Annual Conference Report for the Baltimore - Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church June, 2013 Thank you for once again putting your trust in Dave and me and allowing us to represent our congregation at Annual Conference. This is a decision that should not be taken lightly, and never should this task be delegated just because no one else wants to go. There are often resolutions that come before the conference that are controversial at least and will ultimately determine the future path of the denomination. Dave and I commented this year that our congregation should have been made aware of some of these resolutions so that we as your representatives could get a feel for how the congregation would prefer us to vote. If we represent you in the future, we will pay particular attention to the pre-conference booklet that is provided so that we can ascertain any sticky subjects for which we feel we need the congregation s input. This year s conference was quite different from our experience last year. The influence of our new Bishop was evident and contrasted drastically with that of Bishop School. The mood of this year s conference was much more subdued than last years. Bishop Matthews runs a tight ship when it comes to getting business done without a lot of flair and fanfare. There were 1700 United Methodist and 646 churches represented at the conference. The theme of this year s conference was Sowing the Seed/Be Light. Bishop Matthews stated in his opening remarks that everything we do in our faith lives should be a kind of planting or harvesting. We should act with all the earth as our tilling field and harvest home, in order to bring the light of Christ to those who may be in darkness. As you know we were asked to record the names of people that we brought to Christ. At the opening worship those cards were collected and the number of cards collected was many. The cards were collected in large baskets and then all were dumped into a huge vessel. (We contributed 21 names to the collection.) This spirit of faith-sharing, among ourselves but also in the community is at the heart of all we do, guided by God, to make Disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake opened the first plenary session on Wednesday evening. She was well spoken and engaging. She thanked the UMC for being a source of spiritual development and social action in the city. She became rather emotional when she expressed her thanks to conference members who prayed for and embraced her family following the recent murder of Joseph Haskins, the mayor s cousin and son of the Rev. Bruce and Deborah Haskins and thanked The United Methodist Church for its support during the recent tragedy her family faced. The bishop introduced the Rev. Paul Jones who was celebrating his 95 th birthday and was attending his 74 th consecutive annual conference session. At the luncheon on this day, the Rev. Dennis L. Blackwell, pastor and member of the denominations nine-member Judicial Council, referenced Matthew, Chapter 8, in his delivery of a very passionate and
moving speech. He stated that just as Jesus was astonished at the centurion who begged him to heal his absent servant, we can, through our own actions, astonish God. Jesus was astonished by the centurion because the centurion believed that God would do something God had never done before, something new, in healing the servant from afar. Too many of our churches don t testify that they ve seen God do something new. We re too protective of our sacred cows that allow us to feel good about ourselves. Sacred cows allow us to persist in the ministry of busyness, but with little effect on the communities in which we live. As a second point, Blackwell said that not only did the centurion believe that God would do something he d never done before, but Jesus knew he d have to do something or the servant would die. I quote Rev. Blackwell, We ve become inwardly focused, building ministries to ourselves, giving little to the least and lost. We re very good at perpetrating the status quo. And meanwhile we forget we have truth to transform the world. Finally, he petitioned all in attendance to go back to their churches, dream a dream, and believe that God will act. If we did just part of it, we d turn around this church as God expects us to. On Thursday, it was pointed out that in 1784, 229 years ago, a seed was planted at Lovely Lane Church in Baltimore from which grew our conference. The leadership teams of seven new faith communities were consecrated, one of which is in Dundalk. It was started by a man named Dred Scott in the J&K Auto Repair Shop. He often witnessed to his customers and prayed with them. He began to realize how badly his community needed this and began to have a jazz band come in and play music and hold services. It is called J&K Missional Community. So you can go have your car repaired and worship at the same time. Just goes to show that it s not important how or where there is worship taking place, but just that it is taking place. I dream of having Dred Scott s jazz ensemble come here to play for us. Five of the new faith communities are multi-cultural in both their vision and mission. Two seek to serve the growing Korean population and two grew out of largely African-American congregations. The First Saints UMC in Leonardtown began meeting in an elementary school in late January and already averages nearly 100 people in worship. Bishop Matthews offered some guidance on getting organizations active and involved. 1) He invited each church within the conference to become a prayer station, saying that there is nothing like the power of prayer in preparing good soil for the Master Sower to sow the seeds of the Gospel; 2) to bring at least one person to God each year; and 3) adopt a school in its zip code. Our children and our youth need to know and experience the love and support of the faith community in action in order for them to connect with the love of Jesus Christ. The children don t need to hear our sermons preached at them, but they do need to see the sermons being lived out daily in the way that we support our communities and our schools. We need to be visible in our community on a daily basis and in a way that shows we support them and our schools so that they know we are in partnership with them. Bishop Matthews called on churches to watch all of those who are hurting, immigrants, those bullied at school, and those who have not been fully welcomed into the church. We must remember that these very people are just like us before we first came to know Jesus for ourselves. In recognizing the seven new faith communities, the Rev. Andy Lunt, director of the BWC s Vibrant Communities ministry, stated that it is not up to us to make plans and ask God to bless them, rather we should discern where God is already at work and get busy with his plan.
