| Annual Conference shows generosity By Melissa LauberUMConnection Staff More than $36,000 was collected in special offerings at the 219th session of Annual Conference, held June 12-15 in Washington, D.C. Annual conference members raised $21,803, of which $16,000 came from churches, for a proposed monument on the National Mall honoring  civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The gift was accepted at the conference by Leroy Lowery III, executive director and chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. Mount Auburn and Mount Olivet cemeteries, two historic burial grounds for United Methodists in Baltimore, will be the beneficiaries of $6,765 collected at the opening worship service at annual conference. Mount Auburn is the oldest owned and operated black cemetery in the city. Mount Olivet holds the graves of Bishop Francis Asbury and other bishops. An offering during the closing worship service was given for the ministries of the Bishops Initiative on Children and Poverty, a denominational missional priority. More than $7,626 was collected during this offering. | 
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