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Annual Conference 2004

Report: Saturday, June 19

Annual Conference Report for Saturday, June 19

From Aletha Deal, Peaks Sub-District Lay Leader:

The Saturday sessions of Conference started with songs, prayer and a delightful presentation from the children of Annual Conference Child Care. What a fun skit they did and such a wonderful moral (based on Noah's building the ark too small) about following God's directions! We were given evaluation forms and instructions to make our comments and the number evaluations match. (As a member of the Board of Lay Ministry, I know what a problem this can cause for those who tabulate the evaluations.)

I was privileged to read the prayer for the reading of the appointments for Peaks and Plains District. Although there were few changes, it is always interesting to hear who is going where in the District.

Judy Hill presented the information on what the Board of Stewards has done. Their plans for next year sound interesting. Tommy Gleaton's farewell address came next. Those of us who have worked with him over the past years will miss his guidance in the Board of Lay Ministry (BOLM). He was a knowledgeable leader and kept us to the tasks at hand.

The candidates for all levels of ordination and commission were introduced. The candidates for Elder's orders were asked the questions that all who become Elders must answer before the whole conference. There were three this year which is one of the smaller groups.

The budget was to be voted on and there were legislative actions to be taken care of. The budget was approved and the legislative actions all seemed to me to be more quickly dealt with this year than in years past. The petition concerning the mission statement took more time than I expected and the vote on how to elect the Lay Leader of the Conference was also a sticky one.

At the end of the reading of the Sunshine District appointments, I left to hoof it over to the DoubleTree Hotel to help get the Lay Luncheon off to a good start. Much planning had gone into this so I just helped the guests to find their assigned places. Many awards were given, the Lay Speaker Awards, Quiet Disciple awards, and the Retiring Minister's awards. Happy Birthday was sung to the United Methodist Women (UMW) (for their 135th anniversary) and to Fay Veal. She was retiring with the clergy and we will miss all the pictures she has taken. The food was wonderful and plentiful at this meal. We all needed to get our exercise on the way back.

By afternoon we were still working on a vote to endorse Candidates for Bishop and finally managed after five or so votes to endorse Charles Schuster at Jurisdictional Conference. We continued voting but could not get an election and finally voted very closely to discontinue the balloting. Therefore, the only person who received and endorsement was Charles Schuster. Since he is my minister at First UMC in Ft. Collins, I am proud to have him endorsed by the Conference, but at the same time am not going to like seeing him leave if he is elected.

The Bishop's Awards were given: Ethel Roth was accompanied to the stage by her family and many people from First UMC Fort Collins where she is a member. We had managed to keep her from knowing about this so it was a total surprise to her! Red Pethick of Pueblo was the other recipient of a Bishop's Award. He was accompanied to the stage by two long rows of family who came from as far away as Florida to be present for the presentation. I have known him from the Board of Lay Ministry and was very glad to find that he received this award which he so richly deserves.

A number of other awards were announced during the afternoon. Cokesbury presented a check to the Conference which was a percentage of the money from sales during the days of the sessions.

It was noteworthy that we got through the agenda almost on time and closed the session for dinner and ordination at Park Hill UMC.

Aletha Deal, Peaks Sub-District Lay Leader