“Hello Church”
With this (somewhat) traditional greeting, Bishop John Hopkins called the 2011 East Ohio Annual Conference to order. For at least the last three years, the first official action at annual conference is primarily rooted in the past. We commemorate the ministry of the various clergy members, clergy spouses and lay members of annual conference who have passed in the last year. For each of the 53 individuals who died, a candle was carried forward from the back of Hoover auditorium and placed on the alter as a bell was rung and their name read. Many of the individuals who passed had been attending annual conferences at Lakeside for the entirety of the denominations 50+ years of existence. Two deaths that we commemorated were particularly notable: Bishop James Thomas- an African American who was elected Bishop while the church was still segregated and led the East Ohio Conference in the 80s. Also, Robert Dieterich Jr., the pastor of Bedford UMC up until his death this past summer. His death was a tragedy not just for his family, but for his church and the conference. I imagine the church is still reeling from his death even though it has almost been a year.
The theme of the opening sermon, and indeed, the entirety of the Conference, is “If we are the body...” The theme is taken from the 12th chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. Bishop Hopkins especially highlighted the way that we are called to recognize our diverse gifts, both as pastors and laity, churches rural and urban, small and large. We cannot afford to faction ourselves off and despise those who are different, we must instead remember how it takes all of these unique parts of the body for health to ensue. This is a particularly important message given that we were shortly to begin the contentious process of electing delegates to General Conference.
Following the opening worship, all of the laity were called together to receive instructions about the voting process and to receive nominees from the floor of conference for lay delegates to annual conference. As the clergy were not involved in this session, I instead attended a lunch gathering for young (under 35) clergy held by the lake. It was refreshing to catch up with some of my fellow young colleagues and to celebrate with those who would be commissioned later that evening. Two of our younger clergy, Curt Bissel and Erik Marshall, announced that they were launching a young-pastor driven network so that we could try and support each other in our ministries. I look forward to visiting with, and learning from, many of my young colleagues.
Following lunch, we clergy attended the “clergy session” of annual conference. This is a closed meeting in which issues of ordination and discipline are voted upon. Generally, this is fairly routine, but their was one fairly poignant speech that was the talk of the session. One pastor was removed from membership in the annual conference because they had transferred to a new denomination. After the vote to confirm the removal, this pastor asked for an opportunity to speak to her reasons for leaving. She expressed that she had been a life long Methodist, had been loved by God before she could walk, had been called into God’s service before she had even received her first kiss. She had received her calling into ministry here at Lakeside and was ordained into ministry in the United Methodist church a number of years later. She was leaving the denomination, however, with a heavy heart. She was leaving not because she didn’t love the church, nor because she didn’t love Methodism, but because her sexual orientation meant that she could never be fully accepted within the Methodist church. Our current discipline indicates that she would have to choose between her sexual orientation, or her calling by God as a Methodist pastor. Thus, she announced she was transferring her ordination to the Episcopal church where she could “come before God fully” just as she was. No matter where you stand on this issue, you couldn’t help but feel moved by the pain that she expressed.
The clergy and lay delegates were finally reunited for the afternoon business session. Two particular parts of this session deserve mentioning: our conference treasurer, Jessica Vargo, gave a presentation on the “State of the Conference.” In my three years here, this has never been the most positive parts of the week. Generally, giving and attendance are down while spending is up. However, this year Ms. Vargo was “moderately hopeful.” Though membership and attendance had decreased by approximately 1%, the decline was quite slight given the demographics in our state. She brought the good news that there would be no increase in clergy health care expenses for 2012 and that the conference had once again paid its apportionments in full. Independence UMC was highlighted for making significant improvements in the paying of their apportionments. Congratulations church!
The second item of note is that the clergy and the laity cast their first ballots for delegates to the General and Jurisdictional conferences. We will elect 7 lay and clergy delegates to each this year. The General conference is where much of the direction and rules of the church are set while the Jurisdictional conference is where bishops are elected. Since each only meet every four years, these are particularly important elections for the future of the church. These elections will continue throughout the conference (we have to vote upward of 13 times!)
In the evening we had a service of recognition of Clergy who were retiring from Pastoral Appointment and a Commissioning service for Provisional members. Literally and metaphorically, a mantle was passed from the generation who was retiring to the generation who would just be beginning their ministry. I was commissioned last year in a very similar ceremony.
That’s the update for Monday! If you have any questions about the above or about specific activities at conference, leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them as well as I can.
Good night church!
Pastor Jared
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