| Annual Conference 2003 Concludes With Upbeat Message
By Annette Bender
LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. – The 2003 session of the Holston Annual Conference ended on an upbeat note here June 11 with a Sending Forth Service for clergy and laity beginning a new year of ministry.
"You are blessed. Now get out there and get them ready for Jesus," the Rev. William Willimon told an auditorium packed with 1,600 church leaders.
Dean of Duke University Chapel in Durham, N.C., Willimon served as guest preacher at the conference's final service. Bishop Ray Chamberlain thanked Willimon for accepting his invitation to speak when previously scheduled preacher, Cuba's Bishop Ricardo Pereira Diaz, could not obtain a visa to the United States. Willimon's candid message prompted laughter from clergy and lay representatives of 930 churches shortly before the conclusion of their four-day meeting at Lake Junaluska Assembly. Willimon spoke about parishioners and pastors who get caught up in the drudgery of church business, while Jesus is exclaiming, "Oh, no – this is cosmic. I'm taking over the world," and, "I saw Satan evicted from heaven!"
The Sending Forth Service, in which ministers receive appointments for the upcoming year, was a positive finale to an occasionally trying week.
An $11.21 million budget for 2004 was withdrawn by the Council on Finance and Administration (CFA) after many repre- sentatives indicated they would not support direct billing of ministers' salaries to local churches.
"We decided that we want to be uniters, not dividers," CFA Chair Mai Bell Hurley said before presenting a $14.46 million budget excluding direct billing. Hurley said the coming year would involve "more talking, more listening, more thoughtful and prayerful consideration" of a direct billing proposal in 2004. Hurley's presentation of the $14.46 million budget, reflecting an 18.1 percent decrease from the 2003 budget, was met with light applause.
"I want to thank you for not keeping up with the Joneses," said Peggy Callison, lay member at St. Luke UMC, Abingdon District. She was referring to Hurley's previous statement that Holston is the only Southeastern conference yet to pass direct billing. In other action, the Annual Conference elected 16 delegates to General Conference in April 2004, and 16 delegates to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference in July 2004. (See list at left.) The conference also approved a Board of Pensions proposal to move retired clergy and spouses to a Medicare health insurance plan with Holston Conference drug and dental benefits.
Three offerings were taken over the four-day period. On Wednesday morning, Treasurer Clyde McDonald announced that $95,403 has been raised for Kenya Methodist University. "We're still looking for $125,000," McDonald said, encouraging churches to continue giving until the goal has been met. Members gave $5,645 in an offering to offset Annual Conference costs and $32,579 for Change for Children.
Holston also sent off two truckloads of food, health and school supplies for missions in Kenya, Liberia and Zimbabwe. The supplies were valued at $228,755.
For more Annual Conference 2003 news, look for the July 4 issue of The Call. Photos and the daily Lake Junaluska edition of The Call are also available at www.holston.org/ac.
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