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Final Plenary:
New initiatives approved, special folk honored, challenges remain
Conference members, slowly moved into their auditorium seats on Saturday morning as they began the final session of the 2002 conference.
After praise singing, the final plenary's business began with a briefing from Lynne DeMichele, Indiana Area Communications director, who stated that Area Communications' goals were to get "more news, more often, to more people, at less cost." Giving a plug for the relatively new "e-HUM" (news via e-mail and on line), DeMichele emphasized the importance of reaching as many people in the Indiana UMC connection as possible by using the latest technology. "Only a small percentage of the total membership get the print copy of the HUM," said DeMichele, "and by the time they get it, it's old news." Through use of the Internet local churches can download copies of the news in various formats and distribute the news throughout congregations in local church newsletters or bulletins.
In other action:
Awards:
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Scouting Awards:
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Torch Awards: Paula Clutter, Anna Waite and Arthur Collins
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Bishop's Award of Excellence: Scout Troop #47 and Venture Crew
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Historian of the Year Award: Barbara Ferris of the Folsom Memorial UMC, Worthington
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Harry Denman Evangelism Award: Julie Gaus, Laity and Rev. Douglas Heiman, Clergy
Reports:
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Cokesbury Publishing House presented a check for $15,539.15 to the conference. The annual gift represents a percentage of sales of UMC books and materials.
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Korean UMC: As part of the South Indiana reaching out to racial and ethnic minorities, the conference celebrated the news from the Korean UMC in Bloomington, as presented by Heejon Kang, lay member. Kang reported an average Sunday attendance of 180 adults and 50 children and the need for space. Approval was given for a $500,000 building campaign to purchase neighboring property for growth. As of today, the church, itself, has raised more than $120,000 for the project. "By God's grace, we have been growing as a church," said Kang.
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Mission kudos: The SIC received special recognition from the General Board of Global Ministries for giving 100 percent of its World Service apportionments last year. North Central Jurisdiction (of which SIC is a part) is leading in mission giving, and the SIC is the jurisdiction's top conference giver.
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Young Adult Ministry: The Young Adult Ministry section asked that their report be received and thanked the conference and its members for their support of ministry to young adults.
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Committee on Conference Unity and Interreligious Concerns reminded that acts of repentance will be presented at the 2003 Annual Conference. The committee urged the body to reach out to other Pan-Methodist groups during the upcoming year.
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Small-Membership Church section reminded members of the newly established recognition program for Outstanding Small Church, to be awarded for the first time at the 2003 conference. The group also recognized Rev. Deborah Cronin, associate director of the COM, for her work and experience with small-membership churches.
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Fellowship of Local Pastors and Associate Members: Member Stephen Spencer called for the 7,000 local pastors and associate members to work with the elders so as to have a voice at General Conference. Presently, they have no voice in nor access to General Conference.
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CF&A: (Council on Finance & Administration) A motion was adopted to freeze district superintendent salaries for 2003 at current levels; a $10.9 million budget was approved, having been amended to include necessary additional funds to help cover health insurance of retired pastors. The amendment was added when a proposal to shift the cost of insurance to the retirees, themselves, was voted down. The issue was remanded for further study, and a new recommendation is to be brought to the conference in 2003.
An amendment was approved to "form and train a cadre of persons to consult and work with churches not paying full apportionments"
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Standing Rules: 1) By action of a legislative group, election guidelines were adopted for Jurisdictional and General Conference candidates. 2) The Annual Conference bar was changed to include members attending children in the "cry room."
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Annual Conference Session: Next year's Annual Conference will be June 4-7.
Closing, as it had opened -- with prayer and praise -- the purpose of the three-day conference and the direction conferees are to take from it, was shared with Bishop White's parting comment: "We now give this 35th Annual Conference over to God." Ethel McCane and Matthew Oates
South Indiana Conference Statistics |
Based on 2001 year-end reports
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