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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Young woman puts a face and testimony to immigration and poverty at annual conference

• By RJ Walters, Editor •

Just as the Word became flesh when God became man, the theme of the 2011 Detroit Annual Conference became flesh when 19-year-old Jasmine Franco told her story and the church responded joyfully.

With Franco standing behind a podium adorned by a sign that read, “I was a STRANGER and you took ME in,” a video by United Methodist Communications detailed her story of being a stranger in desperate need that found life and an abundance of grace in the Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church.

Franco is the American-born daughter of illegal immigrants from Guatemala who decided to bring their family to America in 1991 for more educational and work-related opportunities.

Franco was part of fairly normal working-class Ypsilanti family doing whatever was need to get by prior to November 2008, when immigration agents stormed into the family’s trailer.

By January 2009, Franco’s mother was deported back to Guatemala and her father and sister voluntarily headed back to their homeland to be with her.

Franco decided to stay behind.

She was adamant about finishing her high school diploma at Huron High School, even though it meant working 5-11 p.m. for minimum wage every day after school and fighting hunger and exhaustion at times.

Then her counselor at HHS, Stephannie Ruzicka, contacted the Education Project for Homeless Youth at the Washtenaw County ISD and along with school supplies and bus tokens, Franco found a saving grace — a relationship with the Rev. Melanie Carey, lead pastor at Ypsilanti FUMC.

“I did not even know the church, I did not know the pastor at the church — she just found out about (my story) through an organization and she was really interested in immigration and she got a hold of me,” Franco said. “They welcomed me with open hearts.”

Eventually Carey and her husband took Franco in as part of their family and the church fully embraced the young woman whose dedication and drive inspired them.

With their prayerful support and financial backing she graduated from HHS in 2010 and she is currently in her third semester of college, studying to become a physician.

Ypsilanti FUMC provided her with money to visit her family “who is still living in poverty” in 2009 and Franco has aspirations of bringing her sister Jennifer — also an American citizen — back to the states to live with her.

Franco now lives with a pair of empty nesters who attend Ypsilanti FUMC and she works on the weekends, sending money to her parents whenever possible.

For the complete story, courtesy of AnnArbor.com, click here.

Franco said she shared her story at annual conference to “say thank you to the wonderful people of the church”, but also to give people a different perspective on the volatile issue of immigration.

“I know not a lot of churches are open to the topic because it’s a very difficult subject, but I believe churches can help people…families are being separated every day and we’re sitting over here right now and I feel like if we all came together as churches we have the power to change that,” she said.

Franco received a standing ovation from the crowd, as many people wiped away tears and stood in awe of Franco’s courage and strength.

Later that day Carey took an impromptu “Ziploc bag” offering to give to Franco.

More than $2,500 was raised and when Franco — who had to leave conference to go to work Saturday afternoon — learned about the generosity via a text message from Carey, her heart was filled with gratitude.

“I can’t express the feelings I felt when Melanie texted me saying that all of you had taken a special offering for me,” she said in a note that was read on Sunday. “I was shocked and I felt the love from my family.”

She said she plans on visiting her family again soon thanks to the offering.

Franco’s story was a perfect parallel to the preaching of Desert Southwest Conference Bishop Minerva Carcaño, who proliferated on “opening ourselves to all means of grace, including the poor and hungry” in several reflections on immigration and ministry with the homeless.

The nudging of people’s hearts at annual conference did not end with the offering to Franco.

Twenty-five medicine kits were collected to send to Haiti, nearly $3,900 was collected for SPLASH — a youth initiative to provide fresh water to people in Liberia, gently-used children’s books were donated for schools in Zimbabwe and food and goods were collected for a food pantry in Adrian.

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New DS for Metro Detroit is a diverse woman ready to embark on a multi-cultural mission

• By RJ Walters, Editor •

From being part of a family that adopted a young boy from Guatemala when she was still a child, to spending some of her college years in Spain and Costa Rica, the Rev. Melanie Carey has always embraced multiculturalism without regard for borders.

Rev. Melanie Carey

Now Carey hopes to tear down cultural divides and barriers standing in the way of progress in Detroit area as the district superintendent for the new Metro Detroit district, effective July 1.

Carey has flourished as the lead pastor of Ypsilanti: First UMC for the past 12 years, starting a weekly Spanish language worship service and shepherding a pair of Kingdom Assignments (www.kingdomassignment.org) that have provided grant money to help more than 20 Detroit Conference churches start their own Kingdom Assignment projects.

The Kingdom Assignment utilizes $100 gifts within congregations with a focus on growing that money for whatever type of ministry is near and dear to a recipient’s heart.

Carey’s penchant for local-church missions and meeting the needs of others caught the attention of Michigan Area Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton.

“Melanie combines fruitful pastoral ministry, a wide variety of conference responsibilities done well, and a passion for social justice," Keaton said. "Whenever and whatever she has been asked to do has been done with excellence, enthusiasm and attention to detail, and I am confident that she will bring those same attributes to her work as superintendent for this new district in the Detroit metropolitan area.”

Carey said she feels privileged to be part of “building God’s kingdom in the city and suburbs with everyone together” and she feels like her background fits the calling appropriately.

“I guess my story would be that Bishop Keaton asked me to serve this particular district because it’s a very diverse district in terms of every way you can think of — not just racial, ethnic diversity, but there’s economic diversity, there’s a lot of diversity in the sizes of churches — basically any way you define diversity, the new metro area is that,” she said.

She grew up in Chelsea, Mich., which she admits, “was not a very diverse place.” However, during her childhood, her parents hosted seven international exchange students for a year at a time.

