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Clergy session elects new members and remembers deceased
In "the spirit of brightness and light," Greg Enstrom, chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry, opened the clergy session of the NIC. So that balloting might begin, Bishop Woodie W. White declared the 2003 NIC in session.
As part of the business of the clergy session, nine probationary members were licensed in preparation for ordained ministry, 13 were elected as members in full connection, 13 were elected to be ordained as Elders, 12 were retired and 15 were remembered as deceased. It was reported that formal charges had been filed against one clergy member.
In his charge to the clergy, Bishop White shared that he felt inadequate when he was elected bishop and serves with privilege and challenge. He said, "what we do is to offer God our very best knowing that our best in not adequate." He also thanked the more than 500 clergy present for their faithfulness and for being part of the annual conference.
Members licensed in preparation for ordained ministry included: as Deacon -- Richard Patton of Newhaven; and as Elder -- Robert Douglas Barton of Huntertown, Gary D. Elsten of Atlanta, D. Bradford Garrett of Marion, Kathleen E. Miller of South Bend, Kevin Thomas Miller of Whiting, Kerry D. O'Brien of Roselawn, Thomas J. Ream of Lafayette and Darren M. Williams of Montpelier.
Members elected in full connection included: as Elder -- Robyn Michelle Axel-Adams of Hobart, Brenda K. Burnworth of Shipshewana, Amy Michelle Lee Covington of South Bend, Greig Duane Crowder of Greentown, Thomas J. DeFries of Huntington, Daryl R. Hamlyn of Anderson, David Richard Jennys of Wanatah, Rick Austin Jones of Logansport, David Hugh Mathews of Muncie, Randall Steven McQueen of Fort Wayne, Sergio Octavio Correa Periera Filho of Muncie, Nanci Ann Rosinski of Huntington and Victor Robert Seewald of Akron.
These individuals will be ordained on Friday evening.
Members retired included: as Elders -- Merlyn Hoyte Cox, M. Robert Dygert-Gearheart, Gary L. Forbes, Joseph J. Haney, Donald Charles Lacy, Roger D. Matthews, Carl Richard Sweet, Curtis R. Sylvester and L. Michael Wilson; and as Local Pastors -- Carol A. Knox, James A. Nickles and Bruce A. Strong.
Deceased members remembered included: Claude Joyner Jr., Douglas A. Davies Sr., Douglas Knight, Jerry Dale Stout, D. Charles Elson, J. Thomas Frost, Donald C. Kime, Irvin T. King, Stanley E. Rolston, Robert E. Seitz, Donald C. Steitz, Paul B. Stephenson, William Blythe Whealy, Mark Hambrock and Harold Wilson. -- Daniel R. Gangler
Kokomo pastor reminds colleagues in ministry how God acts
Deceased pastors and spouses remembered
"I have been called to renew my call," proclaimed the Rev. Gary Forbes, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Kokomo, who preached the Memorial Service sermon during the opening worship service of the North Indiana Annual Conference.
Using Acts 10 as his text, Forbes preached about "the Peter process" he encountered in his ministry. He said Peter got off the roof and on the road. He was sent and he went.
Forbes first remembered Donald Steltz, one of those memorialized who also was his seminary roommate.
He then shared from appointments he had served during his ministry and how God had given him essential gifts in each appointment. He said he learned that:
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God acts when, where and how God acts;
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God acts in the Gothic as well as the ghetto; and
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God calls us to the task to preach the great Gospel.
As clergy, we are not the fourth part of the God-head, he said. We are not to build our own kingdom, but the Kingdom of God. This ministry is about being called, not about the cash.
Forbes challenged new pastors not to fear making mistakes. While we are making mistakes, he said, "God is making ministries of our mistakes."
In addition to the pastors' remembered as listed in the clergy session, eight pastor's spouses and eight surviving spouses were also remembered in their deaths during this past conference year. Remembered spouses were: Ruth Moore, Harriet King, Jeannine Davis, Roberta Kyle, Nelle Byrne, Theodora Bellante, Doris Owens and Evelyn Haines. Remembered surviving spouses were: Richard Dain Burton, Edna Gwin, Grace Franklin, Elizabeth (Maxine) Bond, Pauline Mitchell Clark, Donnabelle LePage, Laverne Jones and Anne Lininger. -- Daniel R. Gangler
Numbers -- 2002 NIC |
Local church expenditures
-- Brent Williams, |
Plenary 1:
How are the children?
