2015 Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church: Report from the Burke United Methodist Church Delegation

Transcription

1 2015 Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church: Report from the Burke United Methodist Church Delegation Shut up and listen to God" Bishop Young Jin Cho "God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to God s power that is at work within us. EPHESIANS 3:20 Nearly 4,000 clergy and laity representatives of United Methodist churches across Virginia gathered at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, VA., June for the Annual Conference meeting of worship, Bible study, mission projects, celebration of ministries, and conducting the business of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. An equal number of laity and clergy make up the voting members at the Virginia Annual Conference, which is composed of 1,183 local churches covering the state of Virginia except the section west of Christiansburg, which is part of the Holston Conference. The Virginia Annual Conference is the 2nd largest conference in the United States by membership. The primary purpose of Annual Conferences is and always has been connectionalism. Annual Conference gatherings are required by The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. Burke UMC sent 3 lay delegates, Randy Allen, Nancy Flythe, and Jim Hudson, together with its 3 clergy members of the Virginia Annual Conference, Rev. Dr. Larry Buxton, Rev. Judy Fender, and Rev. Deborah Porras. Ken Madsen and Ann Stingle, both from BUMC, represented our Alexandria District as a lay delegates.

2 ! Annual Conference opened with separate Laity and Clergy sessions at 10:00 AM Friday, June 19, The clergy conducted business such as election of new clergy members while the Laity heard welcoming remarks from our Virginia Conference Lay Leader, Mr. Warren Harper. Warren reminded the Laity that by Discipline, we are required to report back to our churches regarding the events of Annual Conference. We also listened as the new electronic voting system was explained. This year is the first time we will use electronic voting for election of delegates for the 2016 General Conference, the 2016 Jurisdictional Conference, and their alternate delegates. The Laity were given a session where we could meet the nominees for General and Jurisdictional Conferences and hear their views on a number of issues facing the UMC. Bishop Young Jin Cho and Rev. Raymond Wrenn At 2 p.m., Bishop Young Jin Cho called the 233rd session of the Virginia Annual Conference to order. The bishop announced the singing of "Are We Yet Alive," a hymn by Charles Wesley that has been sung by persons gathering for holy conferencing since the beginning of the Wesleyan movement. The Rev. Raymond Wrenn, who was attending his 75th annual conference, and Haley Dantzler, who was attending her first annual conference, led the opening prayers. This year, the 233rd session of the Annual Conference met in an abbreviated session designed to save money and time across all the member churches and conference offices. We continue to adjust the annual conference format in ways that allow a greater number of delegates to attend with smaller impact on schedules and expense. This was our fifth year to meet at the end of the week, putting 2 days of conference on a weekend, rather than the earlier format of meeting in the early part the week. This reduces the number of work days missed for delegates. We started our

3 sessions on Friday several hours earlier than normal to allow a bit more time for General and Jurisdictional Conference Delegate elections. During the opening session, Bishop Cho asked retired Bishop Charlene Kammerer, who led the Virginia Conference , to pray for victims of the June 17 shooting of nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, S.C. In her prayer, she lifted up the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the historic AME church and a South Carolina state senator, who was killed in the shooting. She also prayed for Bishop Richard Franklin Norris, AME bishop of South Carolina, and our brothers and sisters in our Wesleyan family. The Rev. Young Bong Kim, pastor of Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington, preached for A Service of Remembrance and Holy Communion. Bishop Kammerer preached for the mission service and for ordination. The Rev. Tim Bias, general secretary of Discipleship Ministries, led Bible study. In his annual Episcopal Address, Bishop Cho shared the progress in four areas that have been the focus of his ministry as bishop: leading All Things New-Equipping Vital Congregations, strengthening the spiritual foundation of our mission and ministries, developing new faith communities and nurturing a culture of cooperation and coordination. Bishop Cho said an important accomplishment during this conference year was the conferencewide conversation on human sexuality held Nov. 22, "We sat down together and shared with one another our differences on this issue and sought a way that we can be one in our mission. It was not an easy process to plan and prepare for this conversation, but the Task Force team and Common Table did a great job in organizing and leading us in this conversation," Bishop Cho said. "Of course, not everyone was happy about this conversation, but we took the first step toward a holy conversation on this divisive issue. I hope we are more open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and humbly seek for God s will to be done on this issue in our churches." Bishop Cho said the upcoming year will have many challenges, and 2016 General Conference will be crucial for the future of our denomination. He expressed hope that in the midst of these discussions and conferencing, The United Methodist Church would not forget the most important thing: our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The bishop said he will keep focusing on the necessity of prayer by spreading this culture to Virginia churches and challenging clergy and laity to devote at least one hour daily to spiritual disciplines. The bishop plans within this new year to visit each district to encourage this act of prayer.