In 1978 her parents adopted her younger brother from Guatemala, where the family spent weeks waiting for his paperwork to come through.

“That greatly influenced me, so I kind of grew up where multiculturalism was normal,” she said. “It was weird for me to just be around people who were exactly like me so I’ve always been kind of attracted to that.”

Carey has been actively involved in helping create Hispanic/Latino ministries in the conference. She is also a member of the regional advisory board for Justice for Our Neighbors Southeast Michigan, a program that provides free legal immigration services, education and advocacy.

Since 1994, Carey has served as a national facilitator with the General Board of Global Ministries' National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry.

She acknowledges that being a vital part of a new district is one of the largest challenges she has taken on, but she said she will lean on the local churches and leaders of Detroit to “help create and cast a new vision.”

“Having churches and ministry sites work together, there all sorts of wonderful possibilities,” she said. “Plus we have such rich resources in the district in its people, who bring amazing gifts, so I think that’s another way sitting down and talking about what people can bring to the table will help.”

Carey calls her leadership style “very collegial.”

Some of her mentors include the Rev. Saul Trinidad, a National Hispanic Plan missionary who helped Carey practice her Spanish-speaking skills after college when he was serving at El Buen Pastor UMC in Detroit; FUMC of Birmingham pastor, the Rev. Jack Harnish, the first person to really encourage Carey to consider the ministry when she was younger; and the Rev. Jerry Parker, the pastor at Chelsea FUMC during Carey’s childhood.

Carey said she cannot wait to do ministry in new ways with new people in Detroit, but she is reminding people to be patient as fresh ideas and many years of history come together.

“I would to say that whenever we form something new there’s a lot anxiety about what it’s going to be. It’s important that we all give each other extra, what I call, ‘Space for grace,’” she said. “I would connect it to, you do a lot of wandering in the wilderness when you first start something brand new, but it’s also a very exciting time because things pop up that weren’t possible before because you did something a certain way.”

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Breaking News: Carey named superintendent for new Detroit Metropolitan Area District

By Paul Thomas, Detroit Conference Director of Communications

Michigan Area Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton has announced that the Rev. Melanie L. Carey, lead pastor at Ypsilanti: First United Methodist Church, has been appointed to serve as a district superintendent in the Detroit Conference. Carey will be assigned to the newly formed district in the Metro Detroit area as of July 1, 2011.

“Melanie combines fruitful pastoral ministry, a wide variety of conference responsibilities done well, and a passion for social justice," Keaton said. "Whenever and whatever she has been asked to do has been done with excellence, enthusiasm and attention to detail, and I am confident that she will bring those same attributes to her work as superintendent for this new district in the Detroit metropolitan area. As a bilingual member of cabinet, she will broaden our collective experience and add to the depth of our discerning conversations.”

Ordained an elder in 1993, Carey has served three churches during her 20-year ministry. Carey led Hudson: First UMC from 1991-93 before being appointed as the associate pastor at Livonia: Newburg UMC, where she served for seven years (1993-2000).

In 2000, Carey was named to her current position at Ypsilanti: First UMC and is currently in her 11th year of ministry to that congregation. Ypsilanti: First UMC is one of the churches in the Detroit Conference that offers Hispanic/Latino ministries, including a weekly Spanish language worship service.

The congregation has also conducted a pair of Kingdom Assignment (kingdomassignment.org) programs, and has been able to grant money to over 20 churches within the conference to lead their own Kingdom Assignment campaigns.

"I am very humbled by this appointment," Carey said. "With this new district, there is an opportunity to create a new identity for The United Methodist Church in the Metro Detroit area. At this particular time in the history of our state, it is very critical that we bring the good news of Christ to the City of Detroit, to the suburbs and to our state. I look forward to the opportunity for us to do this work together."

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Building the kingdom $100 at a time

By RJ Walters, Editor

Just as the parable of the mustard seed is about the potential of a towering tree, it was the discreet slip of an envelope that opened people’s eyes to the marvels of God’s work at Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church.

Through several projects dubbed the Kingdom Assignments and with the help of numerous partnerships, the congregation has raised more than $375,000 for local people and programs since 2006.

And now Ypsilanti FUMC Rev. Melanie Carey and her colleagues are spreading the wealth through 

knowledge and grants, hoping other churches will jump on board with an initiative that has transformed the way some Methodists view outreach.

Humble beginnings

The first domino to fall was a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, to everyone except Carey.

Four years ago she came through the greeting line after a service and told the pastor to expect a visit from her the next morning, after having some time to digest the information in an envelope she gave her.

“And then she came in the next morning to see me and she came with a check for $5,000 and said she would like our church to do the Kingdom Assignment and she was willing to give the money to do it, but didn’t want anyone to know who she was,” Carey said.

The donor was inspired by an ABC News piece on an Iowa pastor who got his church involved with the project and she thought it would be appropriate for Ypsilanti FUMC to be the next in line.

“I was like wow, okay, without a clue to what it was,” Carey said. “It was my first encounter with it and I wasn’t really sure about it to be honest. I was sort of like hmmm, I don’t know.”

Little did she know it would be the mission that helped her realize that far too often Christians underestimate God’s power.

Following the call

The purpose of the Kingdom Assignment, which originated at a California church eight years ago, is to provide $100 to Christians, with a focus on growing that money for whatever type of ministry is near and dear to their heart.

In Ypsilanti those ministries have included everything from providing health insurance to cancer patients to donations to the Boys and Girls Club to funds for organizations like Meals on Wheels.

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