What’s Happening at Annual Conference this Year? Annual Conference is held at Calvin College, June 12-14. The members are in theory an equal number of clergy and lay members (though because not all retirees come, it’s always more lay than clergy who are present). This year we have a number of procedural and budgetary issues coming up, none of which is particularly life-changing, but they have to be addressed. The conference budget is expected to go up by about $80,000 to $6.2 million. We also have a few things coming up that will generate some conversation: The Board of Christian Camping is asking for permission to run a financial campaign across the conference, raising money for camp scholarships and for moving three site directors to full time support. Several members of Kalamazoo First UMC are asking us to make a resolution in support of clergy who perform gay marriages, and to deepen our commitment to welcoming all people. We are also being asked to renew our covenant relationship with the Methodist Church in Haiti. We will also look at having our pension funds divest from companies that benefit from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Our main keynote speaker at conference will be Marcia McFee, an expert in creative worship. Unlike the last few years, we will not be having a major “drive-in day” on Saturday, so ordination is the end.
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 09:49:27 +0000
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