 Annual
Conference 2008
Brief Reports
Day 1:
The Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist
Church opened Wednesday evening, June 18, with the announcement of
four episcopal nominees for consideration for endorsement to the
Jurisdictional Conference in July. The four willing to be considered
included Janet Forbes, Youngsook Kang, Olon M. Lindemood, and Carolyn
Waters. The bar of the Conference was set, and most of the chairs
were filled.
The communion service was led by Bishop Brown wearing a stole that
included the state flowers of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
Bishop John Schol, of the Washington Area of the UMC, opened his
preaching series with a reflection on traveling the "Pentecost
Path." He sees this path as a way to be the church and end the
decline in our churches. The trouble is that "we want quick
fixes without change"; we want "want solution without sacrifice,
Pentecost without the fire, Pentecost without trying to figure out
all the languages, and the Pentecost crowds without making us uncomfortable.
We want the church for the rest of us without taking the journey,
without being a pilgrim people."
He pointed out the five basic activity categories of the Acts 2
church:
- called together to celebrate in passionate worship;
- connect with
radical hospitality;
- develop faith intentionally;
- serve like Christ through risk-taking and mission
- share God's extravagant grace (faith-sharing)
He suggested that the church needed to do all 5 of these. He suggested
that change is not going to come with the new pastor, or the right
leader, but "the body of Christ working together." He said
that traveling the Pentecost path will result in more conflict and
more people coming, because of increased commitment and honesty.
Thursday morning opened with news that Diana Butler Bass was not
present yet because her flight was cancelled, then another was full,
another was cancelled, and she finally was to arrive just before
noon. Massive changes were made to the tight schedule to accommodate
this new situation, with Director of Mission and Ministry Skip Strickland
and Agenda Chair Dan Odell laying out a new schedule for today.
Skip opened with the reminder, "we're about the Lord's work." There
were a series of reports around the theme of telling the story of
the Conference. Nancy Boswell, chair of the Board of Stewards outlined
the new structure, saying that the BOS had spent significant time
studying just what a board does, and what the lessons learned were.
Details of this report will come later.
The Council on Finance and Administration introduced the financial
report and budget proposal, explaining that the $6,045,244 budget
figure was worked out with great care, and was based on the assumption
that the General Church apportionments would be paid at 100%. The
new church tithe system was instituted this year, and there are some
significant learnings 5 months into it. The budget for 2009 reflects
some of those learnings. Again, more details of this report will
come later.
Legislative committees met and almost all petitions were dealt with
in the first 2 hour period. Two committees of four needed to meet
for a few minutes this afternoon to finish up a couple of items.
The consent calendar is complete for the plenary consideration of
all the items.
The consent calendar for concurrence includes these petitions (view
them at the Annual Conference 08 page on the RMCUMC.org web site):
AC01, AC02, AC04, AC05, AC06, AC07, AC08A (revised version presented),
AC09, AC10, AC13, AC16, AC17, AC18, AC20, AC30A, AC40, AC11. AC03
[Conference Mission and Ministry Funding] comes to the plenary without
a recommendation, with 76% approval. The only petition to be reported
out of committee with less than
90% approval was AC13, the sale of Templed Hills (see below). AC40
was a resolution from the General Conference delegation affirming
a statement about human sexuality that came out of a subcommittee
of one of the General Conference legislative committees. The text
of this resolution will be on the web as soon as possible. [Here]
The four candidates for episcopal endorsement each gave short speeches
to the group, and late tonight participated in a panel responding
to questions from those gathered.
Diana Butler Bass was greeted enthusiastically when she finally
got to speak at 3 p.m. More about her presentation will be shared
later, but she presented an alternative "narrative" about
the so-called decline of mainline protestant churches, one that emphasized
that what are often critized as shortcomings can be seen as assets
with just a slight rotation of the "prism" which lights
them. At the end of the evening presentation there was prolonged
applause and a standing ovation.
