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VOL. 13, NO. 8

Conference gears up for annual session

BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

Pan-Methodism, stewardship and mission will draw the attention of more than 2,000 United Methodists expected to gather at this years annual conference session.

Make the Connection: Get in Gear! is the theme of the 218th session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, which will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., June 6-9.

Speakers throughout the four-day session will address the topic of pan-Methodism, or the unity of the United Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches.

The subject of pan-Methodism was raised at the 2000 General Conference, which requested that all annual conferences engage in a liturgical act of

repentance that confronts racism before the fall of 2003.

Speakers at this Junes session will lay the groundwork for an act of repentance at next years annual conference, said Associate Council Director Sandy Ferguson.

Bishop Milton A. Williams Sr. of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Washington, D.C., will be a special guest of the conference on Thursday night, June 6. Mary Love, an administrator for the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation, will lead a morning Bible study and Bruce W. Robbins of the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns will preach at the memorial service on Sunday morning, June 9.

On Saturday morning, June 8, the Rev. Eric Law, a consultant for the Baltimore-Washington Conference in the area of multicultural leadership and organizational development, will lead small-group conversations.

Plans are underway for these table-talk sessions to be broadcast, for the first time, via satellite to several local churches throughout the conference.

Also speaking at this years service of ordination on Friday evening, June 7, at the Washington National Cathedral, will be the Rev. William H. Willimon, dean of the Duke University Chapel in Durham, N.C.

During the conference plenary sessions, 18 conference councils, boards, commissions and committees are expected to bring recommendations to be voted upon by annual conference members.

Among the recommendations is a request from the Board of Financial Stewardship Development to centralize all the stewardship services of the annual conference in one office at the conference center. According to the boards pre-conference report, this recommendation calls for the financing of a staff of three full-time and one part-time employees, to be hired before July 1, 2003.

If adopted, this one-stop shopping reorganization marks a significantly new direction for how the annual conference will do the work of Christian stewardship, wrote the Rev. Frank E. Trotter, chair of Financial Stewardship Development, in the boards report.

The conference will also consider recommendations from the:

• Commission on the Status and Role of Women to conduct a study comparing conditions of clergywomen and clergymen;
• Secretary of Global Ministries to adopt 16 programs and ministries as conference Advance specials;
• Board of Ordained Ministry to conduct a background check on every candidate for ordained ministry and all clergy who seek a transfer in the conference;
• Commission on Equitable Compensation to make several clarifications on the renovation and upkeep of parsonages;
• Commission on Archives and History to elevate several sites in the conference to the status of registered historic sites.

The Council on Finance and Administration also wrote in its pre-conference report that it anticipates bringing a proposal from a feasibility committee that has been studying ways to meet the capital needs of new church starts and camping ministries.

These recommendations will be discussed prior to annual conference at four regional legislative sessions.