 Annual
Conference 2007: Making The Invisible Visible
Embracing diversity *
Racial Acceptance *
Celebrating inclusiveness
June 13-16, 2007, Denver
Friday, June 15
Friday Brings Completed Delegations and Legislation
Morning Session
Following Ben Roe's opening prayer, Mike Ratliff,
Associate General Secretary of the Board of Discipleship for the
Division
of Ministries With Young People, celebrated some of the highlights
of
young people's ministries in this Conference. One is that there
are more young people (youth and young adults) going to Youth
2007 July
11-15, 2007, from this conference than from any other conference!
Another is this conference has two young people on the six-person
team that is to address the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth:
Andrew Craig from Park Hill and Annie Rigo from Grand Junction
First.
Kerry Greenhill reported on Graceworks, the new program of the Bishop's
Young Adult Initiative. She pointed out that this project was "social
holiness in outreach and in intentional community." The first
house of young adults has been established in Cheyenne, and there
are plans to expand in each of the 4 states of the Denver Episcopal
area (Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming). A video presentation featured
the young adults and their reactions to the opportunities.
Kerry reminded the Conference that Graceworks was not in the conference
budget; a petition last year set a fundraising goal as a Conference
Advance Special, and she expressed thanks to churches who have supported
the program. During her presentation, many support levels were illustrated,
from $250 for one day to $24,000 for one volunteer for one year.
David Trickett, president of Iliff, brought greetings from Iliff
School of Theology in a presentation about the school. He was moved
by the Graceworks presentation and offered theological reflection
resources, including travel to Cheyenne, as a way of supporting the
program. As the new president, he reminds the Iliff Community that "we
are at iliff to serve the world, not ourselves." Another assurance
he gave was that "wherever we are in our theological perspective,
Iliff will be radically welcoming to all perspectives." Further,
he insisted that the church "must stop some of the warring that
we have been about... As we battle, the world is increasingly not
paying attention to us." He outlined the mission at Iliff: "the
church is a vessel to help societal transformation occur." Iliff's
role is to help leaders to be effective in connecting faith and daily
life.
Ballots were held throughout the day; at several, candidates withdrew
and there were calls for the delegations to be diverse, to reflect
the Conference's diversity. There was a reminder that diversity takes
many forms: some diversity is not visible, in particular, the presence
of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals. The lay delegation
was complete early in the afternoon, after a motion was adopted that
the first 3 persons of the most recent ballot be elected alternate
Jurisdictional Conference delegates. The clergy delegation was complete
late Friday, after a motion passed that elected the top 3 persons
of the next ballot, taken at that point and announced at the Saturday
morning plenary.
The acting Conference Secretary Alane Currier-Griggs brought greetings
from other annual conferences. Cokesbury's manager Su Friedman expressed
Cokesbury's appreciation for you: always there, always patient. She
presented a check for $7,484, which after some discussion the conference
expressed a desire that the General Board of Pensions give it to
the Central Conference pension fund. New resources such as "Zion
Still Sings" and Live BIG (Belief in God) were mentioned by
Judy Davis, as well as the $1 million gift to the Central Conference
pension fund and $50,000 to the administration of that fund.
Janet Forbes from the Episcopacy Committee reported that the General
Conference Study on the Episcopacy appears likely to recommend a
reduction in the number of bishops in all jurisdictions. This is
coming out of a financial concern to reduce spending, but also a
change in the nature of the episcopacy in the 21st century. To be
ready for the possibility of this action, the Western Jurisdiction
Conferences Committee has met for the first time since 1984, and
is studying ways to handle a reduction in bishops. No one wants to
change the number of episcopal areas in the West or the boundaries
of the conferences; in fact, given the huge potential for growth
in the UMC in the West, there is a desire for more bishops! But if
a reduction comes, the Jurisdiction needs to be ready. There are
3 drafts for rearranging the conference boundaries and episcopal
areas, all of which are very much tentative, and all of which are
based on different criteria, such as population centers, trade areas,
etc. As Phil Cardin said, "there are miles of sagebrush and
jackrabbits" and 10% of the Jurisdiction's population is in
one county!
The "Bishop's Big Read" this year will be focused on two
books: "Christianity for the rest of Us," by Diana Butler
Bass; "Adventures in Missing the Point," by Brian McClaren
and Tony Campolo. Watch for more information. Diana Butler Bass will
be at next year's Conference session, for presentations and dialogue.
The two consent calendars were passed nearly unanimously. The legislation
summary will come in a separate report, as will highlights of the
teaching/learning moments led by Grant Hagiya.
Afternoon Session
After an opening prayer by Doug McKinney, associate pastor at Parker
UMC, the afternoon session was introduced to Bishop Brown's spouse
Minnie by Janet Forbes, chair of the Conference Episcopacy Committee.
Minnie received flowers from the conference and gifted the Conference
with a song, "I Love To Tell The Story."