During the opening annual conference session on Thursday, the Bishop's Initiative on Children and Poverty Committee reported that more than 400 United Methodists from across Indiana made April 26 a perfect day for the Bishop's United for Children March. Leaving Riley Hospital for Children during the noon hour, marchers reached Indiana's capitol shortly after 1 p.m.
Among Christian folk songs and cheers, Bishop Woodie W. White and Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon raised issues facing children and families.
According to march organizers, a child is born into poverty every 43 minutes in Indiana. One in eight children is poor in Indiana. The state ranks 14th among the states in the percentage of children born into poverty. Last year in Indiana, 70 children died of abuse.
The march was organized by Teresa Witoske, North Indiana Conference Task Force on Children and Poverty; Kim White, chairperson of the South Indiana Conference Task Force on Children and Poverty; and Riley Hospital for Children.
How are the children?: A look at what the NIC has done
- In 1999, a children's worship service opened the North's Annual Conference.
- In 2000, a prayer vigil for children and children's issues at the Statehouse was held.
- The release of Small Wonders, a collection of Children's Faith helped raise awareness of the faith of children, with all proceeds benefiting children.
- In 2001, the "Fit-to-be-Tied" Shoe Collection campaign benefited children's ministries in Indiana and Africa.
- During 2002, the "Bear One Another's Burdens" campaign collected more than 3,500 bears that were donated for local church missions and Operation Classroom.
- In 2003, a "United for Children's March," as well as the Annual Conference mission collection project of blankets for children
Racism influences Methodists' history
Racism has been a defining force in shaping the Methodist movement in the United States from its earliest days. Last night members of the North Indiana Conference confronted racism, and launched efforts to fight racism in the church and in Indiana. Here are benchmark dates that help us remember.
- 1787 -- Richard Allen and other black Methodists walk out of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
- 1796 -- The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was organized by blacks protesting discrimination at John Street Methodist Church in New York City.
- 1844 -- Methodist Episcopal Churches in the South break away from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the North.
- 1870 -- The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was created as the result of an agreement between white and black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
- 1939 -- North and South Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Protestant Churches unite into the Methodist Church, but still maintain segregation with the establishment of a Central Jurisdiction for African-American Methodists.
- 1968 -- The Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren churches unite to form The United Methodist Church. The Central Jurisdiction is dissolved.
- 2000 -- The United Methodist Church General Conference held a service of repentance and reconciliation with AME, AME Zion and CME churches' bishops.
- 2003 -- North Indiana Annual Conferences join with other conferences across the United States in services of repentance and reconciliation.
Service of Repentance:
Conference asks forgiveness for the sin of racism
Bishop Woodie W. White called on the North Indiana Annual Conference to do, perhaps, what their forbears would do, to acknowledge their sins of racism, ask for forgiveness and reconciliation.
"At one part in our history," the bishop said at the beginning of the Service of Repentance for the Sin of Racism with a Call for Reconciliation in Elliott Hall Thursday evening, "people of my hue were not welcomed in churches that were Methodist. Out of that experience, many African Americans left to form their own churches. But we began as Methodists and we are still Methodists."
With the service, the North Conference joined with other United Methodist conferences across the United States in asking forgiveness for and praying to heal the injuries and injustices of institutional and personal racism that have plagued the Methodist church since its founding in America in 1784.
Bishop White was joined in the service by Bishop Warren M. Brown, presiding bishop of the Western West African Episcopal District and acting bishop of the 12th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
The two bishops recited the Litany of the Bishops in which they recounted the history of Methodism in America and represented two of the four Pan-Methodist denominations in committing to working to make a difference, thereby following the example given by Jesus.
The service combined music, liturgical dance, drama, Scripture and symbolism to aid in the healing. Each member of the congregation and those on the stage was marked with ashes on his or her foreheads or hands before the service. During the service, each person approached a district superintendent and elder to have his or her ashes washed away. They were then given bookmarks to commemorate their commitment to racial justice and healing.
Bishop White set the stage for the service by recounting the history of the Methodist Church in America and how it had grown into separate branches.
"Branches once part of that common root became separate churches," the bishop said. He recounted briefly how racism had caused the church to split into the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and The United Methodist Church.
"Also a group stayed," Bishop White said. "I am a part of that heritage."
Even after three Methodist denominations were re-united in 1939, a concession had to be made to racism: African Methodists were segregated into their own Central Jurisdiction, regardless of where they were located. In many communities, black Methodist congregations and white Methodist congregations near each other were in separate jurisdictions.
"Tonight, we will remember and repent for our past sins," Bishop White said. "We will ask God to forgive us. We will do, perhaps, what our forbears would do if they were here today. But always with a sense of hope. We have a rich tradition, whose heart is grace, forgiveness. We have a rich heritage, and a not-so-glorious past.
