Jensen Woods Camp property closes

The IGRC Board of Trustees closed with St. Louis developer Brick by Brick Farms, LLC on the Jensen Woods Camp property March 20.

Brick by Brick paid $1.7 million cash for the 550 acres and requested the closing be moved up from April 27 to March 20 in order to prepare the farm acreage for spring planting. 

IGRC Camping was able to remove equipment that will be used at East Bay and Little Grassy camps. Brick by Brick is planning on naming the grounds Jensen Woods Farm.

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.

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.

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

New tax law not "moving-friendly"

The recent (end of 2017) changes to federal tax laws have not helped with the pain of moving and in fact have added a bit more of a bite. Those clergy who are moving in 2018 will have church-paid moving costs reported as income on their W-2 form for 2018 taxes.

Read more for a statement provided by the legal team at the General Council on Finance & Administration:

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”.

A reminder: once the information on the various tables have been completed, churches are reminded they still have to submit their forms in order to complete the process.

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.