4 During this conference year, four new faith communities were started: Restoration Church in Reston, satellite campus of Floris UMC in the Arlington District; Ignite UMC on the Old Dominion campus and surrounding community in the Elizabeth River District; People United in Christ UMC in the Staunton District; and The Inferno in the James River District. The Vine was chartered this year, and Spirit and Life faith community will start a satellite campus. Three new faith communities are planned with four renewal projects during the coming year. Five churches were discontinued: Arlington UMC, Arlington District; Mount Hope UMC, Richmond District; Mount Zion UMC, Danville District; Ottobine UMC, Harrisonburg District; and Wesley Chapel UMC, Staunton District. Denman Evangelism Award for clergy was presented to the Rev. Paul Beighley, co-pastor of the Brodnax Charge in Brunswick County in the James River District, for his work in prison ministries. Denman Laity Award went to Patricia Hobbs, Outreach Ministry Team Leader at Franconia UMC in the Alexandria District. Denman Youth Award went to Anna Lopynski, member of Floris UMC, Herndon, Arlington District. Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons, president of Shenandoah University, received the 2015 Francis Asbury Award for fostering United Methodist ministries in higher education. The Rev. Margie Turbyfill won the 2015 John Wesley Award for making notable contributions to higher education and campus ministries within the Virginia Conference and advocating for young adults. On June 24, Dean of Spiritual Life The Rev. Dr. Justin Allen officially presented President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., with the 2015 Francis Asbury Award.

5 Using electronic voting machines for the first time, members of the Virginia Annual Conference elected 22 delegates to the 2016 General Conference (11 clergy and 11 laity) and an additional 11 clergy and 11 laity to join General Conference delegates for the 2016 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference. Laity delegates to General Conference are: Martha Stokes, Warren Harper, Shirley Cauffman, Nathaniel L. Bishop, Darlene Amon, Virginia Greer, Joyce Winston, Gene Mims, Beth Christian, Alison Malloy and Marshall Bailey. Clergy delegates to General Conference are: Tom Berlin, Meredith McNabb, Denise Honeycutt, Clarence Brown, Tammy Estep, Ted Smith, Ileana Rosario, Peter Moon, Kendall Soulen, Mark Ogren and Rob Vaughn. Laity delegates to jurisdictional conference are: Larry Burian, Neill Caldwell, Janet Ayers, Willard Douglas, Jacob Paysour, Olivia Hinton, Michael Monge, Vicki A. Boger, Virginia Turner, Raymond Nations and Brenda Brooks. Clergy delegates to jurisdictional conference are: Seonyoung Kim, Keith Boyette, Bob Cooper, Alex Joyner, Beth Givens, Tommy Herndon, Marc Brown, Jason Stanley, Jeffrey Mickle, Greg West and David Ford. Clergy alternates are: R. Bruce Johnson, Brenda Biler, Alan Combs, Thomas Barnard, Won Un, David McAlister-Wilson, Kathleen Overby Webster, Ed Walker, David Rash, John D. Copenhaver and Paulo DaSilva. Laity alternates are: Aimee Hong, Rachel Wright, Zach Ferguson, Leon Newbanks, Lori Valentine de Segovia, Nancy Yarborough, Nina Winkler, Carlos Liceaga, Joel Joyner and Charles Pearre. By a vote, the Annual Conference approved a petition urging General Conference to eliminate the sentence: "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching" from the United Methodist Book of Discipline. The vote was taken by written ballot. Members also voted to encourage all United Methodist general boards and agencies, annual conference boards and agencies and local churches to avoid investment in companies with revenues from the extraction and/or mining of thermal coal. The resolution also encourages investment in companies focusing on development and utilization of renewable energy sources and improved energy efficiency. Thirty-one local pastors were licensed, 24 elders ordained including Rev. Morgan Guyton, former Associate Pastor of BUMC, one deacon ordained, 21 commissioned as provisional members, one recognized as associate member, and four elders orders were recognized. Fortyfive clergy took retired status, including our own Rev. Judy Fender and Rev. Steve Jones, former Senior Pastor of BUMC.

