Tornado totes offering at Annual Conference

Churches in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference are urged to purchase plastic totes that are invaluable during tornadoes and floods. This is an item not a part of UMCOR's response but are warehoused by the Midwest Mission Distribution Center and distributed when the need arises.

Specific sizes are still being finalized but what would be envisioned is that totes could be filled with heavy duty trash bags, work gloves and permanent markers.

More information will be shared shortly.

The in-kind offering is in addition to special offerings for Our Conference, Our Kids; the Tom Brown Scholarship at Wiley College and an offering for the Ordinands' Trip.

Annual Conference information

The Annual Conference will get underway at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 7, with workshops and conclude by noon on Saturday, June 9 following the Service of Ordination.

At 1 p.m., the Thursday afternoon agenda includes an opening worship service with Bishop Beard preaching and installing new District Superintendents Stan Irvin and James Barnett in the Cache and Vermilion River districts. Those districts will then plan welcoming events in the fall but the entire conference will celebrate the appointments and assignments of these new conference superintendents.

At 2 p.m., clergy and laity will hold their respective sessions with laity in Halls B and C and clergy in the Grand Ballroom on the fourth floor. The full session will reconvene at 4 p.m. and work until the supper break at 5:30 p.m. The Memorial Service is slated for 7 p.m.

The entire Annual Conference schedule is still being finalized and will be published to a Sched app which will be accessible to everyone. The Sched app also allows for last-minute changes that are pushed out to everyone who is using it.

New process for Annual Conference materials

All 2018 Conference Registration Material packets will be picked up ON SITE in the Registration Office in the Terrazo Lobby beginning Thursday, June 7 at 7:30 a.m.

Online registration begins April 2 and ends May 17.

Urgent need for 24-count crayons at MMDC

The Midwest Mission Distribution Center is in urgent need of 24-count crayons for school kits shipped from the facility.

With an unexpected number of request for Student School Bags, the facility is quickly running out of crayons. Most recently, 4,177 bags were sent to Central America as well as to Watseka following the recent flooding.

Any brand of 24-count crayons can be included in these kids.

To dontate bulk supplies and have them shipped directly to MMDC, visit the Center's wishlist at www.DollarDays.com

Appeal filed in West Ohio pastor's case

An openly gay West Ohio Conference pastor who withstood one effort to push him out of the United Methodist Church is now being subjected to another challenge from within the denomination.

The Rev. David Meredith, 61, exonerated in October of two of three charges brought against him in a local church court, will face another hearing today before the North Central Jurisdiction's Committee on Appeals in Indianapolis.

Local pastor loses license for officiating same sex ceremony

The Holston Conference has withdrawn the license for a local pastor who officiated at a same-sex wedding.

Anna Golladay was serving as associate pastor at St. Marks and St. Elmo UMC's in Chattanooga, Tennessee, until her dismissal on Feb. 28.

Church law does not allow United Methodist pastors to officiate at same-sex weddings.

EZRA Year-End Reporting deadline nears

2017 year-end statistical reports are due by March 31, 2018. As of right now 61 percent of churches have not even started their reports. Don't forget to get your church's reports completed by the deadline!

The Internet address for on-line submission is: http://ezra.gcfa.org or you can use the link from www.igrc.org at the top that says “Ezra Report Login.”

Your Username is the six-digit number assigned to the church by GCFA. This number is found on your remittance report.

Your initial password is "password". Even if you established a password last year, it has been reset to “password”.

Sexual ethics makeup session

A Sexual Ethics Training makeup session has been scheduled for those who were unable to attend any of the three February sessions, on Saturday, June 23, at the Sugar Creek UMC, 1022 New City Road, Chatham. Because of heavy registration in the past week, please note the change in location. The session will be from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is is mandatory for all pastors and laypersons appointed or assigned to local churches.

Registration is open through June 16.