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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
June 2001 |
New ordinands to receive experience of a lifetime
By Matthew Carlisle
Hoosier UM News Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- While on a trip to the Holy Land in 1994, Bishop Woodie W. White offered the possibility of undertaking an initiative that would underwrite the cost of sending all ordinands (deacons and elders) entering the North and South Indiana Conferences to the Holy Land. As a capstone to their formal education, the bishop would accompany them on this trip.
The Holy Land Travel Task Force recently announced that the original goal has now been realized. The first trip is scheduled for January of 2002.
According to Bishop White, "I believe this firsthand encounter with the cradle of our Christian faith will help transform the understanding and preaching of the biblical story."
The newly ordained deacons and elders will certainly benefit, but it will be the local churches and conferences that will experience the personal enrichment that a trip to the Holy Land provides.
The Rev. James D. Jones, Executive Assistant to Bishop White, recalls his Holy Land experience this way, "Of all my travels, no other place has left the lasting imprint on my life as this experience."
Travelers will experience such hallowed places as Nazareth, Capernaum and the Mount of the Beatitudes, Jerusalem, Bethany, the Via Dolorosa, the Garden of Gethsemane, Bethlehem, Qumran and the Dead Sea.
As this year's ordinands are introduced to their respective Annual Conference Sessions this month, they will receive a certificate awarding them with an expense-paid trip to the Holy Land.
Recipients from the NIC include: Thomas E. Blackford, elder; Stephen M. Bard, elder; Susan Dawn Aker Martin, elder; Evan Joe Strong, elder; Michael W. Goodspeed, elder; Mary Eileen Kelly Spence, elder; Darren J. Klein, elder; Nanci Ann Rosinski, deacon.
Recipients from the SIC include: Gloria Jean Mann Nelson, elder; Corinne K. Boruff, elder; Andrew R. Hansen, elder; Jeffrey Carl Burris, deacon.
At the request of the Indiana Area Foundation's Board of Directors, the Holy Land Travel Task Force was organized in November of 2000. Members included representatives of the Office of Bishop, Indiana Area Foundation, North and South Indiana Conference Boards of Ordained Ministry, Conference staff responsible for ministry development and human resources as well as at-large nominees. It was their charge to develop the program and find a way to acquire long-range funding for future trips.
With final approval of both the North and South Indiana Conferences pending, the next phase of creating and raising funds for a restricted endowment, to be used solely for the use of future trips, will soon commence. The first signs of support for this program came in March of this year; a $100,000 bequest from the Wilbur Hardacre estate was given to the Area Foundation, earmarked for the Ordinand Holy Land Travel Fund.
If you would like to learn more about the program or show your financial support, please contact the Indiana Area Foundation at 317/924-1321.
Last updated on 01/14/2004