Religious community meets at Coliseum
Virginia Methodists will formally greet their new bishop this week as the 223rd annual meeting begins Sunday at the Hampton Coliseum.
In September, Bishop Charlene P. Kammerer was assigned to the Virginia conference, which is the largest Methodist conference in the world. She’ll preside over four days of meetings, worship services, budget adoption and approval of conference resolutions. About 2,700 delegates, both clergy and lay members, make up the Virginia conference, which includes the entire state except the area west of Christiansburg.
“There’s incredible diversity in age, race and preaching styles, from Northern Virginia to the Eastern Shore to the Roanoke Valley,” said Kammerer. For the conference, “There’s a sense of renewal, inspiration and challenge. We’ll have lots of worship and Bible studies to center us as a faith community.”
Kammerer came to Virginia from the Western North Carolina Conference. A native of Florida, she was ordained in 1975 and received her doctor of ministry degree from Union Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 1991.
Adopting the proposed $27 million budget and voting on four resolutions are among the main events of this year’s conference. The resolutions call for protecting children from mercury-containing drugs, approving an Act for Peace in the Middle East, and honoring Methodists who do hands-on mission work. A fourth, more controversial resolution, which calls for repudiating the use of torture, mentions U.S. abuses in Iraq’s Abu Graib prison and detention centers in Guantanamo Bay.
Activities begin Sunday evening with the Service of Remembrance and Holy Communion to remember clergy and lay members who have died over the past year. At the Monday night Licensing, Commissioning and Ordination Service, new clergy will be inducted. The conference will install 16 elders and commission and elect 26 people to probationary membership. It also expects to license 42 local pastors and certify six people in professional lay ministry.
Thirty-six people are expected to retire, including three deacons, 29 elders, two associate members and two local pastors.
Bishop Peter Weaver, president of the church’s Council of Bishops, has been designated this year’s conference preacher. The membership also will hear from Jan Love, Bible study leader, and Hampton-born Theodore “Ted” Smith,” who will preach at the Service of Remembrance.
An important concern of the conference is the support of mission work at home and around the world. The goal for this year’s conference offering has been set at $300,000. The money will be dispersed to four outreach areas: $100,000 for projects in Mozambique, $50,000 to train pastors in Russia, $50,000 to help street children in Brazil, and $100,000 for at-risk children in Virginia.
“It’s not just a meeting,” said Kammerer. “Part of our purpose is to lift up our connection as a global church.” *
WANT TO GO?
The 223rd session of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will take place Sunday through Wednesday in the Hampton Coliseum. Conference details are available online at www.vaumc.org. *