West Virginia Annual Conference
June 11-14, 2009, Buckhannon, W.Va.

The West Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church met at West Virginia Wesleyan College and this year’s theme was “I will be your witness,” with an emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit to make the conference a witness for Christ.

The conference theme reinforced the quadrennial emphasis on evangelism through the following elements:

• ‘Rethink Church’ the new campaign from Igniting Ministries and United Methodist Communications, underscores and supports the evangelism emphasis. The goal of the campaign is to reach 18-34 year-olds by thinking of church as a verb, not just a noun.
• The Harry Denman award for Evangelism was presented to an outstanding lay and clergy worker in Evangelism. Marieta Reel, a trained obstetric nurse from Peru was the lay award winner. The Rev. Judy Vetter was the clergy recipient.¬¬¬ Both received the award because of their work in the Hispanic community around Moorefield, W. Va. Last April, an Immigration Customs Enforcement raid on a Pilgrim’s Pride poultry processing plant left several citizen children and their families stranded in the U.S. with no ability to work under current federal law.
• A session on faith sharing by the Rev. Ken Ramsey reminded attendees for whom the church exists. “The church exists for the unchurched,” Ramsey said. “It’s something we must remember.”
• Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, resident Bishop of Zimbabwe was the guest preacher during the gathering. His sermons called for the church to answer the question Jesus posed in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16 to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” and then to go tell that message of love to their communities.
• Harriet Olson, deputy general secretary of the Women’s Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, led a two-day Bible study concentrating on the evangelism tools found in Luke/Acts. She taught the annual conference to believe in the power of their witness, in order to live out the parts of the Bible that they understand.
• The bishop’s cabinet presentation emphasized the need for the church to build bridges, not towers in their communities. The presentation used more than 100 pictures showing ministry in action throughout the conference.

The Africa University Choir was a special guest of the annual conference this year; giving a powerful concert and testimonies from members in the June 13 worship service. The choir embarked June 14 on a 10-concert tour of the conference, with performances scheduled in all nine districts. The tour is also a fundraiser for the school. The conference’s goal for 2009 is $160,000 that will be used to endow a scholarship and to build faculty housing at the United Methodist-related university.

The conference also highlighted the health of its members with a health fair in the Rockefeller Gymnasium on campus. All people with conference health insurance were encouraged to attend. Jeannie Malick, chair of the conference’s Health Initiative task force at presented the ‘Walk to Bethlehem, Walk to Jerusalem’ program to encourage exercise for those at conference.

The West Virginia Annual Conference continues to evolve in its use of new media technology. Conference sessions were streamed live and recorded via the Internet for the first time. Twitter, Facebook, and the conference website were also used to publicize and create conversation around conference. All were well received by conference attendees.

In other actions, conference members:

• Approved a budget of $11, 984,041 for 2010, a 4.45 percent increase over 2009. Most of the increase comes from the addition of $500,000 to the pre-1982 pension plan. Despite this addition, current projections indicate that plan will only be 85 percent funded by 2011, down from a 121 percent funded position at the beginning of 2008. The current economic recession is the reason for this pension position.
• Voted on 32 Constitutional Amendments; three amendments passed: XVII, XIX, XXII.
• Passed a resolution presented by the Justice and Advocacy Team calling for comprehensive Immigration Reform.
• Welcomed eight elders into full membership and two into associate membership; 14 pastors retired.

—Laura Allen