"So we remember our past. We recall our present. And we look forward to an even more glorious future."
The congregation also watched a video that outlined the history of the various churches that had split form the Methodist church.
When it came time for Bishop White's sermon, he told the congregation, "You preached the sermon tonight. There really isn't much more to say."
He shared an observation he made during the act in repentance in which ashes were washed away from peoples' foreheads and hands.
"On some of you, those ashes were hard to get off, and you left with some of it still on you. And I thought, 'That's just like racism.' On some of you the ashes were barely seen, they were so light. And that, too, is like racism -- sometimes it's so subtle you hardly know it's there. And for some of you it took just a wipe. And that is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ! The blood of Jesus Christ can takes years and centuries of socialization and wipe it clean!"
Bishop White said it showed that God has a sense of humor, to have a black bishop asking his black brothers and sisters to forgive him for what his white forbears had done to his black forbears.
"We've come, you and I, perhaps not understanding fully the history, but my prayer is that each of us tonight has gotten in touch with something. God is working a new thing among us, because of us and in spite of us. And I give thanks tonight for those who can embrace me as brother. And I thank God for a church that can embrace its faults and move on. We've done a good thing here tonight," White said. -- Ed Metzler
Day 1: It's Started!
Editor's note: Throughout this Annual Conference, the Daily HUM will follow lay member Barbara Smith, who is attending her first annual conference.
It's just before 8:45 a.m. and Barbara Smith of Bealls Chapel UMC in Anderson is sitting at table 14 in the South Ballroom, waiting for the New Laity Member Orientation to begin.
This is Barbara's first annual conference as she does some last-minute studying of her conference workbook. "I think it's going to be exciting and new and different to me," says Barbara. "I'm thankful to be a small part."
As she talks and flips through her notes, she says it was a little overwhelming reading the manual and all the mailings while working her full-time job in Noblesville, keeping track of her farmer husband, taking care of her daughter and new daughter-in-law and waiting for word from her son who is serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
She has a simple game plan, which is enriched by prayer: making sure to get to the correct sessions, as well as keeping an open mind. "I want to be a good and faithful servant on this."
Regarding all the plans she had to make, Barbara says the conference organizers have been extremely cooperative, helping her get her reservations for her housing and meals. "They've been extremely insightful in that they're willing to work with you."
Another aspect that Barbara looks forward to is the tradition of the annual conference with the services and nuances on sessions. "It's not like a church board meeting, that's for sure!" -- Matthew Oates
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Legislation Session #3:
Hartman Commission report revised
In what was a heated and almost two hour long legislative session, a revised Bishop's Task Force on Ministry report -- dubbed the Hartman Commission report by many -- was approved.
The report was divided into six recommendations, all acted on separately and then confirmed with a final vote.
Recommendations included:
- Transferring $40,000 from the conference budget to the district apportionments for district office space costs, with district superintendents willing to pool and apportion equally;
- Empowering the Strategy Council to focus on core values and establish priorities, streamline the CCOM and change the conference director's title and responsibilities;
- Changing the director of human resources to an associate director position and to whom the associate director reports, effective June 2004;
- Keeping the Wesley Foundation at Ball State University open and under the auspices of a local independent board in conjunction with the Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry, allowing them minimum one year, maximum two years to establish a new model of campus ministry.
- Supporting the current ministry and operation of the Wesley Foundation at Purdue University;
- Disbanding the task force upon receipt of the report at this annual conference. -- Matthew Oates
Laity Session:
Weems exchanges leadership ideas with laity
Lovette H. Weems Jr., president and professor of church leadership at Saint Paul School of Theology, has a saying he shares with everyone regarding leadership: "I don't have good ideas, but I recognize them."
Weems, who spent two years listening to lay members and studying churches, says vitality, life and renewal in churches are the results of leadership. "Nothing is more critical in the church today than leadership."
Weems provided three models of leadership: authority, style and process. But in addition to models and types, he left the laity with a spiritual concept of leadership. "What is leadership? Leadership is a calling."
One of type of leadership involves interacting with one another. "We don't have to have power by taking it from one another," says Weems. "People can handle hearing no. What people can't handle is not being taken seriously."
Leaders can help define the reality that surrounds churches, as well as providing insight and input from various parties. "It starts by seeing things the way others see it."
Carolyn E. Johnson, lay member from West Lafayette St. Andrew UMC, says the issues are universal. "There are several issues he brought up that are facing our congregation," says Johnson. "It's energizing to see how much people are serving the local churches in all areas." -- Matthew Oates
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