|
General Conference News May 2, 2012
| 
General Conference is coming to a close Friday. Our NIC delegates have been working tirelessly from 7am to 10pm each day on legislation and issues shaping the future of our denomination. Many other volunteers, visitors, clergy and observers are also in Tampa, FL representing the NIC. We pray for safe travels as they return home at the end of the week and thank each one of them for their dedicated work to the church.
|
|
|
|
Communicator's Corner
|
 A special thanks my "freelancers" who are helping report all that's happening and going on at General Conference: Michael Mann, Melissa Meyers, Hyemin Na and Luke Pepper. They've been observing, reporting, snapping pictures, tweeting, facebooking and keeping everyone up to date. Melissa Meyers has taken on the twitterverse! Follow her @pastormelissa and Hyemin @myea.  | |
Melissa Meyers tweets moment by moment commentary from General Conference
|
Check out this article featuring Melissa-- General Conference meets the Twitterverse I appreciate all they're doing to share General Conference news! +++++++++++++++++++++ Conversations with NIC Young Adults: Rachel Birkhahn-Rommelfanger talks about changes facing the church.  | |
General Conference Young Adults
|
|
|
|
|
'Plan UMC' gets tentative approval
|
 | |
M. Garlinda Burton, top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women, speaks about proposed church restructuring on May 2. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.
|
By a vote of 567 to 384, the 2012 United Methodist General Conference gave tentative approval to a slightly amended version of to reconfigure general agencies and downsize their boards. It was referred to the Judicial Council which will give final approval after the General Council on Finance and Administration, the denomination's finance agency, reports on the plan's financial implications. Read full story>> |
|
Measure to Divest Voted Down
|
 | |
The Rev. We Hyun Chang, a delegate from the New England Annual (regional) Conference, holds a map of illustrating Israeli expansion into the West Bank
during the May 2 session. UMNS Photo
|
Delegates to The United Methodist Church's top lawmaking assembly approved petitions dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but they did not approve a measure to divest from specific companies. "The general conference made an important statement when choosing to boycott products made in Israeli settlements.
Divestment from three companies profiting from the occupation seemed a step too far," said Lonnie Chafin, Northern Illinois delegate and conference treasurer. Read full story>>
|
|
Stay Connected
|
All plenary sessions, which include worship services and major addresses, are being streamed live at www.gc2012.umc.org and daily updates and photos are available on the NIC website at www.umcnic.org/gc2012.
Other Ways to Stay Informed:
|
|
NIC Moves Toward Repentance
|
 | |
Rev. Dr. George Tinker
|
How do we engage in any real repentance? That was the question asked at the Act of Repentance Toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples at General Conference April 27. "Keep on repenting. Don't dare stop," challenged the Rev. George Tinker, a citizen of the Osage Nation and a professor at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung said the Northern Illinois Conference will hold an Act of Repentance toward indigenous people at the 2013 Annual Conference as suggested by the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concern. Read the full story>>
|
|
A Page's Perspective-
Rev. Harriette Cross
|
When I attend
 | | Harriette Cross monitors a legislative committee session as a General Conference Page |
ed the orientation session forpages and marshals forGeneral Conference this year, we were asked to stand up at the number of General Conferences we had attended. I stood up at number four. This is the 4th General Conference that I have attended and as well as served as a page. Read more >>
|
|
|
|
|
Pan-Methodists Celebrate Together
|
 After several hundred years of separation, members of six Pan-Methodist denominations have committed to ministry together. The United Methodist Church is the last of the denominations to adopt the full communion agreement, which was celebrated May 1 during the 2012 General Conference.
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung said, "Now we need to live out the full communion with the Pan-Methodist Communion. In the Northern Illinois Conference we are invited to identify how we move forward in building a relationship. Our area has many potential partners as we implement the communion and increase our ministry together for Christ's sake." Read full story>> |
|
Profit from Pain Rally Raises Awareness of Prison Privatization
|
 | |
Bishop Jung and NIC delegates participate in rally to stop prison privatization
|
Chanting "dignity not detention," singing songs of justice and holding posters and banners, more than 500 endured the noon heat in Tampa last week to protest the growing private prison industry that especially targets immigrants and people of color. Bishop Minerva Carca�o of the Phoenix Area and Bishop Julius Trimble of the Iowa Area, co-chairs of the United Methodist Immigration Task Force, led the rally. Speakers included a Florida immigration advocate as well, as church members from around the United States, the Philippines and Germany. Read full story>>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
