Bishop Ward highlights the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference on Wednesday and the Annual Conference Session (ACS) for Youth in this busy week for the conference.
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God for the richness of our connectional life and for two events this week that help us celebrate Christ’s mission through The United Methodist Church.
Tomorrow, the Southeast Jurisdictional Conference will meet virtually at 10 am. The item of business on the Conference is the request of the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences to be united into one conference. This is a missional desire that has developed over the course of the last several years. These two conferences have been working together to configure their mission in a way that is most appropriate and effective for this time in the life of the Church. As they have done this, we have received their work as an expression of energy toward the future that God is giving. The Conference will also feature videos from all the Annual Conferences sharing our life together, particularly in our shared commitment to anti-racism across the southeastern portion of our country.
Also, this week, the Annual Conference Session for Youth known as ACS is unfolding at Camp Rockfish. This event has been a highlight of youth ministry in the North Carolina Annual Conference for seventy years, and a great celebration is planned for the seventieth anniversary. I attended ACS myself when I was a junior in high school. ACS has been a place where young people have grown closer to God, have formed lasting friendships, and have grown in their Christian life and commitment and witness.
Let us be in prayer this week as we anticipate these two gatherings: the Southeast Jurisdictional Conference and the Annual Conference Session for Youth.
May God richly bless the continued life of The United Methodist Church.