We're receiving some great photos, showing special   2017 Vacation Bible School moments and ministries. But we want plenty more! Several photos will appear in the summer issue of NEWSpirit newspaper, while others will appear on our website and social media pages.  

No matter the activities or themes of your VBS, if you took photos we want to see some and share some in our media. So, please, please, send us your best photos of kids (or adults) enjoying VBS. We'll accept and publish great photos online throughout August. Don't delay. Search through your smartphone, camera or memory cards now to choose and send us your very best. E-mail them as soon as possible to  [email protected]. Thanks!

Robert Fulghum's book All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten  highlighted basic life lessons many of us learned as children, such as: share everything; play fair; don't hit people; put things back where you found them; be aware of wonder; hold hands and stick together; and so on. I would like to say that all I need to know I learned from United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries in the Philadelphia Area....

Bishop Peggy Johnson extols the value of our various camp centers, as she often does, during this busy, fun and faith-filled season of summer camp. "All of them teach essential lessons that lives of faith can offer," she writes in her latest Bishop's Blog essay after visiting several Eastern PA and Peninsula-Delaware conference camps. She describes them as " full of joy and activity, of people learning and sharing with one another, valuing diversity and appreciating who they were and whose they were..."  Learn more

Leveraging the strengths and success of its Financial Leadership Academy (FLA) for clergy from three neighboring conferences, the Mid-Atlantic UM Foundation (MAUMF) will begin a similar training program this fall for joint teams of clergy and laity. Registration began August 1 and ends when the 20-church maximum is reached in two locations.

The four-session Academy for Church Finance  (ACF) for laity and clergy will begin with Part 1 on Saturday, Oct. 7, at the Baltimore-Washington Mission Resource Center in Fulton, Md., and be repeated on Saturday, Oct. 14, at Aldersgate UMC in Wilmington, Del.  Future sessions will be held in March and October 2018 and March 2019. Learn more... and register your church now.

The Eastern PA Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, through its pastoral care program, offers subsidies to ordained and licensed clergy wanting to receive spiritual direction. A list of clergy spiritual directors in our conference who are registered with the Spiritual Directors International association appears on the Ordained Ministry webpage.  Clergy do not have to select a name from this list to receive financial aid. However, the individual selected must be registered with Spiritual Directors International. Contact the Rev. Andrea Brown if you want financial help to receive qualified spiritual direction.

After its success in 2015, with over 200 religions sending representatives from around the world, the  Parliament of the World's Religions (PWR)  will meet again in Toronto, Canada, Nov. 1-7, 2018. 

The UMC's Council of Bishops (COB) will offer scholarships for this event to three seminary students and three other lay and clergy members who wish to attend it for the first time. But applicants must act fast. Applications for the early registration discount and scholarship are due next week, by August 7. C ontact the Rev. Jean Hawxhurst a the COB immediately for an application at [email protected]. 

Congregate Charlottesville  is calling for 1,000 faith leaders, especially clergy, from across the nation to join them next Saturday, August 12, in "an important stand against white supremacy." We received a letter recently from the National Council of Churches extending that invitation to show up in a Charlottesville, Va., public park to confront a national white supremacist rally. 

"This is a call for partnership in direct, nonviolent action on a crucial day for our city, and in a critical moment for our country. We need your prayerful presence," reads the letter. It says Charlottesville has recently become a hotspot for national white supremacist organizations and demonstrations, since the city council voted to move Confederate monuments from public parks, "sparking increasingly explicit and violent expressions of white supremacy in our community." It cites a recent white nationalist rally, led by a North Carolina Klu Klux Klan chapter, where "non-violent community members standing against racial hatred were met with chemical weapons, military vehicles, and hundreds of militarized police, some carrying grenade launchers and automatic weapons."

The August 12 rally of faith leaders will counter another planned white supremacists rally. However, the group warns, based on online announcements, "we have concluded that there is an extremely high potential for physical violence and brutality directed at our community."

