NEWS | by Erik Alsgaard
UMConnection Staff The 2005 Baltimore-Washington Conference will be held May 26-29 at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, the first time the conference has been held in Charm City in more than a decade.  | The Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore. |
The historical significance of the location has not been lost on conference planners. On Friday, May 27, conference members and their guests are invited to tour several historic churches in the city, and to witness how they are still in mission and ministry today. The United Methodist Church traces its roots to Baltimore and the Christmas Conference of 1784. Held at Lovely Lane Church, the conference was the organizational meeting of Methodism in the new United States. From Baltimore, the church has grown. Today, United Methodism counts more than 10 million members in the United States, Africa, Europe and the Philippines. A visit to Old Otterbein UMC, in the shadow of the Baltimore Convention Center, begins the tour, followed by choices of visiting Lovely Lane UMC, Sharp Street Memorial UMC, the Baltimore Hispanic Initiative, or Aunt CC?s Harbor House Shelter at Centennial-Caroline St. UMC. Bus transportation will be available for the tour. Cost is $5. United Methodists may also enjoy peanuts, popcorn and Cracker Jacks with a special night at Camden Yards. The May 27 game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers will be ?United Methodist Night at Camden Yards,? with special ticket prices and fireworks after the game. Ticket information is available in the registration materials, which went out early in February. The game, like the historical tour, is available to anyone. One does not have to be a member of annual conference to attend. Bishop John R. Schol will lead the annual conference through several plenary sessions and worship services. The conference begins with worship and Holy Communion, starting at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 26. Clergy and laity sessions will follow. Other highlights include: - A celebration for retiring clergy will be held Friday, starting around 11 a.m., with anointing of the new class of elders by the retiring class. A special retirees luncheon will then follow at the hotel.
- A memorial service will be held Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
- Ordination, which will be held outdoors under a huge tent, at Pier 6 adjacent to the hotel, will be held Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
More information about the 2005 annual conference session will be forthcoming in other feature stories in the UMConnection. Why does conference meet over Memorial Day weekend? For the past 10 years, the Baltimore-Washington Conference has met in a convention hotel setting, according to the Rev. Bruce A. Jones, pastor of Concord-St. Andrews UMC in Bethesda, and chair of the conference?s Arrangements Committee ? the group responsible for making sure everything runs like clockwork at conference. ?One of the complaints we often hear about being at the hotels is cost,? said Jones. ?We have always negotiated the best deal possible, but costs have risen steadily.? When the committee began negotiating for dates for this year?s conference and 2006, the only way to make conferencing in Baltimore affordable was to meet over the Memorial Day weekend, he said. It is, he added, a matter of good stewardship of conference dollars. ?Typically, it is a holiday weekend that hotels have difficulty selling to groups,? said Jones. ?So they gave us an incentive of a reduced price per room and other amenities.? The information was taken to both the Arrangements Committee and the Commission on Sessions ? the group with total oversight of the conference ? and both approved the deal. So, will conference ever move off the holiday weekend? ?When it came time to negotiate the contracts for 2007 to 2010, the difference in cost and savings was so significant, the commission felt that the only way to take seriously the stewardship responsibilities we have was to continue contracting for Memorial Day weekends,? Jones said. The Marriott Waterfront was not ?motivated? to extend the conference?s contract beyond 2006, said Jones, so the commission looked elsewhere. Thus, the 2007 through 2010 annual conference sessions will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, the city?s largest hotel. The session will be held on Memorial Day weekend between now and 2010, except for one year: 2008. Mark your calendars now. ? Erik Alsgaard |
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