Greetings to you from the Annual Conference of the Baltimore-Washington Conference:
The 227th B-WAC met from Thursday May 26th to close on Saturday May 28th in Baltimore, MD at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel. We gathered under the worship theme of Disciples Connect As One Through Radical Hospitality. Our preacher for the opening worship session was retiring minister Rev. Alfreda Wiggins. She preached on the Ascension story from Acts 1:8-9. She called on UM to "stop gazing" and to recognize that the Holy Spirit has come upon us. She said, "Today, we must each recognize that we are walking, talking, living and breathing miracles, called to do miraculous work connecting the unchurched to a life in Christ. …We can't all get to heaven, unless we get there together". This set the stage for the rest of the Conference in which we did focus on nominally or non-religious and our responsibility as Christian disciples. During this worship we gathered at the table in Communion. In a special offering, $58,866 was collected to benefit victims of earthquakes in Haiti, Japan and spring storms in the United States.
The Bishop gave the Episcopal/State of the Church Address. He spoke on the Call to Action report that reviewed statistics of 33,000 UM churches in the USA over a 5 year period. He highlighted 4 adaptive spiritual challenges faced by our denomination:
1. There is a deep division and mistrust at all levels of the church.
2. The United Methodist Church is averse to metrics and goal setting.
3. There are not enough turn around leaders who inspire people toward greater goals.
4. The church is not connecting with the nominally and non-religious people in the communities.
He lifted up several small, medium and large churches in our conference who are working through their adaptive spiritual challenges. He asked each congregation to grapple with these questions:
· Why do people need Jesus?
· Why do people need the church?
· Why do people need our congregations?
He spoke of Acts 2 Fruit and that through 2010, 408 congregations had acheived this measure, which is almost 70% of our goal for 2012. The highlight of the Address was an altar call where clergy and laity came forth to pray for strength and courage and wisdom to rejuvenate and press on and connect in new ways. The full text of the address can be found at www.bwumc.org/news/episcopaladdress.
7 clergy and 7 lay delegates were elected to attend the General Conference scheduled for April 24-May 4, 2012 in Tampa, Fla. Also elected were 7 clergy and 7 lay delegates to the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference being held in Charlestown, WVA in July 2012. Alternates were elected as well, 4 clergy and 4 laity.
There were reports and resolutions to voted upon as well. The Board of Ordained Ministry, the Stewardship Committee, the Board of Pensions and Benefits, the Communications Department, the Council on Finance and Administration's proposed budget for 2012, and the 2011 Nominations all were passed. The Recommendation from the Conference Board of Pensions and Health Benefits was "referred". The following resolutions to the Conference were passed:
· A resolution allowing a pastoral response to requests for same-gender marriages and civil unions (this now goes on to General Conference)
· Petition for General Conference: proposed resolution: alligning UMC investments with resolution on Israel and Palestine
· Wesley Nexux, Inc.
· A petition to the 2012 UM General Conference on continuing Peace with Justice Sunday
· Four petitions which will be submitted to the 2012 General Conference by the United Methodist Task Force on Disability Ministries
· Petition to General Conference to amend paragraph F161 in the Book of Discipline
· Resolution concerning usury
· Opposing immoral immigration laws in Maryland
The following resolution was withdrawn, Resolution regarding our unified Christian witness to the world.
Friday afternoon we had an extra special treat to hear Marian Wright Edelman speak. She is the founder and director of the Children's Defense Fund. She spoke about the disparities between minority and white children particularly in the quality of education, the criminal justice system, and health care. She called the church to sound the alarm.
Friday evening there was a service of ordination held at Lovely Lane UMC, "the Mother Church of Methodism" and Bishop Schol preached.
On Saturday we closed with a Service of Passage and Reading the Appointments. This is a time for those retiring from minstry to be blessed on their way and greeting and recieving the newly commissioned. As we were read the appointments, it was very exciting to know that our own Pastor Patricia will be returning to Huntingtown UMC for another year beginning the first of July.
If you have further questions about or interest in this report, you may please see me or you may go to the BWC website at www.bwumc.org.
Thank you for this opportunity to serve you as your representative at the Annual Conference. I will be keeping you informed and up to date on new information from the BWC, particularly on the new Call to Action, as it applies to us.
Blessings, Marcia Monnett, Lay Member
