Upper West SC News

The 2023 South Carolina Annual Conference will meet in person for the first time since 2019, after which the COVID-19 pandemic made such large gatherings unsafe. All lay and clergy members must register online by May 21.

Some 2,000 lay and clergy members from across the state will gather June 4-7 at the Florence Center to conduct business at the 52nd Session of the Annual Conference under the theme “Seeking a More Excellent Way: Breathe and Believe, Hewing Hope.” The past three Annual Conference sessions were held virtually to protect the health and safety of all.

“Confident in the knowledge that Jesus is with us wherever two or more gather in his name, we look forward with hopeful anticipation to being together as disciples again,” said Bishop L. Jonathan Holston, who will preside at AC2023. “We are grateful for the opportunity for a fruitful and uplifting time of worship, holy conferencing, fellowship, remembrance and celebration of the remarkable ministry and mission that has taken place across the conference this year.

“We pray that this gathering will point to the power of God to lead us if we commit to breathing and believing that we form one body in Christ, with each member belonging to all the others. So, together, let us hew hope – a living hope, a hope that saves, a hope we can rejoice in.”

With the Annual Conference returning to in-person session, expect a refreshed and updated experience. Here are some differences members might notice at AC2023:

• The Service for Commissioning, Ordination and Retirement is scheduled for the opening evening of Annual Conference – 7 p.m. Sunday, June 4. Holding this moving service on a weekend night rather than during the week makes it easier for family and friends of retirees, ordinands and those being commissioned to attend. Retiring ministers will be recognized in-person during this service, a first for the conference. They will participate in the blessing of the new classes of ordinands and candidates.
• The Clergy Session will be conducted virtually at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 4. Among other formal business, clergy members vote each year on whether to accept ordinands into membership of the Annual Conference – a decision that must take place before the Service for Commissioning, Ordination and Retirement. Conference planners determined that conducting a virtual Clergy Session was the most practical way to accomplish this.
• The Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving returns live this year, after three years of being recorded before Annual Conference met and shown virtually during session. The memorial service – which honors clergy and spouses who have died over the previous year – is scheduled for 5 p.m., Tuesday, June 6.
• Voting at this year’s Annual Conference will be conducted electronically. Lay and clergy members are expected to bring their own devices – smartphone, tablet, laptop computer – in order to be able to vote.
• All documentation members will need – along with key reports on video – will be available at umcsc.org/ac2023 before the Annual Conference convenes, to provide as much opportunity for preparation as possible.
• “After three years of meeting virtually, we are grateful to be able to gather safely in person again,” said the Rev. Ken Nelson, the conference secretary who also serves as superintendent of the Orangeburg District. “Our gaze fixed directly before us, we pray that this gathering of lay and clergy members will be another step forward as we live into the hope God has promised for our future.”

The Florence District, with the Rev. Terry Fleming as superintendent, and Highland Park United Methodist Church in Florence, with the Rev. Susan Maddox as pastor, will serve as hosts for AC2023.

Original source can be found here.