Kenita Gibbins, Metro District Lay Leader, writes:
The selling of Templed Hills will go on the consent calendar with
86% in favor of petition AC13.
Rev. Stephanie Munoz and her committee did their work.
We did not take the voting lightly. We understand the importance
of the camping experience. The We shared tears with the young woman
who found Christ at Templed Hills.
It will never be easy to be realistic. It is never easy to close
and sell the beautiful and valuable assets of our Conference, but
we did what we deemed necessary. With emotion, we sang the old camp
song, "Do Lord, Oh Do Lord" and sent to the Annual Conference
this hard, hard decision.
More to come!
Ben Roe
Information Administrator
Day 2:
Day two of the Rocky Mountain Conference Session, held
at the Denver Tech Center Marriott Hotel, began with several special
breakfasts, followed by the third presentation of author and historian
Diana Butler Bass.
We live in the time of a "500-year flood," she said, a
metaphor for these times culturally in the US brought to mind by
the recent floods in Iowa. Just as the residents of many areas in
Iowa had never seen flooding like this, we have never experienced
the kind of change that is now occurring in the world. She contrasted
what is commonly called "modern" times with what has been
called "post-modern." The level of cultural change we are
now experiencing was last seen in the Reformation 500 years ago,
she said. She complimented churches who had mastered the "modern" worldview,
and outlined some of the changes that churches will need to make
if they are to survive and thrive in a post-modern world. She reassured
her hearers that the post-modern church is not scary, she assured
us. More on her speech content can be seen in her book, Christianity
for the Rest of Us.
When the plenary session convened, two petitions were requested
to be removed from the consent calendars: AC13, regarding the sale
of Templed Hills, and AC-08A [Funding of Active Clergy Benefits].
AC08A did not receive the required 1/3 votes, and so was included
in the
consent
calendars
which then
passed unanimously.
The first vote for episcopal candidate nominees was taken with the
results as follows: Janet Forbes, 272; Youngsook Kang, 193; Carolyn
Waters, 90; Olon Lindemood, 85. Total voting: 644, with 323 needed
to elect. There were 3 invalid ballots.
The afternoon included the separate clergy and laity sessions. In
the clergy session the required "disciplinary questions" were
reviewed, with the introduction of candidates for the various levels
of ministry preparation. Those approved will be included in the ordination
service tomorrow night.
The laity session heard Jim Griffith, author and consultant on church
growth and the proponent on the "On Your Elbow" way of
growing Christian community. Also heard was Elizabeth Gore, of the
UN Foundation and the Nothing But Nets campaign to end malaria.
The memorial service celebrated the lives of those clergy and spouses
who had died in the intervening year since the previous Conference
gathering. Preaching was Melanie Rosa, pastor of Lakewood UMC, who
illustrated and encouraged us all to Remember Hope.
After hours, another kind of life celebration happened in one of
the ballrooms as an old tradition was revived: the sounds rang out
of life-enhancing and spirit-body integrating rock, disco, country,
and other "moving" music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Conference
members were seen celebrating human, embodied life.
Ben Roe
Information Administrator
Day 3:
A cool morning welcomed the final day of the Rocky Mountain Conference
session, June 21, 2008, at the DTC Marriott in Denver. Early morning
breakfasts of several groups were followed by a young persons worship
time, with a reflection by young adult Gheeta Smith.
The plenary session began with the report of the second ballot of the
endorsement of episcopal candidate to the Jurisdictional Conference.
With 538 voting, 281 needed for election, Janet Forbes was elected
with 322
votes. Youngsook Kang received 163 votes, Carolyn Waters, 58, and
Olon Lindemood, 36. As the conference rules required, the question
was asked,
do you want to continue the balloting process? The vote was close,
but clearly a majority voted to discontinue the process.
A total of 22 persons were presented by the Board of Ordained Ministry
for confirming, reception, commissioning and ordination. Throughout the
sessions yesterday and today, appointments were read by district.
