The 55th Session of the Central Appalachian (Formerly Red Bird) Missionary Annual Conference was convened by Bishop Leonard Fairley on May 20 at the Joy Center Mission Outreach/Conference Center in Big Creek, Kentucky. The theme for this year’s Annual Conference session was “New Year, New Name: CAMC Transformed.”
The session opened with the Memorial and Communion Service, where clergy, mission institution employees and volunteers, and conference laity who died this past year were remembered. Bishop Fairley preached the message, “See How He Loved Them,” on the Scripture from John 11:33-36.
Following the worship service, the clergy and laity sessions met until lunch. With the tap of the gavel at 1 p.m., Bishop Fairley opened the business session as the conference reconvened in the reconfigured Sanctuary. We were opened with a report of Red Bird Mission by Ms. Kari Collins, director, as this year, reports were sporadically shared throughout. The roll was called by Conference Secretary, the Rev. Robert Amundsen, followed by greetings and announcements shared by Conference Superintendent, the Rev. Karen Stigall.
The first major item of business this year was to vote on the new, revised Constitution. The Conference voted in 2020 to change the name of the Annual Conference but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not able to be officially done until the Jurisdictional Conference met last November. The vote was unanimous. Following the vote on the Constitution, there was a vote to elect a new Jurisdictional and Reserve Lay Delegate due to resignations from the delegation. Whitley Henson was elected as the Jurisdictional Lay Delegate and John Newman as the Reserve Jurisdictional Lay Delegate.
The Conference Statistician, the Rev. Robert Amundsen, came forward and shared conference statistics celebrating that for the first time in a few years that all churches reported their statistics. Though membership decreased by 20 from the previous year, the conference is still coming out of COVID-19 and with two churches still not open, churches have stepped into the technological world and several have their services online as well as other online worship and devotion opportunities. The conference did celebrate that though it lost 20, there were 10 baptisms. Also, several churches have restarted their Sunday school programs and youth outreach.
During the report from the Conference CF&A, a vote on the budget recommendations for 2023 was approved. This marked the 11th consecutive year for a positive or balanced budget. Also during this report, Bishop Fairley recognized all of the conference churches for paying their 100% apportionments. Again this year, the tradition of recognizing the clergy spouses took place and the spouses (or clergy for spouses not present) received an insulated cup with the logo of Central Appalachian Missionary Conference, as well as stickers of the logo. The Annual Hat Contest this year had a cowboy/cowgirl theme. David Woods was the winner of that contest. The business session ended at 3 p.m.
The mission celebration opened with the recognition of awards for the churches as well as years of service in the conference. This year’s Harry Denman Award for Evangelism recipients were Kathie Harris (laity) and for the clergy with the Rev. Daniel Henson. The Rev. Jonathan LeMaster-Smith, elder from the Western North Carolina Annual Conference and one who works with small membership churches, was the guest speaker. The Mission Offering was received before the message and was reported following that $2,600 was raised for the Youth & Young Adult ministries of the Conference. The Conference was sad to report but celebrated the ministry of the Bowens Creek UMC, which was closed. Bishop Fairley opened the floor to receive invitations to host the 2024 Annual Conference. Thousandsticks United Methodist Church offered to host next year’s Annual Conference. The invitation was accepted to have the 56th Session of Annual Conference at Thousandsticks United Methodist Church next year with the dates to be announced due to General Conference. The appointments were read at the end of the service. Following the reading of the appointments, Bishop Fairley issued an invitation to ministry before the closing hymn.
— The Rev. Robert Amundsen, Conference Secretary