2012: A year for holy conferencing in all the Church
| By Holly McCray
A special year of holy conferencing has arrived for United Methodists worldwide. The quadrennial General Conference and Jurisdictional Conferences join Annual Conferences on the 2012 calendar. That means this is a special year for you—an outstanding opportunity to expand your understanding about what it means to live out your faith as a United Methodist. You can watch all the conferences online via live streaming. And without traveling out of state, you personally can attend the South Central Jurisdictional (SCJ) Conference. That meeting will be in Oklahoma City! The year was 1968 when Oklahoma United Methodists last hosted. The SCJ Conference will be July 18-21 at the Cox Convention Center. All registration will be online.
For this meeting, your church is asked to provide a banner on behalf of your congregation. Watch the Contact for details; Jeannie Himes is coordinating this effort. Also during the SCJ Conference, a hands-on mission project will fight hunger. Volunteers will package meals for use globally, partnering with Stop Hunger Now.
Hands-on mission projects also will take place during the Annual Conference, set for May 27-30 in Tulsa’s Boston Avenue UMC. Volunteers will sign-up in advance, choosing from several projects. Among the sites are Restore Hope Ministries and Oklahoma Methodist Manor. Mouzon Biggs Jr., the senior pastor at Boston Avenue, will be guest preacher for the Annual Conference. All delegates will register online for this conference, too.
The General Conference is April 24-May 4 at the Tampa (Fla.) Convention Center. For this global meeting, 18 Oklahomans are officially full delegates. Bishop Robert Hayes Jr. will deliver one of the worship sermons. At the SCJ meeting, delegates elect new bishops. Currently 11 bishops serve in the eight-state region, and three plan to retire. The 236,000 members of the Oklahoma Conference have a 44-member delegation representing them at both quadrennial meetings—just as each church sends representatives to each Annual Conference. Pastor Linda Harker of McFarlin UMC, Norman, and Judy Benson of Frederick lead the delegation. The total includes alternates. Is Oklahoma’s delegation and bishop included in your prayers? You can track the news |
SCJ: a banner from each Oklahoma church
Annual Conference: mission options in Tulsa
General Conference: prayers petitioned