| Satellite feed makes history at 2002 conference BY LINDA WORTHINGTON UMCONNECTION Staff 
Members of the 218th session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., made history when they connected by satellite with 37 churches around the region for real time discussion. For the first time were broadcasting an annual conference by satellite, said Bishop Felton Edwin May as he greeted the audience of more than 1,700 people in the hotel ballroom and audiences in the churches. I hope you will connect yourself with this feel(ing) that you were there when it happened, he said.  The leader of the broadcast study on multiculturalism, held June 8, was the Rev. Eric Law. Im honored to be at this historic moment and in 38 places at one time, Law said. Flight 9, a satellite broadcast truck from New York City, was parked in front of the hotel, ensuring that participants in local churches could pick up Laws lessons on TV. The connection was made possible by the satellite dishes installed at each church. The TV audiences live participation was assisted by a staff of people, working in a room behind the podium, who answered phone calls, faxes and e-mails that were sent in from churches in Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Michele Melton attended the conference via satellite at Essex UMC in Essex, along with four others from her church. She is an enthusiastic participant. I felt like we were there, she said. I would like to have heard more. She said she thinks when the idea catches on many more people will participate, that annual conference has been shut off from regular parishioners and once they know how easy it is to attend via satellite and be a part of the discussions, more will come. The new technology that made the satellite Table Talk session possible is the wave of the future, said the Rev. Ed DeLong, associate council director, who was instrumental in developing the plan over the past four years. During the past year, Bill Dallas, CEO of Christian Communications Network, or CCN, worked with DeLong, Bishop May, and the Rev. Dean Snyder, conference director of communications, to develop this interactive broadcast. After initial efforts, first with three church-based satellite downloads, and a year later with nine, Dallas said he would like to set up a conference-based network. That was in July last year when the dream for this mornings Table Talk began, DeLong said. After Law explained the Mutual Invitation method of sharing viewpoints and concerns, Law asked the crowded room to break into six-person groups. He read Scripture and asked people to respond to questions about it. Michael Simms, attending via satellite at St. Mark UMC in Hanover, said they faxed questions in and the questions were answered during the broadcast. They broke into small groups when called for and discussed the issues, the same as happened in the ballroom. It was just short of being a worship experience on its own, Simms said. Bishop May talked like he was talking to us. Bishop May said he believes the satellite broadcast was just the beginning of a new movement to connect the churches of the Baltimore-Washington Conference technologically. Our vision is to some day have satellite capability in every conference church, he said. The conference is moving in that direction. By the end of summer, the conferences new church starts will have satellite dishes, according to DeLong. This has been a new day for us, a new way to be connected as a connectional church, Bishop May concluded. You were there for the first broadcast of the Baltimore-Washington Conference satellite network, he told the audience. Praise the Lord. | 
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