In order to receive credit for 2021, apportionment and advance special payments must be received in the Conference Treasurer’s Office by Wednesday, January 12, 2022. Click here for more details and mailing instructions. To check your church’s balance, visit our District Remittances page to view reports, which are updated daily as payments are posted. If you notice a discrepancy from your records, please contact the Treasurer’s Office as soon as possible so that it can be corrected in a timely manner.
Announcements
Recommended Voting Action for the BSA Plan
Updated 2/14/22: Removed the outdated Congregational Guide link.
Grace and Peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
After months of mediation to achieve a settlement in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) bankruptcy and working with annual conferences about voting on the plan, the United Methodist Ad Hoc Committee recommends voting NO on the plan.
We do not have a signed settlement that would bring healing to the survivors and a release from claims against United Methodist local churches and other United Methodist entities. These releases are essential to prevent congregations and United Methodist entities from being sued and numerous court cases for United Methodists to defend.
While United Methodists are represented in the mediation and continue to work for a United Methodist settlement, it is not assured that we will receive a settlement. Because voting is occurring at this time, and all votes must be received by December 14, 2021, regretfully, United Methodists are recommended to vote NO.
Voting NO is essential for two important reasons:
- It communicates to the bankruptcy judge that United Methodists do not approve the plan because it does not provide releases for chartering organizations. Chartering organizations are key to successful scouting programs.
- United Methodist local churches and other United Methodist entities will not be released from liability for claims associated with United Methodist local churches involving abuse that took place during scouting activities. This will result in lawsuits against congregations, annual conferences, and other United Methodist entities.
The Committee will continue to work towards a settlement for United Methodist congregations and entities, but until that time, United Methodists should not support the plan. If we do receive a settlement in the near future, we will notify you immediately, and the sample resolution below will aid in a positive change for all charter organizations and United Methodists.
The following sample resolution is for charge conferences that take the vote on their own and boards of trustees who have the authority to vote on behalf of the congregation.
The ________________ United Methodist Church (insert name of the congregation in the blank) votes NO on the BSA Plan of Reorganization because the plan as proposed does not have a release for charter organizations. If prior to the hearing to approve the plan, charter organizations, including United Methodist charter organizations, receive appropriate release from BSA abuse claims relating to scouting activities, the ______________ United Methodist Church reserves the right to change its vote and authorize lawyers representing United Methodists in the BSA bankruptcy to vote in favor of the plan.
Attached is a congregational guide to complete the voting. Follow the instructions carefully to ensure you do not eliminate any rights for release of claims post-January 1, 1976.
We will provide a video update this week to explain briefly what comes next and where to find more information.
Thank you for your continued prayers for the survivors and everyone involved in the mediation.
![Leonard E. Fairley](https://nccumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/bishop-fairley-signature-large-600x237.png)
Bishop Leonard E. Fairley
Pray with the NC Conference in December
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.” – 1 Timothy 2:1
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You are invited to join your hearts together across our North Carolina Conference connection as we share together in daily prayer during the month of December. You will see on the calendar below a prompt for each day – persons and situations here and around the world. Consider setting aside a specific time each day to pray using these prompts, and we encourage you to invite others to join with you.
Featured image by Jeremy Gallman from Unsplash.
Webinar: Helping to Welcome Afghan Refugees – Thursday, December 2
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North Carolina is welcoming Afghan refugees daily. You may be wondering how you can get involved and help to welcome our new neighbors. Join Rev. Jaye White (Director of Outreach Ministry) and Ellen Andrews (NC Area Director, Church World Service) for a webinar at 12:00 noon on Thursday, December 2 that will provide helpful information. They will be discussing:
- How many Afghan refugees are already in NC, and how many new neighbors are we expecting?
- What are some culturally sensitive dos and don’ts?
- How can small membership churches help?
- What is the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program?
- What is UMCOR doing to help?
The webinar is free to attend. If you cannot participate on Thursday, the webinar will be recorded and reposted for later viewing. Use the link below to join us as we learn more about extending hospitality to these friends who are coming to be among us.
Conference Phone System Upgrade
In order to better serve you, the NC Conference will be transitioning to a new phone system beginning Monday, December 6. Both the Conference and District Office phone numbers will be unavailable until the transition completes (approximately 24-48 hours). The numbers will stay the same.
During this time, you may still contact us via our website and our support@nccumc.org email address.
If you have any questions about this transition, please let us know by contacting the support email above.
We will send a follow-up message once the transition is complete.
Advent: The Season Pregnant With Possibilities
Bishop Fairley’s Advent message reminds us of the “stubborn and audacious hope” we have in the one who is Emmanuel – God with us. As the Advent season begins, let us both be filled with that hope and carry that hope to a world that longs to hear it. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Video Transcription
Greetings, my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, this Advent season, a season that is filled and pregnant with possibilities. And so, we cling with a stubborn and audacious hope to what God has promised, the return, the advent of Christ. Ours is an active watching, waiting, and preparing, pregnant with so many possibilities. Watching, waiting, preparing for the coming of Christ’s redemptive, restorative justice and salvation. We long for the advent of Christ with hopeful, joyful hearts – hearts filled with peaceful, agape, unconditional love, that is courageous enough to live in the mystery and tension of God’s beautiful purpose and will for all of creation, groaning for the fulfillment of God’s future with hope, a future, my friends, that is wrapped in the incarnational cry of a promised child shivering in the long night of winter’s discontent.
In the depth of our discontent, we hear the tender cry of a baby under the care of a mother who must know, somehow, that in his eyes shines God’s salvation for a fallen creation. In the birth of this son, salvation is not pronounced in the shout of the mighty but in the voice of a powerless girl courageous enough to say, “Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) The handmaiden of the Lord breaking out in a powerful, subversive song pregnant with forward-looking possibility, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
And so friends, while it may be true that we are traveling through a liminal season, but for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, God knows where we’re going. We can trust God’s narrative in the coming of Christ once again in “the fullness of time.” Advent is a time for us to practice the “already but not yet” kind of waiting.
We trust the coming of Christ enough to place our feet, one foot at a time, in Jesus’ footprints, which always leads to the next faithful step. A faithful step toward love, peace, justice, and freedom from the bondage of sin and death.
“Our work,” Marilyn McEntyre reminds us, “is to say yes. And then say yes again, expectant and vigilant for the advent of what is even being prepared.” And so, my brothers and sisters, what gift of possibility is being prepared in Jesus’ prophetic words echoed in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) In the coming of Christ may we hear once again, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
Come again, Lord Jesus, and speak into our current darkness. Come again and stand amid our anxiety, our fear, and our uncertainty. Come and stand as God’s anointed, proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord’s favor being born among us. Lord, grant us new birth with your coming. So come, O come, Emmanuel. Blessings and peace in this Advent season.