News Archives

Northern Illinois Annual Conference
June 11-14, St. Charles, Ill.

Celebration of 50 years of full clergy rights for women was the main focus when members of the Northern Illinois Conference gathered at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Ill., 167th annual session. The theme of the session was “Courageous Visioning for the Future.” Bishop Hee-Soo Jung presided.

Clergywomen were honored during the Bishop’s Banquet, plenaries and worship services. The history of women in the United Methodist Church was related through readings from the 1956 Methodist General Conference that voted to give women full clergy rights; portrayals of Georgia Harkness, Anna Oliver and Bishop Leontine Kelly; personal testimonies from women laity and clergy; and choirs of women singing hymns written by women.

The conference also formalized a sister relationship with the Seoul South Conference of the Korean Methodist Church and welcomed a 52-member Korean delegation, including a women’s choir that sang during the Bishop’s Banquet and ordination services.

The conference heard from five bishops. Bishop Jung preached for the ordination service and presented a “State of the Church” address in which he said that although this is a time of “increasing economic and political instability, of growing divisiveness and fear, of failing mission outreach and dying dreams,” he sees that this can also be a time of “possibilities, of hope, and most importantly of God’s liberating, loving and saving work in this world.”

Jung celebrated new fruit-producing strategies that are being implemented in the Northern Illinois Conference, but called for more innovation, patience and willingness to fail while developing new ways to do ministry.

The bishop urged the conference to help local churches be more connected, not only with other United Methodists, but also with Christians everywhere. And he urged United Methodists to work to break down walls of hostility between Palestine and Israel, between North and South Korea, and between Christians and Muslims.

Bishop Charles Jordan, retired, preached at the memorial service. Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, Los Angeles Area, preached for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of ordination of women.

Bishop Choong Sik Kim, Seoul South Conference of the Korean Methodist Church, addressed the conference following the signing of the sister relationship covenant with the Northern Illinois Conference. He asked his listeners to pray for reunification of Korea as a “peaceful, democratic society, not as a communist country” that is reunited “in a peaceful way ? not by war, not by violence.”

Bishop Yangon Mawia, Methodist Church in Lower Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, also addressed the conference. Mawia called for continued support and aid to undergird rebuilding the Methodist Church in Lower Myanmar, a partner church of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Two other judicatory leaders ? Bishop Paul Landahl, Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the Rev. Jane Fisler Hoffman, Illinois Conference Minister of the United Church of Christ ? participated in the ordination. It was the first time an ELCA bishop has participated in a Northern Illinois Conference communion service since the adoption last year of an agreement of Interim Eucharistic Sharing by the two denominations.

The Rev. Ted Campbell, associate professor of church history at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas and former president of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, led Bible study each morning.

During plenary sessions, the conference:

• Approved a 2007 budget of $7,546,053, almost $120,000 less than the 2006 budget of $7,664,298.
• Adopted a new Clergy Retirement Security Program to replace the existing clergy pension program, effective Jan. 1.
• Voted to sell the building that has housed the Wesley Foundation at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and use income from the sale to fund continuation of the campus ministry at NIU.
• Celebrated payment of 100 percent of its 2005 apportionment to the general church.

Among legislation adopted by the conference were resolutions:

• Stating that the use of torture by the U.S. government is “both widespread and systematic” and condemning “any and all” use of torture against U.S. detainees “for any purpose” and demanding legislation be written to “cease and desist from these un-Christian practices.”
• Rejecting “the understandings” used to justify United Methodist Judicial Council Decision 1032 that allowed a pastor to prohibit a gay man from becoming a member of the United Methodist Church; urging the 2008 General Conference to remove all discriminatory language from the Book of Discipline; urging every Northern Illinois Conference pastor to “inform our churches about the dangers of Decision 1032;” and resolving that the conference will draft legislation “to prevent such misuses of judicial authority in the future.”
• Encouraging conference members to prayerfully consider Jesus’ way of peace as a base on which the U.S. government should stand and consider whether it would be good to change the U.S. Department of Defense into the Department of Peace.
• Calling for the Philippine government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to “stop the killing of church people, journalists and other progressive individuals and groups seeking truth, justice and peace in the Philippines.”
• Opposing Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposal to sell or lease the Illinois state lottery to a private company.

Bishop Jung ordained nine elders and commissioned three probationary deacons and 13 probationary elders. Licenses were given to 11 new local pastors; 14 clergy retired.

Membership was 107,602 at the end of 2005, down 2,556 from 2004. Average worship attendance on Sundays was 46,218 in 2005, up from 44,800 in 2004. An additional 8,291 people worship on average in conference churches on days other than Sunday, bringing total average weekly worship attendance to 54,509.