A look at elected delegates for the 2012 General Conference from the Detroit Conference

• By RJ Walters, Editor •

At the 2011 Detroit Annual Conference and West Michigan Annual Conference delegates were elected for the 2012 General Conference and 2012 Jurisdictional Conference.

The 2012 General Conference will take place in Tampa, Fl. from April 24 to May 4 and the North Central Jurisdictional Conference will run from July 17-21 in Akron, Ohio.

The conference will work to set policy and direction for the church, as well as handle other business of the global and national church. General Conference is the only entity that speaks for The United Methodist Church.

Detroit Conference General Conference clergy delegates
Rev. Melanie Carey
Age: 46 Church: Detroit Renaissance District Superintendent
# of times elected: General Conference - 1
The district superintendent for the newly formed Detroit Renaissance District is a major player in Hispanic/Latino Ministries at a national level and she believes strongly in the connectional heritage of the church and inclusion for all people. She said a restructuring of the denomination is inevitable but as changes are rolled out she hopes the UMC doesn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and forget its roots completely. Carey said discussions at conference should focus on how local churches can utilize vibrant missions and ministry to get new people plugged into communities.

Rev. Joy Barrett
Age: 52 Church: Chelsea First United Methodist Church
# of times elected: General Conference – 6
Making her conference-record sixth trip to General Conference Barret continues to have a heart for all people and she desires for ministry to be a means toward helping people deepen their relationships with God. She said General Conference should help determine how transformation and abounding grace can be spread by the UMC without being institutionalized, falling prey to long-held structural conventions that no longer are plentiful. She also hopes to be part of discussions that center around strengthening the Midwest, as the North Central Jurisdictional Conference prepares to merge an Episcopal area and lose one bishop.

Rev. Ed Rowe
Age: Over 65 Church: Central United Methodist Church (Detroit)
# of times elected: Not available
Rowe is a tireless advocate for the poor, marginalized, the GLBT community and working class citizens. He has served on a plethora of boards and committees in the Detroit Conference and he has long focused on inclusiveness and bringing peace to socially volatile issues.

Rev. Charles Boyaue Jr.
Age: 40-55 Church: Second Grace United Methodist Church (Detroit)
# of times elected: Not available
The Liberian native has a unique global perspective of the church and is the founding scribe of the Detroit/Liberia Conference Partnership Agreements. He also helped build a health clinic in Detroit that serves more than 4,000 people annually. Boyaue is passionate about urban ministry and connecting with other local churches to increase the impact of ministries in the city.

Detroit Conference General Conference lay delegates

Jacqueline Euper
Age: 63 Church: Owosso First United Methodist Church
# of times elected: General Conference – 5; Jurisdictional Conference - 6
The former Project Director for the Flint District currently serves on the Michigan Area and North Central Jurisdictional Committees on Episcopacy. Euper believes the number one issue that will be tackled at the conference is church growth, “as the denomination figures out how to turn this ship around.” She said downsizing some boards and agencies at the global level may be necessary to operate more efficiently as the church attempts to follow through with its mission.

Ang Hart
Age: 26 Church: Scott Memorial United Methodist Church
# of times elected: General Conference – 2; Jurisdictional Conference - 3
The Detroit Conference Director of Youth and Young Adults said she feels she has a pulse on what is happening with the up-and-coming generation of churchgoers in the UMC and she hopes to bring to light their unique viewpoints and inspirations. She said she is less concerned with the specific petitions that will come before her at conference and more interested in the gathering brining people to a deeper understanding of their purpose in the church and their walk with Christ.

Paul Thomas
Age: 35 Church: Bay City First United Methodist Church
# of times elected: General Conference – 1; Jurisdictional Conference - 1
The Detroit Conference Director of Communications believes his shrewd knowledge of the Book of Discipline and organizational makeup of the general church will help him make an impact at conference. Thomas said the potential restructuring of the UMC in response to the Call to Action Report set forth in 2010 is the greatest issue to be dealt with in Tampa in his opinion.

Wayne Bank
Age: 66 Church: Lexington United Methodist Church
# of times elected: General Conference – 2; Jurisdictional Conference - 2
Bank’s wide-ranging experience includes serving in five different local churches in three districts and involvement with the General Board of Global Ministries and General Board of Church and Society. He said the recurring debates about crucial social issues and the structure of the global church need to be dealt with in a Christ-like manner that addresses all opinions and voices.




Also:
A glance at the West Michigan Conference delegates elected for the 2012 General Conference

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Live from Detroit Annual Conference 2011: Detroit Conference will retain its name after proposal is voted down

• By RJ Walters, Editor •

The Detroit Conference will continue to be called the Detroit Conference for the foreseeable future.

Roughly two-thirds of voters at the 2011 Detroit Annual Conference voted down a resolution that would have changed the conference’s name to the Great Lakes Annual Conference.

It was the second time in 20-plus years that a resolution to change the name was not concurred with.

Both times Rev. Margaret “Peggy” Paige championed the effort.

