham —
It’s the middle of the winter just a few years ago. The cabin fever is getting to the students at Cedar Shoals. Fights in the hallways are on the rise. We all need a break, badly. Without a hint of facetiousness a White man says, “I think the best solution would be to lock them … Read the rest
— 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
— 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
— By Danny Malec —
… Read the restBlessed 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
— 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
— By Beth Long —
On the fourth Sunday of Lent the gospel reading from Luke is of the father with two sons. The younger son asks for his portion of the inheritance while his father is still alive. He comes to ruin and returns home, willing to be only a servant in the household and nothing … Read the rest