6 Bishop Young Jin Cho ordains former BUMC Associate Pastor Rev. Morgan Guyton as Morgan s wife, Cheryl, and BUMC Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Larry Buxton stand with him. Annual Conference members brought 42,843 disaster relief kits for United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to Annual Conference. Kits included 23,672 Health Kits; 11,835 School Kits; 4,533 Birthing Kits; 1,965 Layette Kits; 180 Cleaning Kits; 111 Bedding Kits and 547 Sewing Kits. Value of the kits is $544,584. Total number of donated kits exceeded last year's offerings by more than 1,500. BUMC contributed 405 kits or almost 1% of the total from nearly 1,200 churches. Those attending Annual Conference contributed 9,869 pounds of canned goods and boxed dry foods plus $174 in cash as part of the "4 Cans 4 Conference" drive to benefit the Roanoke area Rescue Mission, according to the Rev. Jim Earley, "4 Cans for Conference" coordinator. The Rescue Mission serves free lunch and dinner every day and just started a food giveaway on Saturday mornings for community residents. A total of $128,890 was received in a special offering to support the conference s partnership with the Methodist Mission in Cambodia, United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Global Health Ministries to aid the Ebola-ravaged countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia and children in poverty projects in the Danville and Eastern Shore districts. The offering total stands at $152, as of July 6, At last year s Annual Conference, a goal was set to save 100,000 lives for Imagine No Malaria. This year s annual Conference included a golf tournament to raise funds for Imagine No Malaria. In addition, artists from across the conference created pieces of original art that were used to enhance Annual Conference worship. The works of art were sold in an online auction, and one hundred percent of the proceeds went to Imagine No Malaria. When the Imagine No Malaria report was given Saturday, June 20, 86,454 lives had been saved. The amount raised was so close to the goal that Bishop Cho urged the crowd to attain the goal by the end of the weekend. After he and his wife pledged to give an additional $2,000, an impromptu offering raised $28,560 in cash and $22,000 in pledges. New total was $916,064.16, saving more than 91,606 lives from the deadly disease. This is just $83,936 (or 8,394 lives) short of the conference goal of raising $1

7 million in order to save 100,000 lives. By Sunday, it had been announced that this effort to save 100,000 lives will continue into the month of September. Members approved a 2016 budget of $32,315,000, down 1.24% from the 2015 budget. As of the end of 2014, membership stood at 327,647 down.92% from Worship attendance stood at 102,884, down from 104,231 at the end of Reaffirmations of faith were at 4,250. For 2014, there was a 2.5% decrease in apportionments towards mission and ministries from John Meeuwissen, Lay Leader of the Alexandria District says, I prefer to focus on my following take-aways: Inspiring worship services, outstanding preaching and wonderful music; all centered around the Conference theme From Members to Disciples Thought-provoking bible studies where a disciple was defined as Grace-filled Christ follower who puts faith into action with all people Successfully approaching our Conference goal of saving 100,000 lives in the Imagine No Malaria campaign currently at 91,500 lives saved! Exceeding prior year s donations by collecting 42,743 Kits (bedding, birthing, cleaning, health, layette, school, and sewing); 4.75 tons of food for local food banks; and contributing $128,890 towards the Annual Conference offering Hearing about Pub Theology it s not the newest trendy outreach effort; it s open and honest conversation wherever that leads Quotes that made me think, reflect and pray: Growing from members to disciples is the most important change we need today When we live as Christ, the world will change We are called to be more than conquerors. Crisis is dangerous, but in Christ, crisis will be an opportunity Prayer changes the situation we face, but most of all, prayer changes ourselves And for those that absolutely need to know (but were not there) those electronic voting devices were really slow when they followed our traditional rules; but speeded up tremendously when they let the program and software operate as designed. As for Petition #14 it will be submitted from the Virginia Conference as a proposed change to the Discipline to be voted on at General Conference next year.

8 Fixing of the Appointments and Annual Conference Adjournment The customary Fixing of Appointments was performed by Bishop Cho after updates were announced by each District Superintendent. A pdf document of all appointments in the Virginia Conference is at this link: Clergy Appointments. Note that churches listed in Red have paid 100% of their conference and district apportionments. Find BUMC in the Alexandria District and be proud of our participation in the connected church. If you have questions or would like to know more about annual conference, please ask one of your lay delegates or clergy. If you are interested in serving as a lay delegate to annual conference let us know that as well. We all thank you for allowing us to be your representatives at Annual Conference. More Annual Conference information is available on the VAUMC website at: 2015 VA Annual Conference. Note: Much of this summary information, facts, and figures provided by Madeline Pillow, Virginia United Methodist Advocate Editor, and gleaned from our daily Annual Conference publication The Daily Advocate. Not unlike The Daily Prophet This written report follows our oral report presented at both services on June 28th, 2015 at BUMC. The full text of that oral report is included below: BUMC Oral VAUMC Report - Sunday, June 28, 2015 Good Morning, CHURCH We have just returned from Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and we bring you greetings from Steve Jones, Ed and Gordon Pruitt, Bryson and Lori Smith, Marti and Todd Ringenbach, Morgan and Cheryl Guyton, Janet Salbert, Carl and Kit Perez, and Justin Allen. Burke s Lay Delegates, Jim Hudson, Nancy Flythe and Myself as well as 2 of our District Delegates who are from Burke, Ken Madsen and Ann Stingle, and Burke s Clergy, Larry Buxton, Deborah Porras and Judy Fender had the distinct honor to represent you at Virginia Annual Conference June in Roanoke. We assembled with nearly 4000 other delegates representing 1,200 congregations to do the work of the church in Virginia. Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has 3 standing missions: 1) The Conference Offering = 150,000, Equally divided in 3 areas, Methodist Mission in Cambodia, UMCOR Global Health Ministries, and Children Out of Poverty - Virginia. As of Saturday night 129,000 dollars had been received. Giving to the Conference Offering continues for several weeks.

