The Eastern PA Conference delegation to General and Jurisdictional conferences will sponsor four Listening and Discernment Sessions in April–three of them face-to-face and one by telephone. Delegates will not speak but instead want to hear annual conference members’ concerns about important aspects of proposed legislation coming before the global legislative gathering.

The schedule for the listening sessions is:

• Monday, April 11, from 7 to 9 PM, at Wesley UMC in Bethlehem.
• Saturday, April 16, from 10 AM to 12 noon, at Simpson House in Philadelphia.
• Wednesday, April 20, from 7 to 8:30 PM, at Church of the Good Shepherd in Lebanon.
• Saturday, April 23, from 9 to 10:30 AM, in which the delegation will conduct a telephone outreach session to hear members’ views. They will call a dozen persons who sign up online in advance to request phone calls so they may offer their comments. Each call should last about five (5) minutes or less, with short breaks in-between, allowing the delegation to complete about 12 calls in the 90-minute session. Once again, they will only listen to comments for their discernment; but they will not respond.

“The objective is to just listen, which will be very difficult,” said Judy Ehninger, delegation co-leader.  “This new telephone listening session demonstrates our desire to give all an opportunity  to be heard.”

Persons who wish to receive a telephone outreach call from the delegation on Saturday, April 23, from 9 to 10:30 AM, should use this link on our new SetMore.com call scheduling service to reserve a time for a call. If anyone needs help signing up, they may e-mail the Conference Communications Office or call 484-762-8215.

“We look forward to all these April listening sessions, as they will provide us opportunities to hear from our brothers and sisters in Christ across the conference,” said the Rev. Dawn Taylor-Storm, delegation co-leader. “Those who attend are welcome to speak or to just sit and listen to the conversation. All that we do will be done in a spirit of Holy conferencing.”

For information on General Conference issues the delegates will address, review our story, “Delegates prepare for General, NEJ conferences.”