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South Georgia Annual Conference
June 4-7, 2006, Savannah
It was a time of celebration and service for South Georgia United Methodists during the 2006 annual conference. Meeting under the theme “Live the Vision, Serve My Neighbor,” members gathered at the Savannah Civic Center.
The conference celebrated 50 years of full clergy rights for women as members looked back on the women who responded to God’s call, broke barriers and cultural norms, and persisted with courage and faith to serve God as clergy in the South Georgia Conference.
During the opening worship service, the Rev. Denise Walton, a South Georgia pastor, proclaimed that “those who have served us so faithfully, both lay and clergy, in the United Methodist Church have much to teach us about courage.”
Walton encouraged all members to continue on the journey in courage. “Now is not the time to leave the battlefield. Now is the time to pray through it.
“May those standing on the sidelines say, ‘I see courage. I see faithfulness. I see commitment. There’s something about those Methodists!’“ she said.
South Georgia women clergy preached at three of the worship services and led the Bible study.
In keeping with the theme of “Living the Vision, Serving My Neighbor,” members scattered across the Savannah community on the morning of June 6 to be witnesses of faith in Jesus Christ. This day of service offered a specific way for members to be “doers of the Word and not hearers only” by engaging in service projects that meaningfully served their neighbors.
In other actions, members:
- Spent time in a period of Worshipful Work, focusing on the recurring question, “Who is my neighbor?” while celebrating the ways agencies, ministries and churches in South Georgia are working to redeem every soul and circumstance.
- Were challenged by Roy Blackwood, conference lay leader, and Bishop B. Michael Watson during the Leadership Forum report to “By All Means” win some to Jesus Christ.
- Heard a powerful message “To Honor the Call” from the Rev. Cindy Autry, the first female district superintendent in South Georgia, during the Ordination Service.
- Affirmed the ministry of New and Revitalized Congregational Development within the bounds of the South Georgia Conference. Eight new church starts, nine revitalized congregations, and 19 Hispanic congregations are now under the umbrella of NRCD.
- Were led in an evening worship service by the conference’s Young Adult Team.
- Offered initial input to a task force assigned to study the structure and functions of the district organization and district superintendency in light of the conference’s vision.
- Celebrated increases in the total money collected on the budget, donations given to the United Methodist Committee on Relief and donations for Special Sundays and Advance Specials. Two districts, Statesboro and Dublin, paid 100 percent of their conference apportionments.
- Approved two resolutions, one setting aside the fourth Sunday in February as Volunteers in Mission Awareness Sunday and the second asking congregations to receive a special offering on the first Sunday of each December in support of the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund.
- Approved a funding method for the new pension plan (CRSP).
- Received $10,405.49 from the Publishing House and voted to give this money to be used for clergy pensions in the central conferences for the fourth year in a row. A special offering in the amount of $22,762.16 was also collected for the Central Conferences Pension Initiative, for a total of $33,167.65.
- Approved a budget of $10.96 million.
Nine people were commissioned, and 15 were ordained – 14 as full elders and one as probationary deacon (1992 Book of Discipline). Fourteen pastors retired, and nine were recognized for achieving their 50th anniversary in ministry.
Bishop Watson, presiding over his sixth Annual Conference as South Georgia’s episcopal leader, read from John 15 while issuing a challenge during the Service of Sending Forth to love one another in such a distinctive way that the whole world will know that “we are disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Membership stands at 137,822, down 1,305 from the previous year. Worship attendance stands at 53,033, down 355. Church school attendance stands at 28,909, down 362.
-- Kelly Roberson
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