On World AIDS Day, people should focus on names and faces rather than just numbers and facts, the Rev Donald Messer told worshippers during a special service at the Upper Room Chapel of The United Methodist Church, Tennessee, USA.

A coalition of African and US Methodist church leaders are asking how African people and nations are being affected by Chinese long- and short-term investments in the region, often in exchange for mineral and mining rights.

More than 600 "justice lovers" from across the globe have gathered in Texas, USA, to celebrate practical faith in action and to renew their spirits at an international conference sponsored by The United Methodist Church.

The US United Methodist Church's legislative body has upheld a bishop's decision that a pastor who changed gender from female to male remains eligible to serve the church, in a move welcomed by those supporting transgender persons.

Native American languages have been under "extreme and direct attack" for generations and many are in danger of extinction, the director of a project working to save the Euchee language has told United Methodists in the USA.

Top United Methodist leaders in the USA are among the church and community leaders are calling on the Congress to override a presidential veto of a bill that would expand a poor children's health insurance programme to be funded by a tax on cigarettes.

Opponents of a Bush Library and Institute have vowed to continue their fight within the 11 million member United Methodist Church to deny approval to Southern Methodist University (SMU) to host the Bush complex. They say it dishonours the inclusive Gospel message.

The US United Methodist Church's social action agency wants the denomination to divest from companies providing products or services used for "illegal destruction" in Palestinian areas or that are doing business with the government of Sudan.

As churches and environmental groups prepare to mark Earth day on 22 April, Christian leaders have welcomed a new US ruling on carbon emissions and have urged more action on global warming.

The organizers of a United Methodist Church petition urging Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Texas not to house the George W. Bush Presidential Library, Museum, and Institute released early results of their petition drive and vowed to continue with their campaign.