Annual Conference 2014 to focus on creative bridge-building'
By Melisssa Lauber
UMConnection Staff
In previous years, members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference at the annual session have placed approximately $15,000 in the collection plate for a special offering. But this year, conference leaders are expecting to receive 100 times that amount as they collect $1.5 million in local church donations and pledges for Imagine No Malaria.
Celebrating the BWC’s campaign to eradicate deaths by malaria will be one of the highlights of this year’s annual conference session, which will be held from Thursday, May 29, beginning at 2 p.m., until Saturday, May 31, at 4 p.m. The session will be held at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The annual conference draws clergy and lay members from 642 churches in Maryland, Washington, D.C., the panhandle of West Virginia and Bermuda. The theme of this year’s conference is “Building Bridges: Be Love.”
There will be three worship services at the session. The scriptural focus will be the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-35. Bishop Marcus Matthews will preach at the opening service at 7:30 p.m. May 29. Bishop Kenneth H. Carter Jr. of the Florida Conference will preach at the Memorial Service May 30 at 10 a.m., and at the Service of Ordination May 31 at 2 p.m. Carter is author of eight books, including “Pray for Me: the Power of Praying for Others.”
These worship services and the morning Bible studies are open to the public, and will be broadcast live on the conference website.
The Bible study, held at 8 a.m. May 30 and 31, will be led by Dr. James Salley, associate vice-chancellor for Institutional Advancement for Africa University, the United Methodist-affiliated university in Old Mutare, Zimbabwe. Salley has been working for 22 years interpreting the mission and dreams of this “School of Dreams.”
Plans are currently underway to bring the choir from Africa University to perform and share in worship at the May session. Worship music will also be provided by the “No Other Name” Latino choir, and the choirs from Eden Korean UMC in Baltimore and First UMC in Hyattsville.
In addition to setting the 2015 conference budget, members will learn about the ongoing conference ministries and vote on resolutions submitted by individuals and groups in the conference. The deadline for these resolutions to be submitted has been extended to Jan. 20. Copies of the resolutions will be posted at www.bwcumc.org before Jan. 31 and published in the PreConference Journal, which will be mailed to all members at the beginning of April.
To ensure delivery, church administrators should log into Gateway (on the conference website) to check and update mailing addresses for their active lay members to Annual Conference as soon as possible.
To assist members in fully understanding and discerning the business coming before them, two preconference briefing sessions will be held – one for clergy and one for laity.
The clergy session, which will also include the official Clergy Executive Session, will be held Thursday, May 15, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Towson UMC in Towson.
The laity session will be held Saturday, May 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at John Wesley UMC in Hagerstown.
Also this May, a luncheon is set for Tuesday, May 13, at the BWC Mission Center in Fulton, to honor those clergy who are retiring this year.
Online registration for the annual conference session (and the Preconference Briefings) opens Wed., Feb. 12.
For more information, visit, www.bwcumc.org/events/annual_conference_2014.
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