Latest news and updates for 2016 Northern Illinois Annual Conference
2016 Annual Conference News
Walk By Faith
Annual Conference June 5-7, 2016
Our theme for the 2016 session of Annual Conference is "Walk by Faith" based on Ephesians 4:1-6 (MSG). Your AC committee has been busy on all the details and will be sharing monthly email updates. Information will also continually be updated on our webpage at www.umcnic.org/AC2016 and in our weekly eNews. Online Registration is scheduled to open April 8. Check out the latest information below as we look forward to our time of fellowship, business, Bible study and worship in June.
Worship Leader - Mark Miller
Mark Miller
The Annual Conference Worship Team is excited to share that this year's worship leadership will be provided by Mark Miller and his band. Mark serves as Assistant Professor of Church Music at Drew Theological School and is a Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at Yale University. He also is the Minister of Music of Christ Church in Summit, New Jersey. Since 1999 Mark has led music for United Methodists and others around the country, including directing music for the 2008 General Conference.
United Voices for Children Seeks Award Nominations
Each year the Board of Directors of United Voices for Children selects individuals or groups to receive the Bishop Jesse R. DeWitt Child Advocacy Award, the Katherine B. Greene Child Worker Award and the Rev. Margaret Ann Williams Service Award. These awards honor extraordinary volunteer service or advocacy efforts on behalf of children, youth and/or families throughout the Northern Illinois Conference. As a member of a local United Methodist Church, you know who is doing this good work in your church or community. Please look around and nominate an individual or a group who deserves this recognition. Click here for the nomination form. Nominations for the 2016 awards will be accepted until April 8, 2016.
The Annual Conference Worship Team is currently looking for persons throughout the Annual Conference who are willing to serve as greeters, ushers, or general volunteers for worship at Annual Conference this June.
The Conference will open on Sunday afternoon (June 5) with the clergy and laity sessions, followed by the Ordination Service at 7:00pm. As in previous years, there will be a mass choir at the Ordination Service. (Look for more information in March)
The Episcopal address will be Monday morning and Memorial Service on Monday afternoon, with a reception for the families of those being remembered immediately before. We invite all churches to submit the names of their Lay Members to Annual Conference who have died since June 2015 to Natarsha Gardner at ngardner@umcnic.org.
The Retirement Service will be held Tuesday afternoon.
Rev. Jack Seymour and Rev. Margaret Ann Crain will be our Bible Study leaders for Monday and Tuesday.
ALL historical documents and proposed legislation for the conference must be submitted by April 1 to Rev. Katie Voigt, by emailing to ACdocuments@umcnic.org. Sorry no exceptions! All documents must be in the Action/Rationale format with a maximum of 500 words for the rationale, be submitted as a WORD document and editable. At-conference documents must be submitted to her BEFORE the start of the annual conference. The author must submit both a printed version and on a flash drive or similar USB storage device (device may or may not be returned), and the author must bring 1000 copies to the annual conference session for distribution.
Child-care will be provided - sign up will be available with registration.
This year the Cokesbury Bookstore and Display tables will be in the same space (selected rooms of St. Charles Ballroom) and will be available on Monday and Tuesday. For more information on Display Tables contact Rev. Michael Mann at mmann@umcnic.org.
Frequently Used Terms
In an effort to help you better understand some of the terms and acronyms that we frequently use at Annual Conference, we have created a document of definitions. It gives you a short explanation for the term and long version of the acronym. We will be adding to this document so make sure to check our Annual Conference page of our conference website for updates. Click here to open the document.
