The Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference gathered around the theme, Let's Get Fired Up...for Kids June 8-10, 2017, at the Peoria Civic Center.

This year's conference officially launched a $2.5 million Our Conference, Our Kids campaign for the spiritual care programs of the five child welfare agencies in the conference - The Baby Fold, Chaddock, Cunningham Children's Home, Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House and Spero Family Services (formerly the United Methodist Children's Home).

The conference spent a great deal of time wrestling with a proposal from the conference's Board of Pensions to enlist Wespath (formerly the General Board of Pensions) for a private exchange in which to provide clergy health insurance for 2018. The plan would have been mandatory for clergy but optional for spouse and dependent coverage.

Instead of paying a taxable health insurance allowance of $13,200 to the pastor, the plan would have allowed the allowance to be paid directly from the local church to the conference tax-free. And pastors who opted out of the plan would not receive the allowance and the church would still pay into the plan. Several noted that while such a plan was workable for singles and perhaps, older members of the group (the average age is 57 years old), the costs were difficult for clergy with children and stay-at-home spouses where a second insurance plan was not available.

In the end, the proposal was referred to the conference Board of Pensions for further work on assisting those clergy who are in crisis under the current plan. In related legislation, the health insurance allowance was increased to $15,000 for 2018 - up from the current $13,200.

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