Internet coverage will make following General Conference easy

e-HUM Announcement

April 20, 2004

Internet coverage will make following General Conference easy

For those not traveling to Pittsburgh next week, logging on to a computer will be the easiest way to follow the action of the United Methodist Church's top lawmaking. The denomination's communications agency is offering full coverage in three languages and through a variety of media-print, video and audio.

The place to go is www.gc2004.org, the official Web site of the 2004 General Conference or log onto Indiana's own www.inareaumc.org and click on the General Conference 2004 logo. The site, managed by United Methodist Communications and Hoosier United Methodists Together online, already offers a wealth of features and background news stories on the assembly, which convenes April 27-May 7 in Pittsburgh.

The United Methodist News Service will post reports to the site as quickly as possible after each major action, in addition to offering feature stories and daily wrap-ups. Coverage will include video reports from the news service's UMTV unit, audio segments and radio-ready items, as well as still photographs. Free e-mail subscriptions to the print stories will be available through the Web site.

Visitors to the site will also experience the sights and sounds of General Conference through audio and video streaming. Key moments, such as the opening worship (Tuesday, April 27 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), the episcopal address (Tuesday, April 27 at 2 p.m.) and laity address (Wednesday, April 28 at 11:15 a.m.) and the Service of appreciation for African Americans who stayed in the church during segregation (Friday, April 30 at 9 a.m.), will be streamed live, along with all of the daily worship services. See the General Conference schedule at the www.gc2004.org site for details.

Indiana Area Bishop Woodie W. White will be participating in the Service of appreciation for African Americans who stayed in the church during segregation.

Through its multicultural desks at General Conference, UMNS will report news of specific interest to:

African Americans, provided by Linda Green, a UMNS news writer.
Koreans and Korean Americans, provided by the Rev. Sang Yean Cho, director of Korean Resources at United Methodist Communications.
Native Americans, provided by Ray Buckley, director of the Native People's Communications Office at United Methodist Communications.
Hispanics and Latinos, provided by the Rev. Julio Gomez, a veteran of five General Conferences.

InfoServ, the free information service provided by United Methodist Communications, will be staffing General Conference and responding to questions by e-mail and phone. The toll-free number is 800-251-8140; e-mail is infoserv@umcom.org. The United Methodist News Service, however, will not be able to respond to e-mail messages or calls from the public during General Conference. Recorded news summaries will be available 24 hours a day in English, Spanish and Korean.

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If you know someone who has yet to sign up for e-HUM, they simply need to send a blank e-mail from their preferred e-mail account to add@inareaumc.org.

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