| Peninsula-Delaware Conference names resource center for Bishop May By Tammy Ward
SPECIAL TO UMCONNECTION The Conference Resource Center in the Peninsula-Delaware Conference has a new name: The Bishop Felton Edwin May Conference Resource Center.  | COURTESY OF TAMMY WARD | The Peninsula-Delaware Conference Resource Center, now named after Bishop FeltonEdwin May, is located in Dover, Del. |
Conference members bestowed that honor upon Bishop May as he and his wife, Phyllis, took part in the 220th annual session, held in Princess Anne, Md., in early June. On Friday, June 4, a resolution offered by the Peninsula-Delaware Conference Board of Trustees was read. 'Therefore Be It Resolved,' it read in part, 'in honor of Bishop May's retirement and for his ministry and service to The Peninsula-Delaware Conference, The United Methodist Church, and the entire body of Christ, that the Peninsula-Delaware Resource Center building be named the Bishop Felton Edwin May Resource Center.' The center, a red brick building located at 139 North State St. in Dover, houses the program and administrative offices of the conference, which comprises the eastern shore of Maryland and all of Delaware. Bishop May was elected to the episcopacy in 1984 from the Peninsula-Delaware Conference, after serving as a student, inner-city mission advocate, district superintendent and conference council director, the resolution noted. Before preaching that morning, Bishop May was introduced by several representatives of the area in which he once worked. Kathryn Cooper-Nicholas, executive director for the Methodist Action Plan, spoke of his years with MAP, where his impact is still being felt today. Cooper-Nicholas told of a middle-aged man who recently approached her at a graduation ceremony of one of their programs. The man asked if this was the same program where 'Felton May' once worked. When she said yes, the man went on to say how 'Felton' took him off the streets, out of a gang, and told him that he was going to college. The man was attending the ceremony that day because his nephew, a program volunteer, had written a play that was to be performed that day. He himself had graduated from Hampton Institute, he said. Darlene Webb affectionately refers to Bishop May as 'my pastor.' She spoke of how the bishop successfully merged the Ezion and Mt. Carmel congregations into one. 'May God's blessings abound in your life and work as you leave this area,' she said. 'Where he is going, they'd better get ready cause its never gonna be the same when they meet this great pastor and leader of the church.' Bishop Peter D. Weaver, episcopal leader of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference, was the last to introduce the bishop. He summed up his life and ministry by saying, 'From the White House to the crack house, to God's house, you have allowed God's Spirit to perform miracles. Thanks be to God for Bishop Felton Edwin May.' The resolution concluded, 'Let It Further Be Resolved, that the Peninsula-Delaware Conference pray for Bishop May, Phyllis and his family upon Bishop May's retirement and that the power of the Holy Spirit will continue to fill their lives afresh.' Bishop May will retire at the end of August and begin a new ministry at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., working with college students in the areas of health, drug and alcohol education. — Tammy Ward is director of communications for the Peninsula-Delaware Conference. | 
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