"This is a local event, but white supremacy is a national problem," they explain, "and the way we respond on August 12 will have national implications as we move through these trying times. It is our hope and prayer that your congregations will commission you to join us in this movement to confront white supremacy. Learn more

Aug. 14-17: Adult Vacation Bible School, Willistown UMC
Aug. 19: Women's Day Prayer Breakfast, Mt. Zion UMC Philadelphia
Sept. 30: Hopewell UMC's 2017 'Planting Seeds for Ministry Growth'
Oct. 6-8: Olivet UMC's Bicentennial Celebration Weekend, Celebrating 200 years of Methodism in Coatesville.

Wesley UMC, 2540 Center St. Bethlehem, will open their 20-week Stephen Ministry training, beginning Sept. 21, to churches that want to train new ministers for their own Stephen Ministry programs. Stephen Ministry is a national one-to-one lay caring ministry. Congregations equip and empower lay caregivers-called Stephen Ministers to provide high-quality, confidential, Christ-centered care to people who are hurting. Weekly training on Thursdays, 3:30- 6 PM, runs for 20 weeks.  For more information contact Bob Keiderling at 610- 865- 5715, ext. 11, or [email protected]. 

In Raising Hope: Four Paths to Courageous Living for Black Youth, Anne E. Streaty Wimberly and Sarah Frances Farmer offer proven methods to motivate black youth to make healthier choices and create positive outcomes.  The book is published by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) and is available on   Cokebury.com  and  Amazon.com . 

 

Raising Hope highlights methods to reach and help specifically Black youth, including a "narrative orientation" that prompts them ask "the right questions," an artistic method to encourage self-expression, and a conflict resolution curriculum. 

 

Wimberly is a professor emerita of Christian Education who directs the Youth Hope-Builders Academy. Farmer is a researcher and lecturer at Yale Divinity School.  Raising Hope is for parents, youth ministry leaders and pastors who want to "construct tangible hope-bearing experiences" for black youth. 

The Eastern PA Conference Office is searching for a fulltime Conference Treasurer, who would report to the Conference Council on Finance and Administration (CFA) and the Resident Bishop. The Treasurer is responsible for all aspects of the conference's financial management, providing excellence in business and financial management and administration. That includes responsibility for receiving and disbursing funds, in accordance with conference and denominational policies, and strategic goal-setting and planning, in collaboration with the Bishop and the CFA. Persons interested in this position should send resumes with cover letters to [email protected] by  August 11th. Initial interviews will take place during the week of August 21.  Download the job description.

We have added plenty more dramatic images from Annual Conference to the four AC 2017 photo albums on our  Flickr page (titled Day 1 Day, 2, Day 3 and Ordination). They include some familiar faces and memorable scenes. Enjoy the impressive contributions of our talented, dedicated Annual Conference Photography Crew: Sabrina Daluisio, the Rev. James Mundell, Paul Davis, the Rev. Steward Warner and John Coleman. We are very grateful for them all! Thanks also to Sabrina Daluisio and Desktop/Web Publisher Lindsey Cotman for assembling and posting the many wonderful images.  Enjoy!

While you're at it, check out also the collection of images on our colorful  Instagram page. Please join our growing list of followers there. Also, see the vivid photo (above) of newly ordained, smiling, robed clergy, with admiring peers applauding them in the background, taken at the Annual Conference ordination service and posted atop our  Facebook and  Twitter pages. An image so nice, we used it twice.

Charge Conference forms to be downloaded and completed by local church leaders are now available on the conference website, accessible at the top of the Resources tab menu and also on the Forms page. District offices will provide instructions on preferred methods of submitting forms. Included with the usual reports are forms for:

• Safety and Accessibility Inspection;
• Safe Sanctuary policies updating (based on revisions by the 2016 Annual Conference); and
• The new Accountability Agreement with the Boy Scouts of America (if not signed in 2016).

The forms and annual reporting process are described as "an opportunity to celebrate your church's achievements, a useful tool to evaluate your church's ministry goals and objectives, and a helpful process to ask important accountability questions." Any questions or suggestions should be directed to the appropriate District Office (not to the Conference Communications Office).

