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North Texas Annual Conference
June 4-7, Plano
The North Texas Annual Conference met at the Plano Centre with the opening worship service at historic First United Methodist Church, Dallas, and the ordination service at Custer Road United Methodist Church, Plano.
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness was the theme for the conference. Bishop Rhymes H. Moncure, Jr. began the 140th conference session by celebrating the act of the 1956 General Conference granting clergywomen the same rights as their male colleagues. In the opening worship, he declared this annual conference as, “?our opportunity and God’s time for some amazing things to take place.”
In the report of the clergy excellence team, the Rev. Jim Dorff, area provost, introduced a plan that sets landmarks of effective ministry on the path toward excellence based on the Wesleyan practices of “Holiness of Heart and Life,” “Wholeness in Relationships and Skills” and “Competencies for Ministry.”
In the year ahead, the cabinet and conference board of ordained ministry will cooperate in field-testing a plan of feedback for clergy and a system of growth opportunities and delivery structures to enhance clergy excellence. The plan will then come before the 2007 conference session.
The cabinet also introduced a new plan of church accountability with quarterly reports on six key areas of church health and growth.
The conference anti-racism team introduced a number of legislative proposals with the goal of “power sharing and inclusive decision-making in all conference deliberations and deliverables.” Each task force is required to be “representative of the diversity of the conference.”
Conference members overwhelmingly approved the establishment of a conference-wide property and liability insurance program through United Methodist Property and Casualty Trust (PACT). The recommendation came from a joint task force of the conference board of trustees and council on finance and administration.
Also approved was the funding method for the new United Methodist pension plan mandated by the 2004 General Conference. The conference adopted a seven-point legislative outline for funding the clergy retirement security program.
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of the Mississippi Area was preacher for the ordination service. Five people were ordained deacons in full connection and 11 elders in full connection. At Monday’s commissioning service, 17 were commissioned on the elder track and one on the deacon track.
In one of the final actions of the 2006 session, conference members adopted an apportionment budget of $11,759,051 for 2007. The Rev. Doug Miller said that “full payment” of apportionments is expected in 2006. Payout for 2005 was 95.7 percent, the highest in four years. The Wichita Falls District was recognized for 14 consecutive years of 100 percent apportionment payment and the Paris-Sulphur Springs district for 11 years.
Membership stands at 159,724, down 193 from the previous year. Worship attendance stands at 61,374, down 1,264. Church school attendance stands at 33,579, down 1,525.
--Joan Gray LaBarr
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