Joy filled the room as the 2025 New Jersey Annual Conference opened with a powerful Celebration of Ministry. Five new siblings were welcomed into the family of God through baptism: Layla Kim, Robert James Marshall Jr., Joseph David Marshall, Lance Riley Marshall, and Lielle Kim.
The annual conference also celebrated those who had faithfully served in ministry and were now retiring. Together, they offered more than 500 years of service to the Kingdom of God.
Six people were commissioned for the work of an elder: Hyungkoo Kang, Eunji Lee, Janis Lea Mercadante Phillips, Emily Patricia Pombo-Wilton, Roeline J. Ramirez and Sue Jung Shin.
Brian Robinson was ordained to the Order of Deacons, and eight people were ordained to the Order of Elders in full connection: Jisu Ahn, McWilliams Colón Sr., Han Kil Kim, YoungHak Joseph Lee, Lark McCalman, ChangYong Shin and YoonCheol Shin.
Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi invited each newly commissioned or ordained person to consider where they will live — not the location of their parsonage or the community they serve, but rather where they will choose to live in their emotional landscape. She urged each one to boldly proclaim, “I’m going to live in joy, because I am on my way to praise.”
Choosing to live in joy is not a one-time decision, but a daily walk. Bishop Moore-Koikoi was clear-eyed: “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy, and we have to choose it every day. Don’t live and dwell in our pain. Don’t live and dwell in our brokenness, but live in joy on our way to praise.”
Monday morning opened brightly with Communion on the Beach, led by the Order of St. Luke’s the Rev. Lin Smallwood, who invited everyone gathered to continue in God’s grace: “With each new tide, the ocean renews itself — washing away what is old and bringing in what is new. So, too, does God’s grace wash over us.”
‘It’s Bible Study time!’
With those words, Bishop Moore-Koikoi invited annual conference members into a time of contemplation on the text for the conference: Jeremiah 17:14-18. The first tool on the journey from lament to healing is to live in expectation that God is still in the business of working miracles. She urged people to seriously consider the places of pain — physical, spiritual and emotional — in their lives, and to call out to God for healing.
“Sometimes we get so accustomed to our brokenness that we actually don’t want to do the work to be healed. You need to know your why, so that when it gets hard, you will keep at your healing.”
Healing comes not just for our own sake, but “so that the love of God can be shared, so that justice can be spread, so that power and principalities can be brought down.”
Love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously
Bishop Moore-Koikoi gave the State of the Church Address where she described the state of the larger United Methodist Church. Following a season of pruning, God is doing something new. One of the signs of newness is the new vision statement of The United Methodist Church:
“The United Methodist Church forms disciples of Jesus Christ who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.”
Bishop Moore-Koikoi then outlined the staff restructuring that would help the Greater New Jersey Conference more fully live into the call to love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously; describing the process of collaborative listening that she had undertaken since her arrival. She met with the associate superintendents and district superintendents, and listened for the needs from the local church. From those conversations she discerned a new staff structure that would provide more simplicity and transparency.
The bishop also reminded the conference of the Journey of Healing we had undertaken together. Hundreds named their wounds and participated in healing services and the Lenten Journey of Healing. She concluded her address, “I know that God will be faithful. I know we shall be healed, for God is our praise!”
Bishop Moore-Koikoi then invited the cabinet to come forward and share what they had discerned in their own healing conversations. Through a moving sermon by the Rev. Sang Won Doh, dean of the cabinet, along with a public apology and a Litany of Acknowledgement and Repentance, the cabinet expressed remorse for the ways in which they may have caused harm in the past and asked for the body’s forgiveness.
We are all going on to perfection — even the cabinet — and they asked to share the Litany of Acknowledgement and Repentance here. The Litany of Acknowledgement and Repentance was written as a call and response between members of the cabinet as an act of confession and an intention to move forward in a new way.
Living in joy even in grief
The Service of Remembrance, where members of the conference honor clergy, clergy spouses and lay members who have joined the Church Triumphant over the past year, was a beautiful mixture of lamentation, remembrance and joy. The Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash preached on John 14, inviting those who were grieving to imagine the rooms that Jesus has prepared for them — what those rooms might look like, and what hobbies or mementos they might contain. The AFRI-SCAD (African Student Community at Drew University) choral group from Drew Theological School beckoned those gathered into joyful praise of God, even amid sorrow.