Celebrating Easter together during this time of physical separation

• Greater Northwest Area Facebook - Visit
• Greater Northwest Area Vimeo Page - Visit
• Alaska Conference Facebook Page - Visit
• Oregon-Idaho Facebook Page - Visit
• Pacific Northwest Facebook Page - Visit

*By submitting a photo, you are giving permission to The Greater Northwest Area of The United Methodist Church, its churches, and its organizations to use the image provided.

Coronavirus information

Please regularly check the conference website. It gets updated weekly with new Sunday worship links for the Alaska churches. There has also been a lot of information being sent out about the coronavirus and pastoral letters from the Bishop. If you have missed any of it, you can visit the Alaska United Methodist Conference blog page or the GNW Resource page.

As a reminder, the conference office is closed and the staff is working remotely from home. Feel free to contact us anytime through our regular phone and email.

The Alaska, Oregon-Idaho, & Pacific Northwest Conferences meet together in June!

The Alaska, Oregon-Idaho, and Pacific Northwest Conferences of The United Methodist Church will meet together in a Shared Annual Conference Session June 11-14, 2020 at the Showplex Center on the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Wash.
 
The Greater Northwest Shared Annual Conference Session (GNWAC2020) is expected to begin formally at 2:30 PM on Thursday, June 11th and conclude with a service of commissioning and ordination starting at 10:30 AM on Sunday, June 14th. As we learn of pre-conference meetings for different groups, we’ll work to add them to the preliminary schedule.
Visit the GNWAC2020 website

Home Stays - Respond by TODAY, March 31

There is someone in the host district working on providing home stays for Alaskans who need it. If you are interested in doing a home stay, please notify the Alaska Conference office ASAP. We need to know by TODAY, March 31st how many people will be needing a home stay.

Email or call (907-333-5050) now.

If you would rather stay in a hotel, please visit the accommodations page of the GNWAC2020 website. Please bear in mind that the cost of your hotel room will be at your personal or local church expense. The conference will not reimburse hotel stays.

Annual Conference Reports

As you may know, the Annual Conference collects reports from the various committees, councils, institutions, groups, and boards that relate to Alaska. Now is the time to start writing those reports and sending them into the conference office. Alaska will still have a Pre-Conference Handbook so these reports are pertinent. The deadline for reports is April 28.
Guidelines for writing your report
List of those needing to write reports

Annual Conference Petitions

If you would like to send a petition to be voted on at Annual Conference, this is the form you need to use. Please make sure it is submitted by April 28.
Petition form

Award Nominations

Each year, the conference awards several deserving people for what they do within our Annual Conference. If you would like to nominate someone for one of the 2020 awards, please fill out the nomination forms below and submit them to the conference office by April 28.
Harry Denman Award - There are three awards to be given, one each for youth, lay person, and clergy.
Outstanding Lay Person of the Year Award

Memorial Roll submissions

As has been our practice, we will appropriately recognize members and constituents who have died since last year’s Annual Conference (June 1, 2019) during the separate conference times at the Shared Session. Due to limited time this recognition may not be within a memorial service. It is our intention to be as inclusive as possible. Churches, please fill out the Memorial Roll form and send it back to the conference office by April 28.
Memorial Roll form

Western Jurisdiction Bishops offer guidance for the Observance of Holy Communion

The Western Jurisdiction's College of Bishops has released guidance for the practice of online communion for clergy who have discerned "that their congregation would be strengthened in this hour through the sharing of Holy Communion." It is not something they are requiring local churches to do but something they are trusting clergy to consider for their pastoral context.
Read More

Podcasts give churches 'germ-free' way to minister

As ongoing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 keep in-person gatherings from happening, United Methodists continue to find new ways to connect and minister online. If they weren't already podcasting, many are starting to do so.
Read the story

Wrestling with budget after GC2020 postponed

After the pandemic-forced postponement of General Conference, United Methodist financial leaders grappled with how to handle the denomination's budget after 2020. Their goal: To stay within the bounds of church rules while recognizing the new economic realities experienced across the denomination.
Read the story

Advice for churches on Facebook groups

Many churches have Facebook pages now, but Facebook group pages may be new to them. United Methodist Communications offers a tutorial online to help church communications leaders get started.
Learn more
5 tweaks for online church services

Weddings, funerals altered by virus restrictions

The coronavirus spread has prompted many United Methodist churches to shift to online worship. But other big events — weddings, baptisms, funerals, memorial services — are on hold or getting downsized.
Read the story

Helping children deal with COVID-19

Sheltering in place is confusing for children accustomed to daily contact with friends and teachers. Church leaders offer some advice on how to cope during the COVID-19 crisis.
Read the story

Connections vital in time of the coronavirus.

Caring for the planet and all God's people is the most pressing duty of The United Methodist Church in the midst of the global pandemic, the General Secretaries Table said in a statement. The church is "a critical connecting presence given the worldwide emphasis on intentional social distancing," said the top executives of the 13 general agencies and the Connectional Table.
Read the press release

Vanco offers online giving fee waiver to UMC churches during COVID-19

Vanco, a partner of The United Methodist Church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, is offering a special discount for churches looking to establish online giving.

For any church that enrolls, the monthly fee for the Start Plan will be waived for a full year and for those that enroll with the Sustain Plan, the monthly fee would be waived for the first 3 months.
Read more

Native American Ministries Sunday is April 26, 2020

Thank you for your generosity in 2019. Last year United Methodists gave $541,784 toward the Native American Ministries Sunday offering. Your gifts to Native American Ministries Sunday support scholarships for Native American seminarians, strengthen and develop Native American ministries and communities, and support Native American outreach at the annual conference level. On April 26, 2020, please give online at umcgiving.org/giveNAMS. Thank you!

Watch daily training session on Facebook

As you shift to digital ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic, turn to our Facebook page for guidance. We are posting daily Local Church Learning Sessions through April 2, all developed specifically to support your church during this extraordinary time. Experts will discuss a range of topics, including:

• Online worship: livestreaming, tools, platform options and more
• Copyrights and licenses
• E-giving and Connectional Giving
• Using Zoom for virtual small group meetings
• Connecting through text messaging

Watch now

Connectional Table issues statement on allocations

You may read the full text of the statement here.

About the Connectional Table: The Connectional Table works to steward the mission, vision and ministries of The United Methodist Church. For more information, please visit www.umc.org/ct.

Renowned United Methodist civil rights leader dead at 98

The Rev. Joseph Echols Lowery, a United Methodist pastor who loved to preach and never feared speaking truth to power, died at his home on March 27. He was 98.
Read the story

UMCOR gives supplies to first responders

Needed supplies stored at the United Methodist Committee on Relief's Sager Brown Depot are being distributed to first responders in Louisiana as part of the agency's effort to help fight the COVID-19 outbreak. The supplies include more than 80,000 masks.
Read the story

Student loan payment suspensions available

A three-month suspension of student loan payments is being offered by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in response to the economic impact of the coronavirus. The pandemic may cause financial hardship for many paying off student loans.
Read press release