Conference sessions focus on mission, evangelism

United Methodist News Service
U.S. United Methodists, gathering for their yearly meetings, welcomed new bishops, focused on health care and diversity, and raised millions for tsunami relief.
All 63 U.S. conferences met in May and June, but the 10 million-member denomination has 52 other conferences in Europe, Africa and Asia. They meet at different times of the year.
Evangelism and disciple-making inspired themes for many U.S. conferences this year. Members focused on making followers of Jesus Christ.
Bishops encouraged members to get out of their comfort zones to share their faith.
“We are called to minister in new ways and in some of the old, old ways with a twist,” Bishop Jane Allen Middleton told the Central Pennsylvania Conference. “The words ‘we have never done it that way before’ are to be expunged from your vocabulary.
“Each of us has an impact on hundreds of people a week, and we must use our influence for Christ.”
Ministering took many forms, such as going into the streets and feeding the needy, gathering supplies for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and sponsoring potato drops.
The 63 U.S. conferences contributed more than $5 million to relief efforts following the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
An unusually high number of U.S. conferences welcomed new bishops, following last summer’s election of 20 new episcopal leaders and the reassignments of many others.
Leading his first North Texas Conference session, Bishop Rhymes Moncure Jr. established an ethos of servanthood by washing the feet of the candidates for ordination.
All conferences voted on eight amendments to the church’s constitution, referred by the 2004 General Conference. Reports filed with United Methodist News Service showed the U.S. conferences ratified the amendments—though not all conferences approved every amendment.
The changes must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the 115 conferences. The Council of Bishops is to review, verify and report the results later this year.
For some conferences, the annual meeting was a time of celebrating milestones and achievements. In the Estonia Conference, the first women elders for that Baltic church were ordained.
Conference season was memorable—for good and bad reasons—for the Southwest Texas and Rio Grande conferences. The good: the conferences, which share a bishop, met jointly for the first time in nearly 150 years. The bad: a gastrointestinal virus infected more than 300 people. Get-well messages were sent to each victim.
In Missouri, conference members discussed a recent court ruling in which the conference was ordered to pay $6 million to a couple for alleged pastor misconduct. The court found that the conference failed to supervise a pastor who was later accused of raping the woman.
An attorney said post-trial motions asking for a new ruling in favor of the conference, reduction in damages and new trial have all been filed.
Conferences supported a variety of missions projects around the world.
Members of the North and South Indiana conferences raised more than $75,000 to rebuild the Methodist Church in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, following the Dec. 26 tsunami.
The U.S. conferences gave more than $93,000 to the Central Conference Pension Initiative, in support of pastors and their dependents in parts of the world where pension systems are nascent or nonexistent.
The Holston Conference raised $45,417 for Change for Children, which benefits needy children in Holston and in Africa.
Members of the Western Pennsylvania Conference loaded trucks with 11,000 emergency kits and flood buckets from local churches for United Methodist Committee on Relief. Collection of the kits began as an annual event five years ago but has become a year-round initiative, with 20,000 kits sent between last September’s hurricanes and June.
Health care was a key issue for many conferences.
The West Michigan Conference called on elected officials to begin a “serious dialogue” to develop a single-payer national health care system. Oregon-Idaho renewed its health action campaign and endorsed consumer rights in health care.
Members of the Tennessee Conference supported a resolution asking the conference to commit to sharing information on pending changes to TennCare—the state’s health care plan for the otherwise uninsured—with congregations and to urge lawmakers to continue to seek solutions to the TennCare crisis.
In Central Texas, members were asked to be in covenant to honor God’s good gift of life by striving daily to walk 10,000 steps, drink six to eight glasses of water and spend 20 minutes in spiritual enrichment.
Members in several conferences approved resolutions opposing the death penalty, in keeping with the denomination’s official stance. Those included Eastern Pennsylvania, Wyoming (New York), Troy (New York and Vermont) and the Dakotas conferences.
Eastern and Central Pennsylvania and Wyoming adopted resolutions opposing the proliferation of alcohol sales.
The West Michigan Conference urged congregations to offer more programs to older adults as an alternative to gambling.
The California-Nevada Conference called on the U.S. government to end the war in Iraq, and to work with the United Nations for a withdrawal of all U.S. forces and the transfer of power to Iraqi leadership.
On issues of sexuality, the Baltimore-Washington Conference affirmed a resolution for a series of dialogues on issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. 
The New England Conference adopted a nonbinding “sense of the body” resolution related to clergy participation in same-sex unions and marriages, recognizing that ceremonies celebrating homosexual unions should not be conducted by conference ministers or conducted in conference churches.
During a “Service of Confession and Recommitment to Disciple-making,” North Alabama members confessed their conference’s unfaithfulness to remain in some transitional communities and to grow as multicultural churches.
The Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference passed a resolution asking high schools and universities to end the practice of using Native American images, people and symbols as mascots.