Eastern PA Conference of the UMCAnnual Conference 2019
View Annual Conference here on Livestream video!
On our Annual Conference information page, you will find our video livestream of Annual Conference sessions as they occur in real time, beginning June 13 at the opening session. Be sure to also keep up with the hashtag #EPAUMC19 across all social media platforms to read and respond to key actions, special moments and important comments.
Annual Conference Location
The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks is an exhibition center located in Oaks, Pennsylvania, which is approximately 7 miles northwest of King of Prussia via the Pottstown Expressway. 100 Station Ave, Oaks, PA
Text your donations to support ministries
You can now make a contribution to Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the UMC with a quick text message!
Simply send a text to 610-463-0244 with the amount you would like to contribute, and the offering code. Make sure to include the dollar sign before the amount. Within a few minutes, you’ll be sent a text with a link to register. Click on the link and enter your cardholder name and credit or debit card information. Once your registration is complete, you will receive a text verification and a receipt via email. For future giving, simply send a text with the amount you wish to give, and it will process automatically!
- Text 610-463-0244 with the amount you want and the offering code:
- BOOM Scholarships, use code Ord
- EPA Scholarships, use Sch
- Puerto Rico Relief, use PR
- Youth & Young Adult ministries, use YYA
- Clergy Fund, use Assist
- From Liberty to Captivity, use Liberty
Example: $100 SCH
- You’ll get a text with a link to enter your name and payment information.
SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12
- 6:30 pm Pre-Conference Film-Showing: From Liberty to Captivity
THURSDAY, JUNE 13
- 9:30 AM Laity and Clergy Sessions
- 2:00 PM Opening Worship — “The Word from the Pulpit” / “The Word from the Body”
- 3:30 PM Blessings of the Grounds/Holy Conferencing
- 6:30–8:30 PM Holy Conferencing
- 6:45 PM Bishop Johnson’s State of the Church/Conference Report
FRIDAY, JUNE 14
- 9:00 AM Teaching Sessions – Mr. Derrick Luruth Scott (Guest Teacher)
- 1:30 PM–5:00 PM Holy Conferencing and Retiree Recognition
- 7:00 PM Ordination & Commissioning Service – Guest Preacher: Rev. Nathalie N. Parker
SATURDAY, JUNE 15
- 9:00 AM Holy Conferencing
- 10:30 AM Memorial Service – Guest Preacher: Bishop Susan Hassinger
- 1:35—5:00 PM Holy Conferencing
- 5:00 PM Adjournment
View the full schedule, including meal times.
Please note: There will not be a UMM potato drop at conference this year.
FREE! Pre-Conference film-showing
Open to all. Expo Center Main Hall.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 6:30 PM
From Liberty to Captivity
“Human trafficking is our new slavery.” A new film, From Liberty to Captivity,presents that warning, while showing how Pennsylvania, a birthplace of our nation’s freedom, has become a state where human trafficking and slavery are flourishing.
Debbie Wright, the director and producer of this award-winning documentary, is a member of Washington Crossing UMC. She will be present to talk about the film, in which she tells people about this heinous crime that is stealing human lives and lurking nearby in the darkest crevices of our society. Visit the film’s website to learn more. Also, view the movie trailer.
Due to the sensitivity of the topic, no unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 will be allowed.Please RSVP for the film when you register for Annual Conference.
AC 2019 Speakers
Read more in “2019 Conference to explore ministry of generations.”
Preaching at the Service of Ordination and Commissioning, June 14, will be the Rev. Nathalie Nelson Parker (right), National Program Coordinator for Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century, or SBC21, an agency of United Methodist Discipleship Ministries in Nashville. A native New Yorker, she is also an author, pastor’s wife, mother and first-generation American, with parents from Jamaica, West Indies.
She leads the National Network of Young Adults (NNYA), a collection of HBCU students, seminarians, campus leaders, young clergy and church laity, supported by UMC agencies and congregations. They recruit, train and resource racial-ethnic young adults to “hear, discern and respond to the call of God upon their lives.”
Bishop Susan Hassinger (left), retired, will preach the Memorial Service to honor deceased clergy and clergy spouses who entered the Church Triumphant in the past conference year. She will preach from Psalm 90:1-4, which begins, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Hassinger, elected in 1996, led the New England Annual Conference until her retirement in 2004. She previously directed the Eastern PA Conference’s Office of Resourcing.
Bishop Peggy Johnson (left) will deliver a timely State of the Church & Conference Report Thursday evening, June 13, her first in her episcopacy. She will review our connectional mission and ministry and begin to cast a vision for the future. The report may chart the consequential way forward for both the conference and the denomination in the interim between the landmark Called General Conference of February 2019 and the next General Conference in 2020.
Campus minister Derrick Luruth Scott III (right), 37, will deliver a talk about reaching and responding to the needs, gifts and concerns of young adults during the Friday morning Teaching Session, June 14. The Director of College & Young Adult Ministries at CrossRoad UMC in Jacksonville, Fla., Scott also directs the Florida Conference’s Campus to City Wesley Foundation in the Jacksonville-Northeast Florida Area and is a musician, band leader and worship intern at CrossRoad.
Lay Delegate featured at Laity Session
Krystl Johnson (right), a member of St. Daniel’s UMC Chester, and a lay delegate to the 2016 and 2019 General Conferences, will be the Laity Session featured speaker. Topic: “The FAQs: A Millennial Update.”
Krystl explains: “My focus is providing Young People’s FAQs (as in Frequently Avoided Questions)–that is, some questions and concerns we have that the church ignores in silence, or seems to avoid, or fails to address. It’s a time for truth.”
Good News CEO to speak at AC2019 breakfast
The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Evangelical Connection will host a breakfast during Annual Conference, featuring remarks by the Rev. Rob Renfroe (left), president and publisher of Good News, on Friday, June 14, from 7 to 9 AM. Pre-registration is required by June 7.Download the flyer. The venue will be the Theatre Room of Arnold’s Family Fun Center (next door to the Oaks Expo Center). Renfroe will speak and answer questions on the topic “Is There a Future for United Methodism?” The cost is $20 for a full buffet breakfast and presentation. Learn more…
Reconciling United Methodists to host Worship and Pre-Ordination Vigil
We Rise & Resist in Song, Word, and Dance!
Saturday, June 1 | 10:30 AM – 12 PM
Saint Matthew’s UMC
(600 Walker Road, Wayne, PA 19087)
Pre-Ordination Vigil
Friday, June 14 | 5:45 PM
Greater Philadelphia Expo Center
(100 Station Ave., Oaks, PA 19456)
Wear rainbow colors!
2019 Resolutions:
GC2020 Delegate Nominations:
- GC2020 Clergy Delegate Nominee Bios
- GC2020 Laity Delegate Nominee Bios
- All Delegate Nominee Profiles, Edited plus photos (recommended for printing)
Other Resources:
Nominations from the floor:
Nominations for 2020 delegates to General Conference may be made from the floor for both clergy and laity. To nominate a person from the floor, 10 valid nominators are needed. To be valid a nominator may not have already nominated 10 persons, with clergy nominators needed for clergy and lay nominators needed for laity. To be nominated, the completed nomination form must be signed by the person being nominated, and submitted along with 500 copies of a biographical statement to the Judge of Elections.