Greetings to the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference,
One of the important responsibilities of our churches is the maintenance of a Safe Sanctuaries policy. This newsletter is full of helpful information. Please read this carefully and make sure your church is on board.
Bishop Peggy Johnson

Greetings:
The recent headlines about child sexual abuse allegations at Penn State and Syracuse Universities have reminded us abuse can happen anywhere.  Our Conference requires all churches to have a Safe Sanctuaries Policy in place.  It is a lot of work, but considering the damage to one victim it is a worth it.  Of course as serious as committing child sexual abuse is, failing to report accusations of abuse is every bit as serious.

New Hanover UMC's softball team took home the trophy in this year's Softball Tournament hosted by Eastern Pennsylvania Conference United Methodist Men.  Congratulations!

Conference United Methodist Men certainly have "bragging rights" for the host of ministry projects they have been involved in this past year.

From hosting a potato drop at Annual Conference to a UMM softball tournament to encouraging scouting in our churches, according to EPA UMM president, Ross Brightwell, the list of ministry keeps getting longer as more men become involved.

Currently, the conference UMM are researching the involvement of churches in prison ministry and scouting.

Ross's List of Twenty Eastern Pennsylvania Conference UMM activities:

Bishop Peggy Johnson encourages everyone to use this bulletin insert on June 5th and lift up the ministry of the Deacon in the conference.  We hope that this will encourage more people to consider becoming a part of the Order of Deacons:

Click here for bulletin insert

For more information on becoming a Deacon, go to: www.gbhem.org. 

by Rev. Doris Kung

Board of Ordained Ministry Website (for Resources and Information)

When I was first considering my call to become an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church, my initial reaction was one of being highly uncomfortable.  I only knew of one type of ordination, and that was the ordination to become an Elder.  I sought out almost every United Methodist Elder that was within my reach, and everything I was told about being an Elder just did not sit well with me.  Simply put, the roles and work of an Elder did not match what I felt God had called me to do.  This made me nervous: was there something wrong with me?  Was it just that I was not correctly interpreting that restless calling inside of me?  How could I make myself fit into this paradigm of Elder in order to fulfill the ordination role that I was sure God had called me to become?

The 225^th session of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference will elect delegates to the 2012 General Conference of The United Methodist Church and the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference.  

UPDATED INFORMATION:  The clergy delegates to the General Conference and to the Jurisdictional or regional conference shall be elected from the clergy members in full connection and by the clergy members of the annual conference who are deacons and elders in full connection, associate members, and those provisional members who have completed all of their educational requirements, and local pastors who have completed course of study or an M.Div degree and have served a minimum of two consecutive years under appointment immediately preceding the election.