~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, in Holston Conference News Briefs for November 8:

Wednesday on the Webexclusive – NCD Now: Empowering Leadership @ holston.org

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TOP STORY: It's OK to disagree, but stick to the Book

The United Methodist Church's top court says the denomination's regional conferences may pass petitions that disagree with court decisions, as long as they do not mandate any violation of the Book of Discipline or ignore directives included in those decisions.

Meeting in Cincinnati Oct. 25-28, the United Methodist Judicial Council considered several petitions that stemmed from a ruling it issued last fall, Decision 1032, which dealt with a Virginia pastor who denied membership to an openly gay man. The nine-member council ruled that a pastor has the right to determine who is ready for church membership.

A petition from the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference encouraging churches to be inclusive was ruled to be in order, while a petition from the Kansas East Annual Conference went beyond the court's standard, according to the council.

Read the United Methodist News Service report

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Quick! Worship resources for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is two weeks away. For related resources, visit these sites:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Organ and Tissue Donor Sunday: It's here already

Organ and Tissue Donor Sunday, a United Methodist special Sunday observed as part of the National Donor Sabbath, is traditionally observed the second Sunday in November. (This year, it's Nov. 12.) The United Methodist Church supports organ and tissue donation, based on the Book of Discipline 2000.

Read more from the United Methodist Committee on Relief

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Have you memorized the Vision Statement yet?

Adopted by the Annual Conference in June 2006, the "Bold, Passionate, and Joyful" vision statement is currently being reviewed by the Connectional Table to see how it should be implemented in Holston Conference.

In the meantime, the conference staff offers the following resources – with the complete statement in print – to help introduce the vision to your congregations:

For graphic logos: E-mail Millie Meese

For bookmarks or pocket cards: E-mail connectionalministries@holston.org

Read the complete Vision Statement

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Joining the Immigrant-Rights Network: Who said that?

"I promise you when the majority of Americans envisions the word immigration, they're not seeing a bunch of Canadians coming down from the North. What they're seeing is a lot of brown people."

— Eric Ward of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community in Chicago, speaking to directors of the Women's Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. Last month, the Women's Division voted to join the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Read the United Methodist Women press release

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

New event announcements appear here. Visit our upcoming events page for other events. Be sure you have the newest Acrobat Reader or you may not be able to view PDFs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOW AVAILABLE

______________________________________________

Subscribe, change an email address or join another list, here.

Send your conference-wide news/events here.

This message is from the Holston Conference Communications Office.