[This year marked the 50th gathering of the West Ohio Conference of the UMC. Clergy and lay delegates representing our 1,000 churches gathered on the grounds of Lakeside, Ohio this week to vote on various resolutions, recognize clergy retirements, celebrate Deacon and Elder ordinations, and this year, we elected lay and clergy to represent our conference at the 2020 General and Jurisdictional Conferences. The picture above is the opening Sunday evening worship service in Hoover auditorium at Lakeside, Ohio. Scroll down for some highlights of this year’s conference.]
[One of the highlights of conference each year is the inspiring worship services, music and preaching. This was one of the songs during a morning worship service.]
[Every four years, each annual conference elects General & Juridictional clergy/laity delegates to represent their conference. General and Jurisidctional Conferences meet every four years and include delegates from all around the world. Unlike other mainline denominations, the United Methodist Church is a world-wide denomination. A specially called General Conference was held this past February in St. Louis to only focus on LGBTQ legislation. General Conference focuses on issues related to “The Book of Discipline” which is our denomination’s rule book. Jurisdictional Conference elects Bishops and assigns them to geographical areas. The next regularly scheduled General and Jurisdictional Conferences will be held May and July of 2020. We needed to elect a total of 22 people to attend these meetings from West Ohio. Each delegate needs to receive a majority of votes to be elected which means this is a very long process. We spent an entire day doing this finishing around 9:30 at night! The picture above shows the voting device and the voter guide to help us choose who should represent us.]
[Not everything we do at annual conference is super serious. We also like to have fun to help break the tension. In case you are interested, this is what the lay delegates voted as their top ice cream flavors. The results were posted during a morning session.]
[Before each vote during the General and Jurisdictional, the Bishop invites various lay and clergy delegates to lead us in prayer. Youth delegates participated as well. Here is one of our youth leading the prayer. I personally know this youth because I used to be her pastor at a previous church!]
[Our West Ohio Conference is blessed to have Bishop Gregory Palmer as our episcopal leader. Bishop Palmer presides at our meetings and is one of the most powerful and eloquent preachers you will ever hear. He is also responsible for appointing pastors to serve in our 1,000 churches in West Ohio. How would you like that difficult job????]
[Here are the 22 people our conference voted to serve as General and Jurisidictional delegates in 2020. We will be sending 14 lay and clergy delegates to General Conference and 14 lay and clergy delegates to Jurisdictional Conference. We also elected 8 delegates to be alternates. Please pray for this group as they will be joining delegates from other conferences in this country and around the world at next year’s meetings.]
[The man speaking at the podium is my good friend, Rev. Barry Burns, District Superintendent of the Northwest Plains District located in northwest, Ohio. Barry delivered the Bishop’s cabinet report which represents the 8 District Superintendents who meet throughout the year to care for the needs of our clergy and the 1,000 churches. On a personal note, Barry was the first person I met when I arrived at seminary 34 years ago!]
[Athens First UMC was well represented at conference this year thanks to the ordination of former church member, Kirstin Shrom-Rhoads who was ordained a Deacon this week. A Deacon is one who is set apart for particular ministries such as Christian Education, counseling, music, etc. and helps the local church to serve the community. Kirstin’s particular area of ministry is serving as a church camp director. The picture above is Kirstin on the right. Next to her is Alexa Lee, one of our youth and on the left is Cathy Lee. Cathy carried the banner during the ordination processional and Alexa held Kirstin’s deacon stole during the ordination. Congratulations, Kirstin!]
[Conference isn’t all about voting and elections. It is also about supporting each other. The picture above are the arms of several lay and clergy delegates joined together as one to pray for the father of our Foothills District Superintendent who was having surgery that day. We prayed for God to bring healing to Dennis’s father through the skills and expertise of the surgeon and medical staff. The good news is that we found out later that day that the surgery went well and he is in recovery! Thanks be to God!]
[Not every annual conference is blessed to meet in such a beautiful place as Lakeside, Ohio. Here are some pictures of the dock and in the distance you can see Perry’s monument. We also had beautiful sunsets! Not pictured are people eating ice cream which is always a favorite thing to do during conference.]
[With almost 3,000 United Methodists traveling into Lakeside on Sunday to begin conference, our Athens group of Martha Sloan, Athens First lay delegate and Pastor Rick Seiter were blessed to run into Kirstin that first day of conference as we were walking the grounds. Kirstin was ordained a Deacon on Wednesday. Thirty years ago, I was ordained an Elder here in Lakeside. The picture above of smiling faces reminds me of the many fun ways that God brings people together through our conference.]
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