June 14, 2017

Dear Reader,

While the life of the local church begins its summer cycle, this week conference and local church leaders will be focused on our Annual Conference Session.

So that’s what you can expect to find in the UM Connector this week.

In a blog post yesterday, Rev. Lowell Greathouse, Mission and Ministry Coordinator, writes ”When we come together this week for our shared annual conference session, it is important to remember that we are not a collection of individuals interested in discussing a great theory, but instead, we are members of a community...actually a part of a larger beloved community...that gathers to share our stories of the Christian life and share with each other what it means to be practitioners of the Way.”

I think that’s a good way to look at who we are as a conference as we begin the four days of meeting.

You’re getting this week’s UM Connector a day early as Annual Conference begins. Watch for updates throughout the week with highlights of conference, and more in-depth stories following the session.

Greg Nelson, Director of Communications

CONFERENCE NEWS

Can’t be there? Watch online

Annual Conference worship and plenary sessions will be streamed live on YouTube. Even if you can't get to the conference in Portland, you have the chance to see powerful preaching, historic moments, and the debate and discussion of conference.

Subscribe to the channel at www.youtube.com/c/GreaternwOrg/live to participate live and see archived streams.

Get the latest via Social Media

Updates of conference will be posted on the area and conference Facebook and Twitter accounts. Follow them for up-to-date information and conversation about conference. Use the hashtag #gnwac17 on your posts to be part of the dialog. Get all the details in a blog post on the AC2017 website.

Smile for your picture!

Clergy are reminded to stop for a photo on Wednesday or Thursday when they register. This is a new opportunity for Oregon-Idaho conference members. The Pacific Northwest Conference brings this tradition to our shared event. Photos will be used by conference staff and shared for use on local church web sites, press releases and other opportunities.

AROUND THE GLOBE

Western Jurisdiction Bishops Say Judicial Council Unlawfully Expanded Church Law

DENVER – The United Methodist Church’ Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops contends the denomination’s top court exceeded its authority in April when it expanded church law barring LGBTQ persons from seeking ordination as clergy in the church.

In a brief filed with the Judicial Council on Monday, June 12, the jurisdiction asked the Judicial Council to reconsider portions of its April 28 decision in which the council found the consecration of Bishop Karen Oliveto to be lawful.

The council’s decision left intact Bishop Oliveto’s status as bishop of the Mountain Sky Area of the church, an area encompassing 400 churches in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and a small slice of Colorado. However, the decision created new law that affecting LGBTQ United Methodists around the world.

“The Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops believes it has an obligation to the wider LGBTQ community within the church and beyond to point out the fundamental errors contained in this decision,” said Richard Marsh, counsel to the jurisdiction. Read more and see the full motion to reconsider on the Western Jurisdiction website.

Claremont Facing Financial Difficulties

Claremont School of Theology, one of The United Methodist Church's 13 seminaries, is having financial problems that may mean the school will have to leave its current campus in California. At the same time, the seminary is celebrating its largest enrollment in the past 35 years. Read the rest of this United Methodist News Service story.

Read a letter from President Jeffery Kuan

Educator who broke color barriers has died

ATLANTA — Samuel DuBois Cook, the first African-American faculty member at United Methodist-related Duke University, is dead at 88. When he joined the faculty there in 1966, he was the first tenure-track African-American professor appointed by a predominately white university in the South since Reconstruction. Cook went on to serve 22 years as president of Dillard University, one of the historically black colleges supported by The United Methodist Church’s Black College Fund. Read the New York Times Obituary.