| Delegates bring experience, enthusiasm to General Conference By Melissa LauberUMConnection Staff Darlynn McCrae  Darlynn McCraes grandparents built a Methodist church in Tennessee. Today, McCrae is preparing for her first time serving as a delegate to General Conference. The church is my roots, she said. She couldnt imagine life without it.
McCrae, who has been the church secretary at Ames UMC in Bel Air for more than 20 years, lives her life believing the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. If theres a need, she said, I just give. This attitude is reflected in the way she serves as the churchs worship chair; as the treasurer and now communications chair for the conference United Methodist Women; as a mother intent on helping her children grow in their relationship with Christ; and as an employee training specialist at the Susquehana Workforce Network, where she assists people who need jobs. As a delegate, McCrae is concerned about the churchs declining finances and how this will impact ministry. She is also excited about the possibilities of the denominations Igniting Ministries advertising campaign, which she hopes will draw young adults into the pews. McCrae says she has a lot of reading and digesting to do to fully understand all the issues shell be asked to vote on at General Conference. How is God calling me? What is God calling us to do as the church? Will we be obedient to where hes leading us? These are the questions, she said. If we have one purpose, its to praise and worship him and invite others to do the same. Caroleann Myers  Every Saturday night, for the past 16 years, Caroleann Myers has supervised the feeding of more than 200 people at Carpenters Kitchen, a ministry of Mount Vernon Place UMC in Baltimore.
Even while recovering from surgery, her heart has been in the fellowship hall with the poor and hungry. Its hard to put into words, she said. Thats my family. Myers, who is also president of the Baltimore-Washington Conference United Methodist Women, is an outspoken advocate for peace and justice issues. One of my joys, she said, is when we go beyond the prayer. Our churches prayers need to be accompanied by action. John Wesley did not abandon people in need after he saved their souls. Myers carries her enthusiasm for mission into her role as a delegate to General Conference. She will work, she said, to ensure that the church works in partnership with those in need, and that the Womens Division of the General Board of Global Ministries will be able to retain its full staff, funding and influence so that it can continue to be a force for good, doing cutting-edge ministry. When she is not doing church work, Myers reads a lot and does textile art. She also does watercolors and recently received a new easel from her husband, to whom she has been married for 50 years. Like a good marriage, Myers said, General Conference will be full of ups and downs. But also like a marriage, she said, its a struggle worth struggling for. Laura Easto  Having spent the first eight years of her life attending Cheverly Evangelical United Brethren Church, the Rev. Laura Easto appreciates the united part of United Methodists and believes diversity is one of the churchs greatest strengths and challenges.
People dont yet fully understand that we are to be harmonious, but not homogenous, she said. The pastor of University UMC in College Park, Easto enjoys parish ministry and the constant conversations with God it allows. She is also the chairwoman of the conference Board of Ordained Ministry and, as a delegate to General Conference, is interested in issues that raise the effectiveness of clergy. The denominations itinerate system assumes that pastors are qualified to serve wherever they are sent. But not every pastor is able to serve every church. Thats a difficult reality, she said. Easto also struggles with the realities of rising clergy health care insurance costs. People are pushing to eliminate mandatory retirement at age 70, she said. That, coupled with the rising costs of health care insurance creates some difficult questions. How many years of effective service by a pastor is enough to warrant the cost of health care (coverage) and pensions? she asked. Easto said she was also concerned about a proposal by the General Board of Church and Society on stem cell research that, almost as an aside, recommends that couples seeking to get pregnant not choose in vitro fertilization as an option. This is something she would passionately oppose, Easto said. In addition to leading the Board of Ordained Ministry, Easto enjoys spending time with her husband and two children and quilting. She is currently creating an elaborate, heirloom Baltimore album quilt. | 
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