DNEJ Boundary Changes Approved
With few dissenting votes, NEJ delegates Wednesday approved a resolution to change the boundaries of six of the 13 annual conferences as a way of providing more effective mission and ministry.
In presenting the resolution and rationale, Boundaries Committee Vice-Chair Bonnie Marden of the New England Conference recalled that her father, Bishop Clifton Ives, asked the NEJ to onsider a similar action 16 years ago. At that time, three conferences combined in the Boston area to form the New England Conference.
Marden expressed “heartfelt affirmation” of the work done by the six conferences in developing the plan. Each had already affirmed the changes at annual conference sessions. The action reduces the number of episcopal areas from 10 to nine.
“The leadership in these six conferences has asked us to take a leap of faith,” she said.
She said the changes provided growth opportunities and challenges, but that the teams working on the proposal had kept a vision of mission and ministry before them as they moved forward.
“Some people may wonder if this can be ready by 2010,” she said. “We do not anticipate that everything will be done, but that the framework will be in place.”
Joining Marden were Wyoming District Superintendent Jan Marsi, Western New York’s Director of Connectional Ministries Larry Lundgren, North Central New York youth leader Stephanie Deckard, Beth Jones, a pastor from Wyoming Conference, and others.
Marsi said that while financial realities were the initial inspiration for boundary adjustments, “the discussions and discernment in the various conferences quickly turned from the very beginning to visions of the opportunities for ministry in new and extreme ways.”
Marden agreed. “We believe we have heard God calling us to new ways of ministry for this new time.”
And while many of the presenters acknowledged that the changes would cause grief as conferences divided and reformed, most agreed that they were excited about new possibilities and new directions for the church.
Reaction to the vote amongst members of the conference involved was upbeat.
Troy Conference District Superintendent Henry Frueh, a member of the NEJ Boundaries Committee, was pleased with the “wide acceptance by the jurisdiction for the plan,” he said. “[The delegates] were really excited, too. We really do have the possibility of creating something better.”
Though conferences have merged in the past, this is the first time that so many conference boundaries will be changed. “It’s something that’s not been done in the denomination on such a large scale,” Frueh said. “It offers a vision of how conferences can work together for a more effective church.”
“The presentation team did a really great job in presenting the vision for the new conferences,” said the Rev. Steve Deckard, director of Connectional Ministry for the North Central New York Conference and a member of the New Area Conference Team. “We’ll work with the bishops that are assigned to the two areas to put the new conference together and move into God’s future.”
Marsi, also a member of the New Area Conference Team, said there will be more conversation and cautions, “We’re going to be so excited and are riding such a high, and we’ll need to be patient. It took patience to get to his point, and it will take patience to move forward.”
The result of two years of work by Central Pennsylvania, New England, North Central New York, Troy, Western New York and Wyoming conferences, the resolution created two new conferences and joined the Vermont churches of Troy Conference with the New England Conference.
The work preparing for the boundaries realignment anticipated the action of General Conference, which reduces the number of Episcopal areas in four of the five jurisdictions by 2012. With the adoption of the NEJ boundaries resolution, the NEJ will drop from 10 episcopal areas to nine, and from 13 annual conferences to 0.
Bishop Susan M. Morrison and Bishop Violet Fisher, who had launched a four-conference boundaries task force after the 2004 Jurisdictional Conference, were also pleased.
“To see all those people from all those conferences working together and being so positive even knowing there’s loss and pain is a witness beyond belief,” Bishop Morrison said Wednesday evening during a reception held as part of a celebration marking her retirement, as well as Bishop Fisher’s.
“We did our work,” Bishop Fisher said, “and we offered it up to the Lord. I’m so excited that the Holy Spirit worked through the body [today].”
While conferences and episcopal areas have merged before and conference boundaries have changed, the NEJ boundaries resolution:
- Creates a new conference in New York state formed by the current North Central and Western New York conferences and parts of the Wyoming and Troy conference churches located in the state;
- Creates a new conference from the Pennsylvania churches of the Wyoming Conference and all the churches of the present Central Pennsylvania Conference; and
- Unites the Vermont churches of Troy Conference with the New England Conference. Actual changes won’t take place until sometime in 2010. though the immediate impact of the vote was a recommendation from the NEJ Episcopacy Committee to elect only one bishop this quardrennium even though Bishop Fisher is retiring this year and Bishop Morrison retired in 2006. Retired Bishop Susan W. Hassinger was appointed interim bishop to the Albany Area.
The Episcopacy Committee will announce the appointment of bishops to episcopal areas on Friday morning.
Portions of this article were written by Linda Bloom for United Methodist News Service.
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