There were twelve ministries recommended for adoption by the 2013 Conference. All twelve were approved by the conference body. They are Campus Ministry, Deaf Ministries, Christ House, Columbia Road Health Services, HIV/AIDS Ministries, Hope for the City, Mount Auburn Cemetery, NETS, The Orchard Fund (New Church Starts), REACH Caregivers, SMILE, and United Methodist Community Services. If you are interested in additional information on any of these ministries, you can go to the conference web site. There were four minor constitutional amendments approved. There was a very moving speech delivered by a recipient of campus funds. Her name was Usha McKeeta Sateesh. She described how her life was changed by the receipt of these funds and what it has allowed her to accomplish. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and as a student at Bennett College, she was able to reactivate a chapter of the NAACP on campus, among other things. There were reports from the Nominations Committee, College Ministries and General Council on Finance and Administration. Without question or debate, the proposed $16.8 million dollar budget for 2014 was approved. There is also a new task force being formed to look at ways in which the conference might further its mission to make disciples by partnering with other organizations. The Discipleship Council is currently seeking members for a task force called The Ministry Partner Policy Task Force. They will develop guidelines and policies that clarify what it means to be in partnership with the BWC, determine how the BWC will grant status of a ministry partner and create policies and procedures for evaluating partnerships. They are looking for seven to nine members with background and knowledge in developing and executing partnerships between organizations. People with experience in areas like nonprofit work, law, finance, management consulting and other relevant fields are good candidates for the work force. The task force will be established this summer and the names of potential members are currently being collected. If you would like to volunteer or know of someone you would like to nominate, you can get information about how to contact the Discipleship Council on the conference web site. Clergy were informed of upcoming changes to pension and benefit plans. On Friday, there was a celebration of appointments to become effective July 1, 2103. In our district, Laura Easto was appointed District Superintendent. Karin Walker is now full time pastor at Fallston UMC. An ordination service recognized 25 new clergy members. There was a very entertaining report presented by CCYM. Tom and Becky Price were present. There is a new vocal group called Bridges that was formed by a group of kids who have been attending Rock for years. There was really nothing for kids after high school, so this group of kids comes from all over the US to get together and sing. It would be nice to bring them to our church as well. There were a total of eight Resolutions put to the body and approved. We will summarize a few of the more dicey ones that we wished we had more congregational input on.
Resolution on Evolutionary Scientific Thinking. This resolution generated much discussion from the floor and passed narrowly. The purpose is to make evolutionary scientific realities of our life and knowledge a part of The United Methodist Church by rethinking and implementing evolutionary scientific thinking into our worship experience, our theological language, teaching, our songs and life experience in accordance with the Book of Discipline Resolution 160F. Therefore, as a church that talks and grapples with wanting to grow and reach out to young adults who find themselves leaving or not being a part of the church (because of archaic thinking) and we wanting to be vital and relevant congregations, let us take the time now to make the commitment to the Great Mystery of our evolving life to make our more than 32,000-plus churches open to the God of evolution who is wooing us to change our language and to do the necessary rethinking and teaching that would relate evolutionary science and the evolving of science and rethinking a priority in our efforts to convey and teach our faith history and in our effort to educate, write church school literature, and in our efforts to relate wisdom in our colleges and seminaries. This rethinking will mean not throwing out the old ideas and concepts but see them in a new light, giving the journey of wisdom and critical thinking new possibilities. Resolution on Preventing Gun Violence. It is resolved that members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference should support legislative efforts to reduce gun violence throughout our country but advocating for the reduction of guns and ammunition and by supporting legislation to regulate the sale to and possession of guns and ammunition by the general public. Resolution to End Bullying It is resolved that: United Methodist Clergy within the Baltimore-Washington Conference shall seek opportunities to be trained in responding to the needs of those who have been bullied, those who perpetrate bullying, and shall support parents and teachers who may witness or be called to intervene on behalf of those who have been bullied. That local church leadership is encouraged to connect with community association and schools to publicize our intention for churches and church-owned property of The United Methodist Church in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to be safe places for those who have been bullied in their communities, in their schools, or in their homes via cyber-space. That United Methodist congregation within the Conference shall (a) adopt a zero-tolerance policy for bullying within their sphere of influence; (b) publicize this position through the use of their websites, emails, printed materials and verbal announcement, with an emphasis on church youth programs; (c) stand with anyone or any group being bullied or scapegoated; and (d) support teachers, parents and youth who may suffer, witness or intervene to stop acts of bullying.
That the Conference shall identify or develop study guides to educate about bullying as a serious form of violence with life-and-death consequences, and take steps to prevent and respond to bullying in our communities. Resolution on Israel/Palestine Much discussion was generated by this topic and it was tabled until next annual conference. A study was requested to further investigate the implications this resolution might have on the financial holdings of our local churches. The resolution calls for the Baltimore-Washington Conference to divest their stock holdings from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard until these companies end their involvement in the Israeli occupation and that the BWC call for the General Conference of The United Methodist Church to do the same. There is further information about any of these resolutions if you are interested. Respectfully submitted, Trudy and Dave Guetler, Lay Members