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Rocky Mountain Conference News
 RMC News is an electronic e-mail list for official news for clergy
and elected lay leadership of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference
of The United Methodist Church. If you are not clergy or elected
lay leadership of the RMCUMC, you may request to be removed from
the list by sending a note to Ben
Roe.
Contents:
Sharing News: Food Banks
The Open House here at the Conference Office on Monday generated
a table-full of food, which the staff voted to split evenly
between the Englewood UMC food bank and the food bank at Denver
Urban
Ministries (DenUM).
Russ Brown, interim pastor at Englewood, wrote: "Thanks to
all so very much. Our need is increasing each month and we are
taking other steps to bolster our efforts. This will be a great
help and we do appreciate your confidence in our efforts. Thanks
so very much. Russ"
Amanda Barrett, Community Relations Director at DenUM said, "Thank
you for sending down the food from the holiday open house to DenUM!
I hope you'll pass along our gratitude to all your colleagues who
helped organize the food drive. The 125 pounds from the Rocky Mountain
Conference will be distributed to help meet the increased need
among the vulnerable in our community."
A total of $32 in cash was also given at the Open House designated
for Denver Urban Ministries.
Thank you to all who attended the Open House and shared their
bounty with others!
Sharing News: Local Pastors
In a letter received recently to the Conference Treasurer, Cabinet
Dean, and Bishop, the Fellowship of Local Pastors voted at the
October clergy retreat to give a tithe + 1% of its checking account
balance to the Conference General Fund. The check for $154.81
was welcomed at a time of tight budgets, and "leaves 89%
which the Fellowship intends to use to provide scholarship assistance
to those Local Pastors who cannot afford the expense of attending
the clergy retreat." The Fellowship recognizes "that
$154.81 will not solve any shortfall the Annual Conference might
experience this year, it does represent the commitment of Local
Pastors to the mission and ministry of the Church."
Thank you, Fellowship of Local Pastors, Rev. Ed Bollack, chair,
for your commitment and your generosity!
Emergency Communications Antennas Installed
Thanks to the generous gift of time and significant energy of
ham radio operator Jim Oliver (call sign AG0F), two emergency communications
antennas are now installed on the Conference Office roof. Between
these two antennas, ham radio bands from shortwave to UHF are covered,
enabling a wide variety of long- and short-range communications
in case of disaster or other emergency. The Conference is also
working out a memorandum of understanding with one of the most
active groups of amateur radio emergency communicators in Colorado,
District 22 of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service to help staff
the station and its antennas. You may recall that the late Gene
Worth, retired RMC clergy, donated some equipment for this purpose
in early 2007. Photos will be on the RMCUMC.org web site soon (look
under "News).
Jim is no stranger to the Conference as he has been active in
leadership, including lay leader and other positions. Thank you,
Jim!
Service Celebrated Bishop Assignment
A Service Celebrating the Assignment of a Bishop
to an Area was held Sunday, October 12 at St. Andrew United Methodist
Church in Highlands Ranch,
CO.
Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky, elected in July at the Western
Jurisdiction Conference in Portland and assigned to the Denver
Episcopal Area,
was officially welcomed at St. Andrew United Methodist Church
in Highlands Ranch, CO (www.st-andrew-umc.com). About 250 people
attended the service and the reception.
Leaders from the two conferences that make up the Denver Area,
Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain, participated in the service. Photos,
program, sermon here.
Please come and welcome our new Bishop! More
about Bishop Stanovsky here.
RMC Clergy Don Messer Elected Chair of Global AIDS
(GBCS) Dr. Donald E. Messer, executive director of the Center
for the Church and Global AIDS, Centennial, Colorado, has been
elected
by the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund Committee to serve
as chairperson.
Messer succeeds Bishop Fritz Mutti and wife, Etta Mae, who have
served as co-chairs of the committee since its inception in 2005.
Under the Muttis’ leadership, more than $1.8 million has
been raised to help fight the global HIV and AIDS pandemic. The
Global AIDS Fund has provided grants to nearly 70 HIV/AIDS projects
in more than 20 countries around the world.
The Global AIDS Fund Committee is charged with overseeing the
promotion, use, supervision and distribution of the fund.
