News from the Annual Conference Session

September 14, 2020

News from the 236th session of Annual Conference

Bishop LaTrelle Easterling bangs the gavel as she calls the 2020 Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference into session. The one-day event was held entirely online.

In a session that was hailed as historic, more than 1,330 clergy and lay people participated in the 236th session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, which was held online to ensure social distancing and wellbeing during this season of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the session:

Budget Passed: Conference members acknowledged the financial challenges COVID-19 is presenting to many local churches and approved a $17,700,253 budget for 2021 that reflects current stewardship realities. Members also heard a report from the Board of Pensions and voted to affirm the closing of seven churches. Read the story.

Ordination Celebration: Eight people were ordained Elders and eight were commissioned as Provisional Members at a service where Bishop LaTrelle Easterling preached on acts of love and the real transformation that takes place "when the head and heart grasp the central message of the cross." Read the story.

Ministry Spotlight:The twin pandemics of the coronavirus and racism in our nation opened doors to a variety of new mission and ministry. Read how the BWC and local churches are "Going out in Mission." Read the story.

Addressing Racism: As the BWC devotes itself to ministries of anti-racism, the conference's delegation to General and Jurisdictional Conference has committed to "give voice, witness and action to the insidious acts and existence of racism that continue to infect the society and the church, our nation and the world, and to give impetus to fresh vision and ways of re-imagining a church structure, governance and way of existing in which all of God's people are treated fairly and justly, and are fully valued." Read the story.

See a Flickr album with photos from Annual Conference.

Links from the session:

Ministry videos shown at the Annual Conference are posted in a playlist on the BWC's YouTube page.

In other news:

Empathy - that gift of holding space and withholding judgement -- is sometimes in short supply in our culture today. Read commentaries on empathy from the Revs. Mandy Sayers and Daryl Williams.