Grace and peace. June is Annual Conference time! When you receive this email, the Iowa Annual Conference will be just a week away. Annual Conference always reminds me of the extended family gatherings that I looked forward to as a child. It was always great fun to reconnect with cousins, aunts, and uncles, whom I did not see very often.
Annual Conference 2018
Our Annual Conference theme this year is
Creating Difference Makers in New Communities of Faith
. Highlights of Annual Conference will include a teaching session by Rev. Christian Coon, lead pastor of Urban Village in Chicago; Bishop Bruce Ough, who just finished a two-year term as the Council of Bishops President; Rev. LaTonya Calderon, pastor of Stuart-Mt. Vernon UMC; Rev. Bill Poland, who will give us an update on new faith communities in Iowa; and Rev. Harlan Gillespie, our outgoing Dean of the Appointive Cabinet.
We’ll have a “roundtable” dialogue around the work of the Commission on a Way Forward and the special called General Conference in February 2019. We’ll also be a part of the Ordering of Ministry service on Sunday morning, which is always the highlight of Annual Conference for me.
Please note a new addition to our conference agenda.
According to a recent Judicial Council ruling, clergy, laity, and groups are also permitted to submit legislation to the February 2019 special called General Conference. In addition, petitions may be submitted to the 2018 Iowa Annual Conference for possible endorsement and then sent on to the General Conference.
Persons or groups seeking Iowa Annual Conference endorsement of petitions to the 2019 General Conference must submit the petition in electronic form to the
Conference Secretary
by 1:30 p.m., Saturday, June 9, 2018. Petitions may only originate with or be sponsored by individuals who are members of, or groups who are related to, The United Methodist Church in Iowa.
The Committee on Rules of Order will review the petitions for accuracy, duplication, and compliance with Disciplinary guidelines and assign them petition numbers with consideration to diverse perspectives: centrist, progressive, and traditional. If there is time remaining on the agenda, following the completion of all Action Items, petitions will be presented in numerical order for consideration. At least one petition from each of the three perspectives will be discussed as time permits. The petitions will be made available to Conference members by the Sunday evening legislative session.
I look forward to seeing you in Des Moines soon.
And don’t forget – all sessions will be live-streamed, so everyone can participate!
Praying Our Way Forward Phase 3
When the
Commission on a Way Forward
was formed several years ago, the Council of Bishops, partnering with the Upper Room, initiated
Praying Our Way Forward
, an opportunity for everyone in The United Methodist Church to pray for the work of the Commission on a Way Forward. Phase 1 included the bishops committing to pray for 15 minutes. Phase 2 consisted of 18 months of daily individual and corporate prayer by United Methodists in every annual conference around the globe.
In June we are beginning
Phase 3
of
Praying Our Way Forward.
This will include three parts:
- All United Methodists are invited to engage in a weekly Wesleyan 24-hour fast from Thursday after dinner to Friday mid-afternoon. Those who have health situations causing food fasts to be unadvisable might consider fasting from social media, emails or another daily activity.
- We are invited to pause what we are doing and pray daily for our church’s mission and way forward for four minutes from 2:23 through 2:26 a.m. or p.m. in our own time zone OR at another time. This is because the Special Session of General Conference will be held February 23 through February 26, 2019.
- Pray using a weekly prayer calendar that will go from June 2, 2018, through the end of February 2019. Congregational resources for Praying our Way Forward can be found here.
At annual conference we plan to pause for prayer from 2:23 to 2:26 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. All individuals and local churches are invited to participate in Phase 3, which will conclude during the February 2019 General Conference.
Commission On a Way Forward
The Council of Bishops is proposing the One Church Plan for legislation at the February 2019 General Conference. You can read about the One Church Plan
here
. Details of this plan as well as two other plans that have been discussed will be released in July.
My Schedule
Much of my time over the past month has been spent getting ready for Annual Conference. Hundreds of people are also involved in proofing written materials, writing legislation, interfacing with staff at Hy-vee Hall, and preparing vital worship services. If you will be attending Annual Conference, please take time to thank the conference center staff as well as the Hy-vee Hall staff for their work.
There’s One More Thing!
Please pray for all clergy and congregations who are experiencing moves this summer. The Appointive Cabinet has worked and prayed diligently over the past six months in appointing clergy to local churches, and we are deeply grateful for your support. We hope that through these moves our conference will continue to create, deploy, nurture, and support difference makers for Christ all over the state of Iowa and around the world!
Blessings,
Bishop Laurie
