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Minnesota Annual Conference
May 30-June 2, 2006, St. Cloud
Continuing her organic metaphor for Christian discipleship, Bishop Sally Dyck urged Minnesota United Methodists to “feed the root” of faith through daily Bible study and prayer to create a foundation for sharing their blossoming faith through word and action.
The 1,000 conference members heard Bishop Dyck remind them to report to others what God is doing in their lives. “I hope you discover this week that sharing faith is as much listening as talking,” she said in her episcopal address May 30.
She also declared 2006-07 the year of the conference’s sesquicentennial. (This year’s conference was the 152nd because two conferences were held in one year.) Robert Tuttle, professor of evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary and this year’s conference speaker, encouraged members to make faith-sharing part of their lives.
“If you put the good news of Jesus Christ into principles of supply and demand, I promise you the demand is out there,” he said. To give members practice at sharing their faith, session planners scheduled time every day for members to turn to those sitting next to them and discuss specific questions about how they experienced God in their lives.
Bishop Dyck also unveiled her “spiritual pyramid,” based on the food pyramid, through which she recommends portions of spiritual activities for healthy discipleship. Each member received a refrigerator magnet depicting the pyramid. To view it, visit www.minnesotaumc.org and click on “Bishop’s Corner.”
In their annual report, the cabinet and lay leader offered members a packet of resources to revitalize their congregations and urged them to create a culture of experimentation, trust God, remember their purpose to make disciples and share with others what God is doing in their lives.
Among the 47 items of legislation addressed by conference members were nine petitions to General Conference. These petitions recommend changes to The Book of Discipline that would make the church’s ministries, including membership, ordination and marriage, open to all people, regardless of ability, gender identity, sexual orientation and other factors.
One petition requested that a sentence be inserted into Paragraph 161G: “Christians of good faith differ on what Christian teaching reveals regarding homosexuality.”
Because the petitions’ subject matter was expected to attract strongly differing opinions, conference members voted to address them using a “holy conferencing” approach.
Two individuals were invited in advance to present 10-minute presentations, one in favor of the resolutions and one opposed. After their presentations, members engaged in two minutes of silent prayer. Afterward, members had the opportunity to speak their viewpoint to the plenary for 90 seconds each. The conversation ended in silent prayer. Votes were taken by written ballot the next day.
Conference members of varying perspectives said they believed the holy conferencing set a tone of mutual respect and helped people listen to each other and for God.
Members also approved items that:
- Direct the conference board of pension and health benefits to consider making fitness-club fees a medical benefit.
- Proclaim September to be Open House Month in Minnesota.
- Donate the annual United Methodist Publishing House contribution, given for conference pensions, to the Central Conference Pension Initiative.
- Ask Minnesota legislators to refrain from cutting financial support for long-term health care.
- Collect $1 from every conference church for the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund.
- Require every church to study the Social Principles in the coming year.
- Encourage every church to undertake a disability inclusion audit and observe an annual Inclusion Awareness Sunday.
- Ask President Bush and Minnesota representatives and senators to implement energy policies that limit the use of fossil fuels.
- Provide a method for paying for the Clergy Retirement Security Program that would include the establishment of a Benefits Reserve Fund to help the conference plan for future increases in benefits costs.
- State a clergy sexual misconduct policy.
More than $80,000 was collected for the Love Offering for Missions, which will benefit children in Minnesota and around the world. Bishop Dyck urged churches to take an offering for the Bishops’ Katrina Church Recovery Appeal on the last Sundays in August 2006, 2007 and 2008. Though an offering for the bishops’ appeal was not taken at conference, members nonetheless donated almost $300 for this cause.
Membership stands at 82,037, down 1,718 from the previous year. Worship attendance stands at 40,989, down 794. Church school attendance stands at 28,449. The conference reported 28,449 leaders, children, youth and adults in Sunday classes for 2005.
--Victoria Rebeck
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