Guests:

Bishop Mande Muyombo is the Resident Bishop of the North Katanga Area in the Congo Central Conference of The United Methodist Church. Muyombo was an executive of the General Board of Global Ministries when he was elected on the fourth ballot during the Congo Central Conference in 2017. He is the first graduate of Africa University to be elected bishop and the youngest episcopal leader in the central conference. Bishop Muyombo holds a Bachelor’s (Department of Theology) and master’s Degree (IPLG) from Africa University as well as master’s Degree in Theology and Doctor of Ministry from Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, USA. After working as President of Kamina Methodist University, he served as the Executive Secretary for Africa at the General Board of Global Ministries and was subsequently promoted to Assistant General Secretary in the Missions and Evangelism Department.

Rev. Edlen Cowley has served as an ordained clergyperson in the North Texas Conference (NTC) of the United Methodist Church since the year 2000. He was ordained a deacon in the year 2000 and an elder in 2003. After earning a degree in Government and Politics from The University of Texas at Dallas in 1993, he entered Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University where he earned his Masters of Divinity degree in the fall of 1999. Edlen has served in many diverse ministry settings; he was an Assistant/Associate Pastor at St. Luke “Community” UMC, East Dallas (1994-2002), and an Associate/Campus Pastor St Andrew UMC, Plano (2006-2014). He has started two new churches in the (NTC); Since 2014, Edlen has served as Senior Pastor of Fellowship UMC in Trophy Club. Edlen currently serves as the Chair of the Journey Toward Racial Justice (JTRJ) of the (NTC), and President of the African-American Clergy Fellowship (AACF). He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the (NTC) Black Methodists for Church Renewal (as Membership Chair). He also served on the (NTC) Black Church Initiative Leadership Team.

Adrienne Possenti is a laywoman from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. She retired in 2014 after a twenty five year career with the Vineland, NJ Board of Education. She’s been a member of First UMC in Vineland, NJ for thirty-five years and serves as the local church historian of her congregation, served on her district’s commission on archives and history for the UMC, and was president of her UMW chapter . She is a proud animal rights activist and co-founder of the 501c3 nonprofit, Free All Captive Elephants.

Questions in this Episode:

Rev. Cowley, will you tell us a bit about the piece you wrote last summer and why you wrote it?

Adrienne, after reading Rev. Cowley’s story last summer, you wrote to UMNS with a response. Can you tell us your understanding of the cross and flame?

Bishop, the cross and flame as a logo has great meaning for the central conferences. Can you tell us a bit about the logo in your context?

Current conversations regarding the logo in your local contexts? Is the logo and its interpretation being discussed?

If you were to re-design a logo for the UMC in 2021 what would it look like? In other words, what characteristics about the UMC are important enough or unique enough to be captured in a symbol?

Host Dr. Ashley Boggan Dreff- General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. Dreff earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, specializing in American Religious History. She has previously worked as staff at the General Commission on Archives and History (2012-2014) and the Connectional Table of The United Methodist Church (2014-2016). She was the Director of United Methodist Studies and Assistant Professor Christian History at Hood Theological Seminary (Salisbury, NC), an AME Zion Seminary, from 2017-2019 and was the Director of Women’s and Gender Studies and Assistant Professor of Religion at High Point University (High Point, NC) from 2019-2020. Dreff is a lay member of the Arkansas Annual Conference and the daughter of two ordained United Methodist ministers. She is the author of Nevertheless: American Methodists and Women’s Rights (2020) and Entangled: A History of American Methodism, Politics, and Sexuality (2018).