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Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference
June 8-10, Grantham, Pa.

“Claiming God’s Frontiers: Our Communities: Right Here! Right Now!” was the theme of 218th session of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference.

The conference opened in a darkened Hitchcock Arena with the sound of the wind, and the light of one candle moving from candle to candle throughout the room. In a service that went on to evoke the joy of Pentecost, the conference was called to carry the gospel of Christ to the streets in every town of the annual conference.

In her opening remarks to the conference, Bishop Jane Allen Middleton spoke of the new ministries emerging. “I am awed by your creativity in ministry. Like the sound of the wind, we are seeing signs of new life, our churches are reaching out to each other to embrace the future,” she said.

The Bishop called on each congregation to adopt proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, forming clergy and lay leadership, and engagement with their communities as their core values.

“Just as the light of Christ spread among us this afternoon, we must spread that light in our worlds. A church that is turned in on itself dies. The church that is giving itself away will thrive,” Bishop Middleton said.

The conference also marked 50 years of inclusive ministry in services that celebrated the ordination of Maud Keister Jensen, a conference missionary to Korea, as the first woman to receive full clergy rights in an American Methodist Conference, and the transfer of Mitchell Memorial Church from the Central Jurisdiction to the Central Pennsylvania Conference. The transfer was the first to be approved after the Methodist Church permitted congregations to transfer from the racially segregated conference to their otherwise appropriate geographic conference.

The conference approved resolutions:

• Encouraging members to purchase clean power for their homes and churches;
• Endorsing legislation that would ban smoking in public places and workplaces;
• Calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour;
• Supporting state legislation to regulate lobbying activities;
• Approving the observance of Mental Health Awareness Sunday

The conference returned to its Board of Pensions for further study of a plan requiring retired clergy to share in the cost of health insurance based on their years of service. After considerable discussion, it approved a proposal requiring active clergy to pay three percent of their base salary toward health insurance costs beginning in 2008.

In an effort to assist churches with the financial impact of changes in clergy pension funding, the current $11.6 million plan for funding ministry was reduced by three percent to $11.2 million. The largest savings came as the result of the conference eliminating its unfunded pension liability.

The conference approved a recommendation from the board of trustees for certified appraisals of all church-owned property in the conference resulting from two catastrophic losses of church facilities. The appraisals will be conducted over a three-year period with the conference and local church sharing the costs. It is expected that the appraisals will restore underwriter confidence in the property and liability coverage provided by the conference.

The Central Pennsylvania Conference paid 100 percent of its apportionments for 2005, reported Zedna Haverstock, conference treasurer. This represents 10 years of uninterrupted commitment to the connection and paying the General Conference apportionments in full.

Three special offerings were received during annual conference: For the Cup of Water fund - $20,754.46; for Mission Central - $24,362.72 and for the AIDS Orphan Trust - $19,146.24 for a grand total of $64,263.42. This was an increase in total collections over 2005 of $9,736.59. In addition, the youth collected $2,355.49 for the Youth Service Fund.

One person was ordained as elder, 10 were commissioned as probationary elders, one was commissioned into probationary associate membership, and 24 clergy retired.

Membership at the end of 2005 was 146,564, down 2,658 from the previous year. Average worship attendance in 2005 was 68,432, down 2,801. Average church school attendance in 2005 was 28,648, down 2,869. There were 3,300 people received on confession of faith in 2005, 161 more than in 2004.