wfn.org | Annual Conference Wrap-up

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (202
notes).

Note 201 by UMNS on July 7, 1997 at 16:13 Eastern (11359 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                           389(10-21-71B){201}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470              July 7, 1997

Annual conference sessions address children
and poverty, restructure, homosexuality

                          by Linda Green*

      Clergy and lay delegates to the 66 U.S. annual (regional)
conference sessions of the United Methodist Church this spring and
summer focused on the needs of children by a variety of actions
including giving more than $330,000 to the denomination's Bishop's
Initiative on Children and Poverty. 
     Annual conferences also took steps toward restructuring their
ministries to meet specific needs and ordained more than 550
people into the church's new ministerial order.
     Twenty-four conferences affirmed the Council on Bishop's
Initiative on Children and Poverty. 
     Members of the Northern New Jersey Annual Conference mailed
letters to state Governor Christine Whitman and other political
leaders in support of the bishops' initiative goals. Churches in
the West Virginia Conference will sponsor an Oct. 26-28  "summit"
on welfare reform.
     The Florida Annual Conference gave the emphasis an $88,079
boost. Conference delegates brought money from their local
churches along with personal contributions in response to a
challenge by Bishop Cornelius Henderson to support the initiative.
     More than $20,000 was collected for the initiative by the
Tennessee Annual Conference.
     Adopting ministry initiatives for the poor and marginalized,
Native Americans, Hispanics and children, the Memphis Conference
collected $23,862. The Holston Conference raised $42,000 for
children's ministries and the North Georgia Conference raised more
than $163,000 for seed money to provide housing for families in
crisis after holding a hearing on children's issues.
     An offering by Minnesota conference raised $49,159 to end
worldwide hunger through Project Ag Grad, Operation Classroom in
Sierra Leone and United Methodist Committee on Relief.
     Another avenue conferences used to implement mission to the
poor was Habitat for Humanity. Nine conferences built houses or
contributed funds to that organization during their sessions. At
least eight more held workdays.
     The conferences ratified seven constitutional amendments
passed by the 1996 General Conference, the denomination's highest
legislative body.
     One of the amendments allowed annual conferences "to utilize
structures unique to the mission, other mandated structures,
notwithstanding." Final tallies of the annual conferences
constitutional decisions will be reported by the Council of
Bishops this fall.
     Seventeen conferences proposed or approved reorganization
based on the annual conference functions to care for nurture,
outreach and witness. 
     The Minnesota Conference approved restructuring based on the
five conference functions: to equip spiritual leadership, to
empower the people for ministry, to engage people in mission, to
open channels of communication and to administer and finance the
functions of the conference. Each function will be led by a
"steward," a person who gives guidance to the vision and oversees
its implementation.
     The Little Rock and North Arkansas conferences will develop
plans for restructuring area ministries and create an areawide
ministries position. To strategize and carry out a plan of action,
the conferences will hold a special joint session Feb. 18, 1998. 
     A jazz funeral was conducted by the Louisiana Annual
Conference to celebrate the death and burial of the Conference
Council on Ministries. By a 96 percent margin, it voted to move
from program-centered to a congregation-centered  ministry. 
     Growth in ethnic constituencies across the country resulted
in at least nine conferences authorizing ethnic minority churches
and ministries to be chartered or built during the next few years.
     Northern New Jersey Conference celebrated new charters for
two churches -- one Filipino and one Korean. The conference also
celebrated the beginning of Portuguese, Filipino and second-
generation Korean missions.   
     Central Pennsylvania Conference voted to establish a United
Methodist sister congregation for each African Methodist
Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian
Methodist Episcopal church within the conference boundaries.
      Following up on action by the 1996 General Conference, 61
annual conferences responded to the creation of two distinct
orders of clergy by ordaining 580 deacons into full connection. 
      A deacon in full connection is a servant-leader whose
ministry is to teach and nourish disciples. Although appointed by
a bishop, the deacon in full connection will not itinerate.
     Because of the rise in abuses against women and children, 10
conferences received reports or set policies for workers with
children and youth and workers in church daycare centers. They
also adopted policies on sexual harassment or misconduct.
     To support United Methodist-related Africa University, at
least nine annual conferences endowed scholarships, faculty
chairs, or began or completed campaigns to build dormitories or
contribute to the school in Zimbabwe. 
     Typical of such conference actions Western Pennsylvania
endowed a $500,000 chair in the university's faculty of education
in honor of retired Bishop Roy C. and Ruth Nichols. The Illinois
Great Rivers conference launched a $75,000 campaign to furnish the
ground floor of the university chapel for the first Wesley
