News & Events Current News 40th East Ohio Annual Conference Report
| 40th East Ohio Annual Conference Report |
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Bishop John Hopkins presided over the 40th East Ohio Annual Conference at Lakeside with the theme “BE TRANSFORMED”. The Bishop challenged the 1600 plus delegates to carry the message that we Transform Our Hearts, Transform Our Minds and Transform Our Doors. We are urged to reach out rethink church and adapt to changing times. Delegates held ‘conversations’ on the 32 proposed Constitutional Amendments passed down from the General Conference of the UMC held in Fort Worth, Texas. It was presented to the Annual Conference for vote. This was an aggregate vote. Final results from all the UMC Conferences will be reported sometime between Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. Morning worship services offered quality sermons by Bishop John Hopkins, Bishop Lindsey Davis, Episcopal Leader of the Kentucky Area UMC; Bishop Jonathon Keaton, Michigan Area Conference; and Rev. Nancy Hull, Westlake UMC. Mission awareness reported the donation from various churches to be 420 flood buckets and 2100 health kits, plus $2,400.00 in cash. Our donation was 8 flood buckets and 78 health kits. An offering was given for the Bishop’s mission initiative of 2007 called the 3C’s which stands for Churches, Clinics and Classrooms, continuing mission work in West Africa, Zimbabwe and Russia. A special offering was divided between the Bishop’s Discretionary Fund, Global Aids Fund and the Central Conference Pension Fund. In other conference business, members approved a resolution presented by Pastor Armando Arellano to remove the phrase ‘Third World Countries’ from Conference reporting. The message throughout the conference is ‘re-thinking’ how we church. We should pay attention to what God wants, be more reflective than reactive and go back to basics, keeping it simple. For detailed coverage of the Annual Conference visit www.eocumc.com Marge Noble, Lay Member to Annual Conference |