ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2015
DELEGATE REPORT TO THE CONGREGATION
Annual Conference 2015 took place from June 11th-14th at Grove City College. Representing Oakland was: Pastor Randy, Darlene Bain and Velva Patrick as equalization members, Brianna Bray and Gabby Fiffick as youth delegates and myself as your lay delegate. Approximately 1500 members attended representing nearly 830 local churches from the 10 districts that make up the Western PA Annual Conference.
The theme for this year’s conference was: “Reaching Higher”. The messages and teachings focused on this theme as it pertains to both our spiritual lives as well as our personal lives as we serve as church leaders. The Bishop stressed during the State of the Church report that “there is no doubt that there are mountaintops and valleys in this journey of discovery. But we are a group that has its hiking shoes on and are working together to find our voice as an Annual Conference”.
Personal Duties/Responsibilities at Conference
I had an extra busy year at Conference with the various duties I was involved with. Besides being co-floor manager again for the third straight year, I also led one of the Lay Academy classes on how to present a report back to your congregation. In addition, I also served on the section leader advisory team and helped train nearly 30 section leaders on how to lead the individual legislative sections that both laity and clergy attend.
Clergy Commissioned – Ordained – Retired
Four new provisional members were commissioned and four new elders were ordained and received into full membership. In addition, the conference celebrated the retirement of twenty-two retiring pastors who had a combined total of 610 years of ministry.
Finance
Conference members approved a Shared Ministry Budget for 2016 of $9.7 million which is on par with the 2015 apportionment budget.
Legislation
Among the various items of legislation that were approved to be passed on to the General Conference:
· Set term limits for Bishops which would eliminate life terms for Bishops elected in U.S. Jurisdictions and replace it with an initial eight year term with the possibility of re-election quadrennially. This would not apply to incumbent bishops.
· Petition to withdraw from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights and to change language in the Book of Discipline regarding the sanctity of life. Proposed amendments would clearly align our church with biblical, historic Christian teaching that defends unborn children and their mothers from abortion.
Nothing but Nets Update
The opening worship service offering designated to Imagine No Malaria collected $91,059.53. Bishop Bickerton leads the denomination’s effort, which has reached 88% of its $75 million fundraising goal. Oakland has supported this ministry by contributing $25,000 over the past few years.
General/Jurisdictional Conference Elections
Throughout the first three (3) days of Annual Conference, members cast ballots to elect clergy and lay delegates for the denomination’s 2016 General Conference (May 2016 in Portland, Oregon) and the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference (July 2016 in Lancaster, PA). Balloting proceeded until there were a total of 24 delegates and 12 alternates selected. Congratulations to Pastor Randy for being elected to attend the Jurisdictional Conference as a clergy delegate.
Pastoral Reappointment
As was previously announced, Pastor Randy and Pastor Jeremy have been reappointed for another year here at OUMC as our spiritual leaders and pastors. We are blessed to have the Bains and the Barkleys back with us for another exciting and eventful year.
Thank you again for the opportunity to serve as your lay delegate to Annual Conference. As always, it was a gratifying and inspirational experience.
Additional Information
Please visit the Conference website at http://www.wpaumc.org/ac2015live to view photos, videos, messages, etc. and to read the daily journal of the conference proceedings.
Respectfully,
Bill Patrick