The 219th session of what is now the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will meet June 4-7, 2006, on the campus of Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC. Mr. Jerry Crawford will attend and represent Adnah UMC as our Lay Member; The pastor will also be present as a clergy member in full connection. Methodism has a long and fruitful history of making disciples in South Carolina. It still awes and humbles me to remember that the first South Carolina conference was held on March 22, 1787, in Charleston, with Bishops Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke sharing the duties as Presiding Officer.

The work of the Annual Conference is varied. It adopts the 2007 fiscal year budget of the conference and apportions that budget to the local churches/charges. It ordains candidates for ministry (deacons and elders). It authorizes ministry for others (missionaries, evangelists, various classes of local pastors). It receives reports from various boards, agencies, commissions, and institutional ministries of the conference. It presents and interprets the mission and ministry of the United Methodist denomination. It memorializes the faithful pastors and spouses who died and "joined the Church Triumphant" since last session. And it comes together for inspirational and motivational praise and worship. In short, the Annual Conference exists to motivate, prepare, and equip the local church (through the pastors and lay members) for another year of Christian discipleship.

One other event occurs at Annual Conference. The presiding Bishop appoints the pastors and those clergy who serve in other ministries beyond the local church.

I have been informed that, at the conclusion of the 2006 session on June 7, Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor will re-appoint me to serve Adnah United Methodist Church for a fourth year as your pastor. This is in keeping with my request and that of your Committee on Pastor/Staff-Parish Relations. I am pleased with this appointment, and I look forward to another year of partnership ministry with you. My prayer, always, is that the Holy Spirit will direct us, empower us, and bless us as we fulfill our mandate to, in John Wesley's words,   "offer ... Christ" to our community and, through our connectional church, to the world.