The new North District will again sponsor its own Laity Academy over four weeks on Monday evenings, September 11, 18 and 25 and October 2. Classes will be in session at St. John's UMC, 1211 West Arch Street, Coal Township, PA. To better serve local churches in their region, the active Methodists United Mission ConneXion, in the Shamokin area, is partnering again with the Eastern PA Conference, as they did  a few years ago, to bring the Laity Academy closer to home.

 

This year, the "Basic" course will be offered as well as two Advance courses: "Leading through Failure" and "Visitation and Nurturing." The academy is open to anyone in the North District or in the entire Eastern PA Conference, for those who want to drive out there and see the sheer beauty of God's early autumn canvas in our northwestern region. Each session will run from 6 to 8:30 PM. For information, contact Patty Korbich at [email protected] or 570-672-1031. A small fee will help pay for class materials and light refreshments. Registration is required. Register at    https://www.epaumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/ND-Laity-Registration-Form-2017.pdf

Charles Wesley event open to all   Pianist needed for hymn sing

The  Charles Wesley Society  will meet at Historic St. George's UMC, 235N 4th St., Philadelphia, September 29-30 and invites any interested persons who wish to attend. Please register online. The meeting will feature scholarly presentations that interpret and promote the life and work of Methodist hymnist and co-founder Charles Wesley, with a particular focus on the context of social justice. 

Topics include: "Charles Wesley's Response to the Cries of  t he Oppressed," "Charles Wesley and the Beloved Community," and "Sanctif ication, Salvation, and Social Justice: How the Central Doctrine of Methodism Holds these in Tension." Event organizer Steven Hoskins will speak on "Improvising Poetic Justice: The 1801 Hymnal of Richard Allen, African Methodist Episcopal Minister."  The meeting will also include a tour of historic Methodist sites in Philadelphia, including: Historic St. George's museum; Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, founded by Bishop Richard Allen; and the Dock Street site of the first Methodist Meeting in Philadelphia. 

Another feature will be a public hymn sing at St. George's Church on Friday evening, Sept. 29. But since the St. George's music director will be out of town, an accompanist is needed to play piano for the hymn sing. "This is a terrific opportunity for a dedicated Methodist musician to celebrate Wesley's music," writes Donna Miller of St. George's. There will also be a stipend paid. Contact her at [email protected].   

See, hear and feel it all, from the stirring opening worship and plenary session to our final session of holy conferencing and uplifting reports before adjournment. Be sure to watch Upper Room Chapel Dean Tom Albin lead an insightful, faith-affirming Teaching Session on Prayer. (Also, be sure to download and use his excellent handout materials available on our Annual Conference webpage.)

Enjoy  three inspiring, thought-provoking  sermons by Bishops Peggy Johnson, Latrelle Easterling ( right) and Peter Weaver. 

Marvel at the first-person historical narratives offered by Methodist forebears Captain Thomas Webb ( left) , Mary Thorne and Harry Hosier. And join in celebrating the ordination and commissioning of new clergy, while also commemorating the dedicated lives of newly retired clergy and recently deceased clergy and clergy spouses.

Take your time--take the rest of summer--to view the 30 dramatic video segments on our playlist, carefully prepared by our Communications staff member Lindsey Cotman. Or "binge-watch" them all at once. It's your choice.

But also, don't forget to download and read the many significant Annual Conference reports and resolutions (with their voting results) that are also accessible....where? You guessed it: our Annual Conference webpage.

Views: We're also looking for more informational and inspirational writings by clergy and laity that we can publish (or republish) on the conference website--especially in our " From Pulpit & Pew" blog section. Most of our contributions are republished, with permission, from insightful, well-written pastor's columns in church newsletters. We would like to receive more of those; but we also want other writings from diverse lay and clergy members who have something important, helpful or thoughtful to say that can benefit our readers. If you send us something, please try to e-mail a good photo of yourself as well; and definitely tell us how to contact you if we have any questions or concerns.