Top left photo - Bishop Sally Dyck. Main photo by Bill Bunge - Members of the Annual Conference meet each year in Hitchcock Arena at Messiah College in Grantham.
For the 220th time, 1,200 or so clergy and laity from Central Pennsylvania will meet in Hitchcock Arena at Messiah College in Grantham to do the business of the Annual Conference, to celebrate the ordination of new pastors, the retirement of clergy, and the lives of clergy who have passed to their eternal reward. The Annual Conference sessions begin on Thursday morning, June 5, and concludes with the ordination service on Saturday, June 7. In addition to a keynote address by Bishop Jane Allen Middleton, the Celebration of Ministry service guest speaker will be Bishop Sally Dyck of the Minnesota Annual Conference. Rev. Dr. Ronald Parks will deliver the sermon for the Memorial Service on Friday evening. Six resolutions will come before the legislative body for 2008 as follows:
Resolution 1: The Need For Child Abuse Legislation NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: We ask that Bishop Middleton issue an Episcopal Letter, directed to our churches as well as Governor Rendell, the Chair of the Senate Youth and Age Committee, affirming the value of the lives of our children by passing the legislation that was not passed in 2007. We affirm our responsibility as Christians to ensure that even in death the child’s life does not lose meaning.
Central Pennsylvania Conference Board of Church and Society and a United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania Board of Church and Society concurs. [read more]
Mission Central became a reality in 2002 by a vote of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, The United Methodist Church. A three-faceted focus was established for this ministry: mission education, mission outreach, and disaster response. The goal was to centralize and unify the mission work of the United Methodist churches in the Conference. Since then, those goals have come to fruition, and over 200 outreach opportunities have been presented and integrated into the work of Mission Central. A sampling of the 200 linked ministries are:
Arms Around Africa Bethesda Mission in Harrisburg Bread of Life Outreach Computer Ministry Crossover Pregnancy Center, Lewistown Disaster Response Fruitbelt Farmworker Christian Ministry His Thousand Hills Ministry, Wellsboro Jamaican Outreach Join Hands in Perry County [read more]
