| Delegates look beyond bureaucracy to ministry BY MELISSA LAUBERUMConnection Staff Nine clergy and nine lay people will represent the Baltimore-Washington Conference at the 2004 General Conference when it meets in Pittsburgh next spring to establish the policies and priorities of The United Methodist Church for the next four years. In this issue, the UMConnection continues its short profiles of these delegates. Calvin Williams  As a forever Methodist and leader of the Baltimore-Washington Conferences 208,000 lay people, Calvin Williams is proud of the polity of the church and the way United Methodism is structured. But he is passionate about the laity and their potential for ministry.
The laity are the heart of the church, he said. If the heart doesnt work, the whole church dies. As a delegate to General Conference, Williams believes that every action made during the two-week meeting will affect the laity, even the seemingly more bureaucratic issues. They support the denomination, he said. We need to realize that people in the pews want spirituality. They dont care about Shelby (a conference data base) or the Discipline. They want to get ministry done. Enabling people to do that ministry has been at the heart of his ministry since he became conference lay leader in 1995, when Al Thompson died. His theology is simple, he said. If not for God by my side, I would not be anything. Williams attends Good Hope Union UMC in Silver Spring. During the week, he works at Montgomery County General Hospital, driving a bus for the addiction and mental health programs. He is often amazed at how small kindnesses are remembered by his riders, who report back, sometimes months later, on the progress of their treatments. People know that Christ is the foundation on which I stand, he said. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. The Rev. HiRho Park  Hope is the number one agenda item for the Rev. HiRho Park as she prepares to represent the Baltimore-Washington Conference at General Conference in 2004.
Park, who leads the conference Commission on Religion and Race, is currently studying Practical Theology with a focus on the sociology of religion at Boston University in Massachusetts. This is Parks second time as a delegate and she believes her experience, which gave her an understanding of the church as an institution, will enable her to be more effective. I will vote to protect the full participation of the marginalized in the life of the church and their right to make decisions and handle the budget, Park said. She added that the ultimate question for General Conference is: What does it mean to be the church? She is concerned that financial concerns will distort the churchs ministry and mission. Are we here to create and participate in the life-giving community to all Gods people or are we here to conform to the pervasive way of living business as usual? she asked. Park will work to see that the Social Principles, rather than the budget, define United Methodism in the future. If we are ignoring the social justice issues in the church we are ignoring the very essence of Jesus ministry, she said. Faith is bigger than the budget crisis that threatens the very life and ministry of the church. The church needs to hear the message of hope in the General Conference. | 
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