Prior to conference she said the time seemed ripe to pass the resolution because the conference offices have moved out of Detroit and two districts passed name changes earlier this year.

Andrew Wayne of the Conference Leadership Team said before Friday’s vote that he understood the intent of the resolution, but he was fearful of what the outside reaction might be to dropping the name ‘Detroit’ from the conference’s title.

“This has the real potential to make it into the secular media and it will go something like this: ‘As people abandon Detroit, so does the United Methodist Church,’” he said.

The Rev. Charles Boyaue of Second Grace United Methodist Church in Detroit agreed the resolution was well intentioned, but passing it at this time would do more harm than good.

“We could name the conference the ‘Pluto Conference’ and it’s not going to help us make disciples of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Paige said Detroit is a vital city for the conference, but so are many others.

“I’ve been in the conference for 35 years and when I go to national meetings people see the ‘Detroit Conference,’ and say, ‘Oh, you live in Detroit?’" she said prior to conference. “No, I’ve never lived in Detroit, we’re much bigger than that as a conference so I think as we try to attract new pastors, including younger ones, it’s helpful to say no, it’s not just Detroit.”

Conference Treasurer Anna Morford estimated the cost of a name change prior to the vote.

“I do not have any sort of lists of how much it would costs…but one suggestion I’ve heard is it might be in the range of $15,000, but I have not tested it.”

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Kicking urban youth ministries into gear

By RJ Walters, Editor

Kickball knows no age and kickball knows no gender.

Apparently kickball does know how to start a party and create some exciting fellowship though.

On July 10 the first-ever Urban Methodist Youth Camp Co-ed Kickball Tournament drew almost 75 people to Southfield and UMYC leaders have already dubbed it “the annual kickball tournament” and more inviting events are just around the corner.

Teams made up of church members, friends, pastors and other clergy from Detroit churches Conant Avenue UMC, People’s UMC and Second Grace UMC shared lunch together and created wonderful memories geared around the old sandlot game. But it wasn’t just for fun — it was for bragging rights as well.

Led by soccer enthusiasts like UMYC counselor Tito Kromoh and United Methodist Youth Foundation President Charles Boaye, Second Grace took home the title, downing Conant after Conant beat People’s UMC 10-2.

Leon Hayes of People’s UMC, the event’s de facto director, said it was required that each team had at least four males and four females. Second Grace showed up with a roster loaded with physically fit males, so Hayes let the people take judicial action on the matter.

“They could either represent their church and a church could take the trophy home or we could go boy, girl, boy, girl and the winners get the trophy and it could be held at the Urban Council,” Hayes said.

“People voted unanimously, ladies and all, that they wanted to represent their church. They wanted to have a trophy that churches play for every year and it really turned out great.”

People’s UMC pastor Rev. Carter Grimmett said the event set out to prove the UMYC is not simply about two weeks of urban camping at Judson Collins campground in the summer, it is about trying to unite people from all over the Detroit East and West Districts.

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Not your average 16-year old: Waterford teen makes difference for Liberia

By RJ Walters, Editor / March 2010 Issue

While Jessica Arnold and her classmates have been working toward the possibility of college scholarships, the 16-year-old Waterford junior has been finding ways to provide basic educational needs for deprived youth half a world away.

Arnold, who attends Waterford Central UMC and Waterford Mott High School, is the founder and leader of the C.W. Duncan Mission Project, which provides money for scholarships, supplies, teachers and textbooks at the C.W. Duncan School — a school for kindergarten through ninth-grade students in Monrovia, Liberia.

Liberia is a depressed West African country where more than 200,000 people were killed and one million more made into refugees due to a pair of civil wars that took place from 1989-2003.

It was only through the courageous protests of groups of Christian and Muslim Liberian women that the bloody battle finally ended in the shattered country, and as Arnold opened up her mind to the possibilities of outreach it was a documentary on the women’s actions that actually enabled amazing progress.

This past summer Arnold said she felt guilty because she wasn’t doing enough for others and what has transpired since can truly be considered an act of venturesome faith.

Originally she thought about sponsoring a child in Africa, but Wendy Lyons Chrostek, Waterford Central’s associate pastor at the time, encouraged her to think beyond her already admirable goals and put in a call to colleague Rev. Charles Boayue Jr. of Second Grace United Methodist Church.

Boayue is a Liberian native whose wife Elizabeth was a member of the church that founded C.W. Duncan in 1980.

And appropriately, he was going to be introducing a screening of the documentary “Pray The Devil Back to Hell”, the story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence of thousands of women that helped end civil disputes in a country originally founded as a settlement of freed American slaves in 1847.

Jessica and her mother Nancy attended the screening and Jessica and Boayue both knew the movie was the perfect means to convince people to donate money to C.W. Duncan.

Arnold said she has always had an affinity for African culture and loved the people, but she knew very little about Liberia.

But after a little more than an hour of trying to grasp the realities of the horrific atrocities she was watching on the big screen she found plenty of room in her heart for the people of Liberia.

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