Foundation in Africa.  North and South Indiana conferences will
build dormitories at the university. North Indiana is planning a
1998-2000 campaign to raise $675,000 for a three-story dormitory. 
     Recognizing its covenant relationship with the Liberia Annual
Conference, Oregon-Idaho shipped 130 "homecoming" boxes of
household items to that country. The conference also gave $125,000
to Liberia, a tithe of its "Celebrate the Faith Campaign," and is
establishing a permanent endowment for annual scholarships for
Liberian students attending Africa University.  
     At least 18 conferences addressed homosexuality. Eight
conferences struggled with identifying themselves as reconciling
or transforming conferences. 
     A reconciling conference accepts all people, regardless of
sexual orientation, as full participants in the life of the
church. A transforming conference supports gays and lesbians who
want to leave the homosexual lifestyle. Participants believe that
through God and the power of the Holy Spirit, homosexual people
can be transformed. 
     After discussion and work by an association of Wisconsin
United Methodists to reverse that conference's 1996 action to be a
reconciling conference, the 1997 session, by a two-vote margin,
retained its "reconciling" designation. 
     Also retaining and affirming their reconciling status were
the California-Nevada, New York and Oregon-Idaho annual
conferences. Oregon-Idaho acknowledged "with humility that the
church has been unable to arrive at a common mind" on
homosexuality. Placing the reconciling argument on hold for
another year was the California-Pacific conference.
     Delegates to the Detroit Conference had to make a decision on
whether the annual conference would be identified as a
transforming, reconciling conference or neither. To allow for
future discussions, the conference took the middle road and
refrained from naming itself in any category. 
     Approving a resolution on "Inclusiveness and Homosexuality in
the Church," the Illinois Great Rivers Conference extended an
invitation for individuals and congregations to explore the
possibility of becoming reconciling and transforming congregations
and individuals.  
     The Pacific Northwest adopted a resolution that supported
Washington State Initiative 677 that prohibits discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation by employers, employment agencies
and labor organizations. A narrow-vote endorsing the transforming
congregations movement was approved by the Southern New Jersey
Annual Conference.
     Passing resolutions on homosexuality were Northwest Texas and
West Virginia. Northwest Texas encourages ministerial candidates
to uphold the position in the Discipline and called for ministry,
healing and transformation to, and integration of, homosexuals in
the church. West Virginia called the church to "speak the truth in
love concerning the sin of homosexuality"; affirm the "sacred
worth of homosexuals"; "reach out in love and compassion to
persons who want to escape a homosexual lifestyle" and declared
same-sex unions as "unthinkable."
     In addition, Eastern Pennsylvania declared a moratorium on
homosexuality resolutions through a November 1998 adjourned
conference session to provide time for study and discernment. 
     Taking a different view on homosexuality discussions was the
Desert Southwest conference. The 1997 conference devoted time to a
six-member panel discussion with two goals: to model civil
dialogue; and to move toward greater clarity on issues related to
homosexuality and Christian faith. 
     Although the 2000 General Conference is three years away, the
Troy Conference already has sent three petitions for action. The
conference requests General Conference to adopt language that
recognizes deep differences regarding homosexuality and to remove
language regarding ordination of homosexuals and holy unions.
     Partial-birth abortion was opposed by four  annual
conferences, including North Carolina, which called the procedure
"evil, unjust," and "an oppressive act." West Ohio opposed both
the act and membership by denominational agencies in the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice.      
     The Alabama-West Florida Conference agreed to become a
"Confessing Conference" seeking "a new level of integrity in
upholding our historic doctrinal standards in a thoughtful,
serious and principled way."
     A confessing conference is defined by the movement as one
that affirms "the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed
in scripture and asserted in classic Christian tradition and
historic ecumenical creeds."
     In other conference actions, merger talks between the
Southern New Jersey and Northern New Jersey annual conferences
anticipate an area merger study committee that will present a
proposal to both conferences in 1998.
     Unofficial figures indicate that the United Methodist Church
lost about 42,000 members in 1996, about 7,300 less than the
number lost in 1995.
     The North Central New York and New England conferences used 
discernment to conduct business as a way of doing business so that
there would be no winners or losers. Rather than focus on reports
of past work, New England Conference focused on plans for the
coming year.
     The New York conferences recognized the presence of the Rev.
Nat Grady, a clergyman who attended his first conference in 10
years after being imprisoned and released following granting of a
writ of habeas corpus.
                              #  #  #

     * Green is news director of the Nashville, Tenn., office of
United Methodist News Service.

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