Messer wrote the original legislation adopted by the 2004 General
Conference that established the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund.
Monies are to be used to support programs offering HIV and AIDS
education, prevention, treatment and care services in the United
States and around the world.
The goal is to raise at least $8 million for HIV/AIDS. Read complete
story...
RMC Youth Events get a Rejuvenation!
(from Loren Boyce, Associate Director of Mission
and Ministry)
A look back over the past 30-something years reveals a vital
conclusion: Times have changed and so have our youth and their
needs. So in
order to meet the changing needs of our youth, the CCYM (Conference
Council on Youth Ministries) has put together a NEW plan of what
Rocky Mountain Conference Youth events will look like.
Up With Youth has had a great run and lots of youth have found
meaning and direction to their lives from the great speakers and
musical experiences over the years. We celebrate all of the past
CORE teams and Conference leadership, but most importantly the
YOUTH that made Up With Youth a great success.
With the change in times comes a need to refresh and renew our
event options. Beginning in the FALL of 2008, come find new vigor
as REJUVENATION comes our way. Rejuvenation '08 will be an ALL
YOUTH event (6th - 12th grade) in FALL of 2008. Rejuvenation will
be such a NEW and exciting model of youth events that we can offer Rejuvenation only every other year. In 2008, 2010, 2012, etc. look
for Rejuvenation.
(I am glad you asked: on the odd years...2009, 2011, 2013, etc.,
we will look forward to a more regional approach to youth ministry
as District/Sub-District/Cluster events will be highlighted to
improve our connection, foster our friendships, and to find ways
to meet the needs of youth where they are!)
Back to Rejuvenation: Speakers who come from a “middle of
the road” United Methodist perspective and great worship
will be supplemented with Large Group and Individual Destinations
(think SPLAT/Youth '07) as well as Youth Group options in half-day
mission projects. Rejuvenation will be a traveling event that will
occur in ALL the districts of our Conference. We are looking way
outside the Denver metro area for 2008!
This November 2, 3, and 4 will be our last FALL YLC. Beginning
in the Spring of 2009, YLC (Youth Leadership Conference) will have
a new look. YLC will be a SPRING ALL YOUTH (6th-12th grade) event
with leadership based workshops for youth. Also ADULT workshops
will be offered in the area of leadership, youth group development,
and programming. In addition to these options YLC will feature
legislative-based training ( e.g., Roberts Rules, conference leadership,
etc.). BUT: how YLC will really differ--other than the time of
year--is in its makeup. YLC, beginning in Spring '09, will be limited
to 5 youth (3 Senior High and 2 Junior High) and 2 Adults from
each church. With this new configuration YOUR CHURCH will choose
which youth and adults to represent you; which representatives
to be trained; and which group to come back to your church and
share the learnings. This change will offer concentrated ways for
your church youth ministry leadership to be trained and to provide
that training to the whole youth ministry department AND still
serve the needs of those who are chosen to represent you. These
great options are provided in ADDITION to the great United Methodist
speakers and some wonderful worship bands. Come and be a part of
YLC in Spring of 2009. Mark it down!
More information about these two events can be found at YLC this
November. Or call Loren Boyce, Associate Director of Mission and
Ministry, 303-325-7054 or loren at rmcumc.com for a faster breakdown.
Hope to see ya at YLC!
 General
and Jurisdictional Conference Info
TableTalk Publication
TableTalk is a monthly newsletter for Rocky Mountain Conference
lay and clergy leadership. It is issued monthly by E-mail and
by US Postal Service where e-mail is not
available. The
e-mail version will be sent in Rich Text Format in the body of
the e-mail, with the link
to the web site at the top. This web page will list the issues
available by web page and by document (PDF). The PDF or Rich
Text Format version of the current and previous issues will now
always be available for download from the Web. We will continue
to experiment with better ways of keeping our Connection connected!
The publication date is a week or so before
the end of the month, to give churches a chance to include some
items in their own monthly newsletters.
The content of the newsletter will be the most important News
list posts or a summary of them, plus however many of the Bulletin
Board e-mail list posts as will fit into 8 pages of paper.-- Ben
Roe, editor, TableTalk
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