United Methodists are coming together today to support vital ministry projects and missionaries around the world as they give generously. Giving through The Advance empowers hundreds of dedicated project leaders and missionaries to share the love of Christ in meaningful, life-saving ways. Find a project you are passionate about and make a donation! Further support #GivingTuesday by inspiring others to #GiveUMC!  Resources are available to build awareness of this day of generosity, such as social media graphics and a toolkit full of communication tips and fundraising ideas.
 

Last year, more than $677,000 was given to Advance projects and missionaries around the world on #GivingTuesday!  Help us increase this number in 2018 to ensure we can continue to extend a hand of hope and healing to those in need across the globe.

 

You can find our current list of Alaska related Advance specials here. 

The following Week Zero post from Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky brings us to the precipice of our year-long Greater Northwest Area exploration of the bible and faith. As we work our way together through Brian McLaren's book, " We Make the Road by Walking", each week will be complemented by short reflections and creative pieces like the following.

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Tight Fists or Open Hands?

By Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky | Greater Northwest Area

The Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time.

Isaiah 43: 18-19

Well, which is it? Is God enduring, unchanging, immovable, like a mountain? Or is God an innovator, creating new, unimaginable things, twisting and turning and even changing course like a river?

Does God call us to hold fast, dig in, preserve what we have inherited from the past? Or does God call us to engage the changes that surprise us, peer into an uncertain future, and then move beyond what we thought we knew, stretching, evolving, adapting?

Is God bound by these conflicting opinions? Or, might both be true in their own way?

The Alaska Innocence Project is in search of new office space. The Alaska Innocence Project (AKIP) is an Alaska-based non-profit corporation that provides legal, educational, and charitable services to identify and exonerate individuals who have been wrongfully convicted in the state of Alaska, and to provide educational opportunities that foster a culture that champions the defense of the innocent.

The AKIP is most known for their work in the case of the Fairbanks Four. The Alaska Innocence Project has received a federal grant to expand their work to research and address hidden wrongful convictions among Alaska Native persons. As such, the AKIP staff is expanding and is need of office space for two attorneys and an administrative assistant. If you (or your church) have space available in Anchorage, please contact  Mark Johnson, member of St John UMC and AKIP Board President, or  Bill Oberly  Executive Director of the Alaska Innocence Project.

Attention: Anyone going to the Olympia and/or Des Moines Washington area during the next couple of months.  There is a box of glass slides that need to come to the Conference Archive Room.  They were taken circa 1908 by Methodist Missionary Louis Pederson. The donator did not wish to mail them as they are glass, old, and fragile.  Please contact Pastor Peter Perry 360-943-2661 for details and arrangements.  Thank you very much.

 

Larry Hayden, Conference Historian

November

Carlo is in the Philippines until November 27.  All Charge Conferences scheduled during his time away will eventually be rescheduled through Carlo if they haven't been already.

December

1: Leadership Team meeting via Zoom

2-3: WJ Mission Cabinet meeting in Los Angeles - Carlo attending

4: Charge Conference - Anchor Park UMC

11-13: GNW Cabinet meeting - Carlo attending

January

6: Charge Conference - Turnagain UMC

7: Charge Conference - First UMC Anchorage/First Samoan UMC of Anchorage

13: Charge Conference - First UMC Fairbanks

15-17: GNW Cabinet meeting in Portland - Carlo attending

22: Charge Conference - St. John UMC

25: Charge Conference - Homer UMC

27: Charge Conference - Northern Light United Church

The Conference Office hours are:

 

Monday - Thursday: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Friday: 9:00 am - 11:30 am 

Submissions - If you have an article or event that you would like to share with the rest of the conference, submit it to the conference office by Monday evening for consideration.

Mission Statement:

The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  Held and supported by the transforming relationship with God through Christ, we of the Alaska United Methodist Conference seek to be a community that creates a home for all peoples, finds our hope through grace and journeys together into God's preferred future.