Register now for the 2017 Peninsula-Delaware Conference Youth Rally, Jan. 6-8, at the Ocean City Convention Center.  Online Registration is live!

Afterward, tickets must be purchased at the door for $80 (with no t-shirt).

Visit  umyoungpeople.org/youth-rally and click the link on the right side of the page.

And for the trifecta of upcoming youth events, plan to attend the 3rd Annual Eastern PA Conference Youth Rally on Saturday, April 22, 2017. For the first time, this youth rally will last all day, from 9 AM to 4 PM. We're planning fantastic features, with dynamic speakers, soul-stirring music, fun games, powerful prayers, laugh-out-loud humor, great food and hospitality, and enough friendship and fellowship moments to give you a lifetime of memories. Don't dare miss it! See and share the flyer, and look for more details, coming soon.

Celebrate World Communion with other Christians around the globe this Sunday, Oct. 2, and receive the churchwide designated offering that supports higher education and ministry training for racial-ethnic students and interns and for international Crusade Scholars. Helpful, informative resources are available to support your observance. So is a downloadable, easy-to-use  World Communion Sunday Pastor's Kit  that has everything you need to promote this special Sunday and celebrate with a memorable service .Also c hurch leaders can view a new, free e-book,   "A Dozen Ways to Promote and Celebrate World Communion Sunday." 

Come join our search for real ocean fossils  Saturday, Oct. 8,   at  Hawk Mountain  (1700 Hawk Mountain Road, Kempton, PA). Plus, watch the migration of eagles and raptors of all sorts. Hawk Mountain is a wildlife sanctuary, scientific research center, eco-tourism and learning facility, a conservation training site and one of the best places in northeastern North America to view the annual autumn hawk migration. We will gather in Drehersville at Salem UMC, on 895 just off of route 61, between    9 and 9:30 AM. (Use 49 Church Lane, Drehersville, PA for your GPS.).

This fossil search event is open to all and sponsored by the UM Men. No fee for the hunt, but all participants must sign a release form.

Contact conference Prayer Advocate Dennis Wack at 267-753-5332 or [email protected] or Dave Botzer at  [email protected]  Fee for Hawk Mountain: $12 for adults, $9 for children. Please post and  share our flyer.

Bishop Johnson' other new essay, "A new museum brings a needed message for our world," is also a compelling read. After attending the recent General Board of Church and Society meeting, she and other board members went to see the new African American Museum of History and Culture in the nation's capital the day before it opened to the public. "Excitement and joy was in the air," she witnessed, as her group prayed outside the huge, distinctive edifice.

An historic advertisement appeared in the Sept. 22 Thursday metro edition of the daily Philadelphia Tribune. It shares the UMC Northeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops July 13 statement about working to dismantle racism, to heal the pain of violence and oppression, and to become effective peacemakers. The Eastern PA Conference purchased space for the unprecedented, 10" x 4" ad to fulfill an official request made by Lenora Thompson at the 2016 Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference that was endorsed by her fellow delegates. The request was that all NEJ conferences buy ad space in any local newspaper of their choice to share the bishops groundbreaking statement with the general public.

Although we wish we could have chosen a broader newspaper circulation for the ad, we chose the Thursday Northwest Metro edition of the Tribune for reasons of affordability and readership reach and impact. That edition is distributed primarily to the Trib's 160,000 readers in Germantown, Mt. Airy, West Oak Lane, Olney, Chestnut Hill and other nearby communities. 

Copies of both the ad and  the ad page are available on our website, accessible from the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference page and Bishop Peggy Johnson's page.

The Conference Treasurer's Office will send the 2016 Annual Budget Letter to senior pastors Oct. 14. The mailing date is delayed several weeks because of the scheduled Oct. 1. Adjourned Session of Annual Conference plus necessary follow-up meetings of the Conference Board of Trustees and Board of Pension and Health Benefits.

 

Churches that need to develop 2017 financial plans prior to Oct. 14 should use 2016 apportionment figures (for Connectional Ministries, World Service, and General Church funds) and 2016 direct bill figures, plus add 5% for an estimate for 2017. Please note: The actual figures sent to churches in October may be higher or lower than these estimates, based on actions taken at the Adjourned Session and by the Board of Trustees and Board of Pensions and Health Benefits.

 

The Budget Letter will include a written description of the charges on the monthly remittance form, including who is responsible for which payments and what the payments are for.

The Eastern PA Conference United Methodist Women will hold its 43rd Annual Celebration on Saturday, Oct. 15, 9 AM to 3 PM, at Quakertown UMC (1875 Freier Road). Their theme is The Legacy: Continuing The Journey of UMW, 1869 to Present.   Ruth Daugherty and Hattie Hamilton will speak as UMW pioneers Isabella Thoburn, an educator, and Clara Swain, a doctor, who were the first missionaries sent to India by the newly formed Methodist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in 1869. The $15 registration cost includes lunch. Mail registration forms and checks (payable to EPA-UMW) by the Sept. 30 deadline to: Mary Ann Repsher 164 South Ninth St. Bangor, PA 18013  Phone: 610-588-1084. E-mail: [email protected] .

Also, the UMW's Mission u 2017 has been scheduled for July 21-22 in Reading, Pa., with geographic, issue and spiritual growth study components. See the flyer and save the dates.

Tell us what your church will do special to celebrate Pastor Appreciation Month in October? Please send us creative ideas, words of tribute for pastors and celebratory photos. If we get some good stuff, we'll report it in Digest and post it on the conference website in a special Pastor Appreciation Month feature, with updates throughout October.

How about honoring a group of pastors together at one event? The Southwest District will honor its pastors at an annual Pastor Appreciation Breakfast  on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 9 to 10:30 AM, at Grandview UMC in Lancaster. They'll have food, door prizes, juggling entertainment and words of appreciation for "all the work you do-all the preaching, prayer, visitation, counseling, etc.," according to the invitation.  

 

The seminar will be led by the  Effective Church Group, directed by renowned church growth author, coach and discipleship development expert Bill Easum.  It will offer practical strategies and profound insights to teach participants how every church can grow to become a radical disciple-making force for Jesus Christ. Read  Bishop Johnson's letter  and visit the  seminar website  to find out more.You can register online at www.radicaldisciplemaking.com.  Contact the Rev. Mark Moore of Thorndale UMC with questions at   [email protected].