9 2) Kits for Conference (Health kits, sewing kits, school, layette and bedding kits) - 43,000 total kits were donated this year. - Burke contributed 405 of those kits or about 1% of the total. 3) Cans for Conference - Each delegate to Annual Conference brings 4 cans of food to conference for the Roanoke Food Bank. The goal this year was 10,000 pounds of food. 9,869 pounds of food had been donated by conference end. Another mission of the Virginia Conference this past year has been the Imagine No Malaria or as it is sometimes known Every Life Save a Life campaign. At Conference time, 91,606 Lives had been saved with an overall goal of 100,000. This deficit prompted a spontaneous stream of delegates to the alter to place donations toward this goal. We attended 5-6 worship services, some of those in special ceremonies of Remembrance - where laity and clergy departed in the last year were honored; Retirement - where we celebrated Steve Jones, a former BUMC pastor s retirement and Judy Fender s retirement; and the Ordering of The Ministry where we witnessed the Ordination of Morgan Guyton, our former associate, to Elder in Full Connection. The theme of Conference this year was From Members to Disciples. Much of the worship centered on having a path and a process for making Disciples within our local churches and what it means to be a Disciple. You can imagine that we had really good sermons from highly respected Clergy to bring us the word that we often focus on things that aren t the most efficient for making Disciples. We listened to lessons from Bishop Young Jin Cho, Retired Bishop Charlene Kammerer, and the General Secretary of Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Rev Dr Timothy Bias who said his spiritual gift was Irritation. I perked right up when I heard that. More business of the Annual Conference this year was the election of Delegates to represent the Virginia Conference at General Conference 2016 and SouthEast Jurisdictional Conference We explored the world of Electronic Balloting for the first time in conference history. It was a flawless and efficient experience I m kidding it was painful and slow, but we learned new lessons and since Clergy and Laity voted in separate blocks, we had fun laughing at each other in good competitive spirit. We elected 22 delegates to General Conference, 22 additional delegates to SouthEast Jurisdictional Conference and 20 alternates. It took forever and had it not been for a motion to alter the voting process, we d still be sitting in the Conference Center in Roanoke. The other significant actions we took were to discuss, discern, pray, and vote on 3 Petitions to General Conference centered on Human Sexuality.

10 The Annual Conference addressed Petitions 2, 11 and 14 and a written ballot was taken for these three petitions. Two of these petitions, 2 and 11, called for more ways to determine who was a Self-Avowed Homosexual clergy and mandatory penalties for clergy who perform same-gender unions. Both of these petitions failed. The most debated was Petition 14, calling for the Virginia Annual Conference to petition the General Conference to remove the incompatible with Christian teaching clause from the Book of Discipline. This Petition was approved. The Bishop issued a letter addressing the results of Petition 14 on Tuesday and in that letter he explained that the petition is from the VA Conference to the General Conference. Nothing can change except through the General Conference. He stressed that we are one body, united in purpose and just as we have differences in families but continue in love and respect, so it is with our Church Family. A full, written report on Annual Conference will be available to the congregation Sunday, July 12th. In the meantime, if you have questions regarding Annual Conference, just ask any of your lay delegates or any of our clergy. Thank you. A five-minute highlight video of the 2015 Virginia Annual Conference is available here: 2015 VA Annual Conference Highlights Video

11 Single Page Take-Away from the 2015 VAUMC Annual Conference 2015 Virginia Annual Conference Theme was From Members to Disciples ; Conference was held in Roanoke, Virginia at the Berglund Convention Center; BUMC represented by 6 delegates (3 Clergy and 3 Laity); BUMC had 2 additional delegates representing our Alexandria District; Five worship and Bible Study services held; Reverend Morgan Guyton ordained as Elder in Full Connection; Reverends Judy Fender and Steve Jones honored in the Retirement Service; Approximately 43,000 Kits for Conference donated. BUMC donated 405 kits, nearly 1%; Conference Offering of $152, collected in support of Cambodia Missions, UMCOR, and Children Out of Poverty - Virginia; Overall Virginia Annual Conference membership declines while ethnic membership rises; Petition to remove the incompatibility clause from the Book of Discipline will be forwarded from the Virginia Annual Conference to the 2016 General Conference; And four new faith communities established in the Virginia Annual Conference.