Faith United Methodist in Denver is voluntarily closing in order to give
support to churches very close to their location. A resolution fulfilling
the requirements of the Book of Discipline was read and approved. One member
suggested that the proceeds of this sale be used to retire some debt of
Templed Hills. However, it was explained that the Book of Discipline requires
that the proceeds of a sale must be kept in the same district.
Petitions which were not covered by the Consent Calendars were presented.
AC03A as printed in the Financial Booklet was overwhelmingly approved.
(The contents of this booklet will be available on the web soon,
under the Annual Conference 08 link. [Here])
AC13, the sale of Templed Hills Camp and Retreat Center, was introduced
with the note of the vote in committee: 128 approval, 19 disapproval, 2
abstentions. The debate included these points: we cannot afford to keep
it; there are years of sweat equity with profitability not a consideration
except in changed lives; from one financial and real estate point of view,
we should not sell, but have others pay the debt through leases; from another
financial and real estate point of view, and one who had been part of the
process, all options known were explored as well as the advice of several
consultants during an 8-year process. The petition was approved by a sizeable
majority, but with the encouragement that if any had knowledge of an option
that hadn't been considered, they should contact the chair of the Board
of Trustees, Stephanie Munoz.
Lola West, a chaplain in extension ministry, offered thoughts about grief
over the selling of the camp and shared a concern that camping ministry
was "in retreat" in our conference.
Over $48,000 had been pledged so far in honor of Bishop Brown for Nothing
But Nets, but more came in even as the announcement was being made. Later
in the day, it was revealed that a pledge of $15,000 came from the State
of Utah! And as it might even be matched, the possibility of over $76,000
was raised. Bishop Brown expressed his deep gratitude for this honor.
A budget of over $6 million was overwhelmingly approved.
Associate Director of Mission and Ministry Loren Boyce presented a "newscast" format
video report on young people's ministry, including the sections of the
General Conference young people's address which featured the two young
people of the RMC, Andrew Craig of Park Hill and Annie Rigo Arnoldy associate
of First, Grand Junction.
The awards banquet at lunch featured the "Stover Street Stompers" Dixieland
Band and Jerry Herships, associate minister at St. Andrew UMC, Highland
Ranch, as emcee. Many awards were presented, details of which will
be published later.
The afternoon plenary featured a number of recognitions and awards, including
three Bishop's Awards. This award is given to lay persons who have demonstrated
outstanding service in their local church and local community or in the
United Methodist Connection. There were 3 recipients this year: Betsy Keyack
from Highlands Ranch, Jim Sauls from Colorado Springs, and Hope and Les
Law from Golden.
The Service of Confirming, Commissioning and Ordaining featured musicians
from Deer Park UMC near Bailey, Colorado. Bishop Brown preached "A
Future With Hope," the theme of the recent General Conference, based
on Genesis 18:1-15, where three strangers are offered hospitality by Abraham
and assure him that Sarah will have a child in a year. Strangers can come
to our churches, bringing a future with hope. If we don’t understand
that, we’ve limited our vision! God calls us to live beyond our fear
and those things that enslave us and keep us from being truly free!
Ordained elder: Annie Rigo Arnoldy, Jerry Boles, Burry Bessee, Joel Kershaw,
Gwynne May, and Cheryl Popple. Ordained deacon: Denise Bender, Miriam Slejko,
and Sarah Steidtmann. Commissioned probationary deacons: Jean Bruscia and
Kathryn Graff; elders: Pat Johnson, Betty Nguyen, and Tezenlo Thong. Associated
members welcomed: Johnny Arrington, Steve Earnshaw, and DeEtta Goettel.
Local Pastors confirmed: Rob Bruendl, James Grunden, Lisa Jones, Lindsey
Shaw, and Benning Wentworth.
Documents and reports will be posted to the RMCUMC.org web site under
Annual Conference 08 as soon as possible. Many photos will be available
as well, probably next week.
Ben Roe
Information Administrator
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