wfn.org | UMCom foundation receives $1 million from Weidman estate

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 31, 2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{503}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodist Communications (UMCom) has
received $1 million from the estate of the late Rev. Judith Weidman, former
top executive of the agency, giving a significant boost to the unit's
foundation.

Weidman led UMCom from 1994 to 1999, retiring early because of health
problems. She died of gastric cancer Dec. 19, 2000, at age 59.

Patricia Barlow, Weidman's friend and executor of the estate, presented a
check for $1,071,682 to the Rev. Larry Hollon on Oct. 31 at UMCom.

"This is a substantial increase to the reserves of the foundation," said
Hollon, top staff executive. 

As of last December, the United Methodist Communications Foundation had $1.5
million.

Weidman started the foundation as an avenue for emerging and innovative
ministries that weren't funded in the budget for current programs, Hollon
said. An example is the Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship, which wasn't
being carried out anywhere else in the agency and wasn't supported by World
Service Fund or apportionment dollars, he said. Weidman started the REM
scholarship, and it bears her name.

The donation offers the possibility for UMCom to do additional electronic
programming that wasn't included in the current budget, Hollon said. While
the ongoing "Igniting Ministry" media campaign invites people with real
needs to find answers in the church, more can be done with electronic media,
such as providing ministry in the areas of grief, spiritual development and
personal growth, he said. "This does provide the seed money for those kinds
of things."

Weidman understood the need to focus on new media. Said Barlow: "She was
aware that the new technology for communications was going to become so
important, and she wanted the church to get into (that) area."
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United Methodist News Service
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