Hoosier United Methodists approve unity plan

e-HUM Announcement

June 7, 2008

Hoosier United Methodists approve unity plan

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – With shouts of joy and prayers of thanksgiving, members of both the South Indiana and North Indiana United Methodist Annual Conferences approved a plan to physically unite the two conferences into one new Indiana Annual Conference.

The South Indiana Conference members voted affirmatively yesterday 616 to 185 (or 77 to 23 percent) to unite with the North Indiana Conference. The North Indiana Conference members voted affirmatively on Friday, May 30, in West Lafayette 730 to 192 (or 79 to 21 percent) to unite with the South Indiana Conference.

Indiana United Methodist Bishop Mike Coyner of Indianapolis announced the vote results in the closing session of the South Indiana Conference this morning, Saturday, June 7, at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington.

Coyner has called by North and South Indiana Conferences to attend a special session scheduled to be held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Saturday, Oct. 4. This session will finalize amendments, elect committees and begin plans for the first combined Indiana Annual Conference session scheduled to be held at Ball State University at Muncie June 25-28, 2009.

This concludes 62 years of Methodist annual conference sessions at Indiana University in Bloomington and 40 years of United Methodist annual conference sessions at Purdue University in West Lafayette.

Coyner also will appoint a transition team to implement the design plans for the new Indiana Conference.

Features of the new annual conference, which was two-years in design, will include:

Forming clergy into covenant groups and all 1,200 congregations into ministry clusters for the support and accountability to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world;
Dissolving the current 18 districts across Indiana and establishing five resource centers to support the work of 10 districts; and
Creating a new conference structure and establishing a new conference center in Indianapolis.

Currently, the North Indiana Conference is based in Marion. The South Indiana Conference is based here in Bloomington.

The only major amendments to the 50-page unity document, added youth and young adults to the discussion making process of the state-wide church and added more staff in youth and young adult ministries staff to the five resource centers across the state.

The last such structural change of this magnitude to The United Methodist Church in Indiana came in 1968, when the former Methodist Church and former Evangelical United Brethren Church decided nationally to become The United Methodist Church.

The United Methodist Church is the largest Protestant denomination in Indiana with 1,200 congregations and placed throughout the state’s 92 counties. Methodists first established churches in Indiana in 1801. There are 225,000 United Methodists in Indiana.

In Indiana the denominations also is related to 3 hospitals, 3 universities, 3 children’s homes, 6 residence facilities for seniors, 1 half-way house and 7 retreat/camps. All of these will be part of the new Indiana Conference.

For more South Indiana Conference news, log on to www.inareaumc.org.

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