Pastoral Care moment: Prayer concerns included Rich Stoakes and
his family, who express their appreciation and support of the conference
when they lost their home to a wildfire; Emily Dawson-Peterson, whose
grandmother died yesterday; Richard France, who is on a kidney transplant
list and receiving dialysis; spouses and families of those serving
in ministry; acknowledge those who are serving and have served our
country in the militry; Linda Sundburg and Chessee Lee; Friends and
family of Ruth Graham, spouse of Billy Graham.
The Conference heard from the three bodies responsible for leadership
and accountability of the Conference, besides the Conference Session
itself: the Vision, Mission, Values Team, Trudy Robinson, chair,
the Connectional Table, Kline Kelly presenting, and the Board of
Stewards, Kline Kelly and Nancy Boswell co-chairs.
The Vision, Mission, Values Team reported that their job is keeping
before all of us the vision, mission, and values of the RMC: to manifest
the love and reign of God, to make disciples of JC and to transform
our world. A slide presentation was given and will be on the web
soon.
The Connectional Table, a new feature of the RMC organization, met
for the first time on the Wednesday just before Conference opened.
Kline Kelly introduced the Table idea and people to the Conference,
noting that it was in conformance with Par. 607 of the 2004 Book
of Discipline and was defined in last year's AC13 petition, which
was the result of a lot of work by the structure committee set up
by a previous Conference. The Table has a diverse membership, and
includes persons from the administration, executive, and program
functions of the Annual Conference. Its purpose is to maintain clear
checks and balances among the various interests, using a process
for collaboration. The members covenanted to use the "5-finger
voting" method which allows for 4 levels of enthusiasm plus
a blocking vote.
One proposal from BOS and ELT will be discussed at a fall meeting:
to clarify needs for staff to resource and support the mission and
ministry of the conference.
Nancy Boswell, co-chair with Kline Kelly of the Board of Stewards,
reported on some of the movement that she had seen. She discovered
that the work of the Board of Stewards mirrored the work of her church
in Price, UT. She became aware of some movements in their processes,
that they were moving from expecting conference to do everything
to using our resources, ... from disconnection to connection... from
protecting turf to trying to gather consensus and resolution... from "large=good" to
a focus on effectiveness... from an unrealistic budget towards stewardship
and tithing... from micromanagement to board of governance management
model. The Board also adopted a method of monitoring committees and
their work, which led to some helpful learnings. Part of the process
is taking the Vision, Mission, and Values statement as the "end
statement" of the board of governance approach, and applying
it to the 8 processes of the RMC and asking 2 questions of each committee:
what does that particular process look like and who does it?
The Missions Parade as a slide presentation again highlighted all
the many and diverse ways churches in the Conference do mission work.
The Conference Board of Global Ministry functions as a liaison with
the General Board, coordinates missions involvement and communicates
with local church missions committees.
Friday was the birthday of the new Associate Director of Mission
and Ministry, Loren Boyce. He received a sung "Happy Birthday" and
a chocolate cake with one candle in the shape of a question mark.
Another personal item was the appreciation expressed by Peggy Sewell,
Assistant General Secretary for Episcopal Services of the General
Council on Finance and Administration, for all the prayers and care
she received last year at this time during a critical health condition.
Several General Conference petitions were presented, discussed and
voted upon. Results of these will come in a separate e-mail.
Skip Strickland, Director of Mission and Ministry, gave a short
presentation on the state of major league soccer in the conference,
since one of the Nothing But Nets sponsors is major league soccer.
The winner of the silent auction to play soccer with Bishop Domingos
was Amy Wise with a $100 bid. She received a BUZZKILL t-shirt and
the opportunity to play soccer with the Bishop after the plenary.
Skip reported that in some villages in Angola, up to 90% of children
are infected with malaria. Sleeping under treated mosquito Nets has
cut this to 10%.
Noted also were scholarships from the Bishops' Initiative on Chilren
and YOuth for youth groups who want to raise money. See the DeToni-Hills
for details.
Burk Kreps explained the way to get nets sent to Angola from those
in the Conference who want to do so: checks may be made out to your
local church with Angola Nets in the memo line, and treasurers may
forward that money to RMCUMC with Angola Nets in the memo line. This
will get nets to Angola through the World Health Organization.
Bishop Brown gave Bishop Domingos "an addition to his wardrobe"--a
cowboy hat.
Friday Evening Service and Session
The annual Memorial Service was held after dinner, with Ron Hodges
preaching, and the names and biographies of those deceased in
the last year read by Dick Vickery, retired clergy.
The plenary session after the Memorial Service was devoted to clergy
balloting with the successful completion of the delegations. The
three alternates to Jurisdictional Conference were voted on and results
were announced the next morning. In between the voting Marie Gasau,
the pianist for the session, suggested attendees sing the favorite "Alle
Alle Alleluia" and dance a conga line--a great success. This
was followed right away by the conference singing "How Great
Thou Art."
Please remember that these reports are unofficial, and come from
my notes and recordings and are meant to help you understand
and interpret the Conference to your congregations. The official
Conference
Minutes will be published in the Journal, due out this fall.
|
