Opening of the 2010 Annual Conference

Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference Reaches Out to Serve
By Elliott Wright
 
Princess Anne, MD, June 10, 2010--The robust singing spoke a definite “yes” to the question asked in the hymn: “And are we yet alive?”
 
“Amen,” said Bishop Peggy A. Johnson as the song ended and she formally opened the 226th session of the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. “We are here to give glory to God.” The meeting theme this year was “We Reach Out to Serve.”
 
All Methodist annual conferences’—and they take place around the world—are blends of worship, church business, reports, spiritual reflection, speeches, and seeing old friends, interspersed over several days. There are, generally, equal numbers of clergy and lay members.
 
The Peninsula-Delaware Conference is one of the oldest regional United Methodist units in the United States. Its roots are in the late 1700s and it encompasses the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, all of Delaware and part of Maryland. The conference has 491 churches, some of them organized into multiple congregation charges served by one pastor. There are some 300 active pastors at present.
 
In recent years, the conference has met on the campus of the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland. The venue is fitting since the school was founded by Methodists long years before becoming affiliated with the state.
 
Worship, Then Work
Prior to the official opening, a service of Holy Communion prepared members for their work. The extent of their responsibilities both as Christians and church leaders were spelled out on seven banners hung on the back of the stage in the Ella Fitzgerald Center: “Bring good news to the poor…release the captives…comfort the broken hearted… feed the hungry, quench thirst…” These are responsibilities Jesus took upon himself in Luke 4, and therefore, are mandates for the church as the body of Christ in the world.
 
 
Ray Buckley, a Native American scholar, author and wood carver from Palmer, Alaska, preached at the service. A master storyteller, he held the congregation in his hand as he used the experience of his family to dramatize multiple Christian truths. A story about his grandmother showed that people should never accept names given to them of derision by others but should receive only the names of respect that comes from God. An account of his father pointed to the spirit of generosity. His father was Tlingit/Lakota and his mother a native of Scotland. He spent his young years on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
 
Mr. Buckley is currently the interim Director of the Center for Native American Spirituality and Christian Study, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Across his career, he has been a staff member of the United Methodist Publishing House, Director of the Native People’s Communication Office at United Methodist Communications, and Director of Connectional Ministries for the Alaska Missionary Conference. 
 
Statistical Report
A statistical report indicated that the conference at the end of 2009 had 87,495 members, down 1,407 from a year earlier. Of those, 596 transferred to United Methodist congregations in other parts of the country. There were 218 people who transferred out to other denominations and 351 who transferred in from other churches.
 
The statistical report was accompanied by data from an interfaith study indicating that people in the pews think that the three most effective marks of religious leadership are the ability to provide vision, time spent in evangelism and recruitment, and promotion of lay leadership and development.
 
During its opening session, the conference also:
·         Celebrated its mission partnership with United Methodists in the Kinshasa area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Prayer was offered for members of Volunteer In Mission teams set to go this summer to Congo for a variety of short-term projects. The Rev. Jonathan Baker, pastor of Epworth Church, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the coordinator of the partnership for the conference, said that next April a medical team will perform 800 cataract operations at a clinic in the DRC.
·         Observed the 75th anniversary of The Upper Room, a daily devotional guide published by The United Methodist Church in 40 languages and distributed in more than 100 countries. The press run of each bi-monthly issue is more than 2.2 million copies.
·         Heard brief reports on a range of denominational initiatives and agencies.
 
Elliott Wright is a communications consultant to the conference.