Annual Conference 2022
Rebuilding the Church
Re-membering the Body

Click HERE for the AC2022 Summary Report
Click HERE for the 2022 Annual Conference Videos.
Click HERE for details on the Bishop's Offering.
 

Congratulations to the East Central District Elders who have retired! Thank you for your ministries!

Kim Griffith 25 Years	Jim Mitchell 44 Years
Cruz Edwin Santos 32 Years	Walker Walker 20 Years

Congratulations to the East Central District clergy who were Licensed and Ordained!

Local Pastor
Brian Lawson - Zellwood UMC

Full Deacon
Michele Van Son Neill - CRAVE

Full Elder
Frank Adams - New Horizon UMC, Haines City
Nicole Logan - Pasadena Community, St Petersburg
Eliantus Valmyr - Emmanuel Haitian Mission, Orlando
Caitlin White - Stetson Wesley and Trinity UMC, DeLand

Blessings to all our Clergy with New Appointments and their ministries!

Azalea Park UMC, Orlando - Matt Findley
Bear Lake UMC, Apopka - Wade Eshelman
Edge Memorial UMC, Groveland - Linda Johnson
First Auburndale UMC - CJ Hill
Osteen UMC - Ben Collins
Solid Rock UMC, Orlando - Theo Jackson

Extensions -
Ben Collins - ECD Fresh Expressions Cultivator
Jack Jackson - United Theological Seminary
David Joseph - DeLand Counseling Co-operative
Shawn Klein - Community Church - Memphis, TN

Mark your calendars now for Annual Conference 2023 & 2024
All appointed clergy are required to attend. 

2016 Book of Discipline ¶602.8 It is the duty of every member and all provisional members and local pastors of the annual conference to attend its sessions and furnish such reports in such form as the Discipline may require. Any such person unable to attend shall report by letter to the conference secretary, setting forth the reason for the absence. Should any ordained minister in active service be absent from the session of the annual conference without a satisfactory reason for the absence, the matter shall be referred by the conference secretary to the Board of Ordained Ministry.

Florida Conference Guidance Re: Use of New BSA Affiliation Agreement

The original June 30 deadline for the expiration of the current BSA charter agreements has now been extended to October 31, 2022. There is no need for you to do anything at the current time regarding your relationship with the BSA.

Late last week a meeting was hosted by the BSA/UMC Team and the General Commission on United Methodist Men Center for Scouting Ministries. The primary purpose of that meeting was to introduce the new Affiliation Agreement that is being offered to replace the former Charter Agreement and to explain the process of entering into the new Affiliation Agreements with your local Scouting Units and Councils. During that meeting, it was also discussed that the BSA was agreeable to the continued use of a Facilities Use Agreement.

Many questions and concerns were raised during that meeting, not only related to the language of the new Affiliation Agreement, but also related to the logistics of having every church that sponsors a Scouting unit enter into agreements before the June 30, 2022 deadline. As noted above, the United Methodist Church has negotiated with the Boy Scouts of America to extend the deadline to enter into new agreements until October 31, 2022, extending the current Charters or Facility Use Agreements an additional 120 days.

In the meantime the United Methodist Church and the Boy Scouts of America will execute an interim agreement, in which the Boy Scouts will agree that the detailed insurance and indemnity provisions of the new agreement will go into effect immediately for all UMC entities engaged in Scouting whether they currently operate under a Charter Agreement or a Facility Use Agreement with their Scouting Unit. This will also give time for a new standard Facility Use Agreement, approved by both the Boy Scouts and the United Methodist Church, to be completed and made available to local churches.

A new standard Facility Use Agreement is important to the leadership of the Florida Conference. After reviewing the new Affiliation Agreement that was presented last week, we do not recommend that churches use the new Affiliation Agreement with their local scouting units, but instead use the new standard Facility Use Agreement when it becomes available. We do not feel that the new Affiliation Agreement adequately protects the local churches from potential liability claims brought against them arising from incidents that happen during Scouting activities. As a result, we are recommending that churches which wish to host a Scouting unit at their church, enter into the new Facility Use Agreement that will be issued soon instead of the new Affiliation Agreement that was published last week. We believe this is in the best interest of the mission of the local church and scouting.

If your church decides to discontinue its relationship with the BSA your church may be presented with a “Release Letter” by your local council. We recommend that you do not sign the Release Letter as the wording of the letter is ambiguous regarding the purpose of the release.

Thank you for your patience during this extended time of uncertainty.

The Peace of the Lord,
Ken Carter                   Craig Smelser
Resident Bishop        Treasurer

Florida United Methodist Foundation has a New President!

LAKELAND (June 23, 2022 | Tita Parham) — The Florida United Methodist Foundation’s board of directors approved the Rev. Ed New as the foundation’s next president at their second quarter meeting June 18.

Rev. Ed New

New will begin his appointment July 11, succeeding the Rev. Mark Becker, who retired at this year’s annual conference session June 9. Becker will continue in a consultative capacity for six months to ensure a smooth transition.

Becker, who joined the foundation’s board in 2009 and became its president in 2015, announced his plans to retire at the foundation’s fourth quarter board meeting last year.

“I am 66 now, and I have always said that my goal is to retire by 67,” he said. “I want to be healthy and be able to enjoy retirement with my family.”

Becker and his wife, Marie, will be relocating to the Atlanta area to be near their two daughters and grandson. The plan, Becker said, is to “enjoy being close to family and do some volunteering, and perhaps a bit of traveling and writing. We are looking forward to an active retirement.”

Board member Jane Zody led the search committee to find Becker’s replacement. Don Selvage of SHR Human Resources of Lakeland consulted with the team to conduct a national search. Their work began in early January.

After an initial candidate pool of 24 applicants, a first-round group of seven and an interview group of three, the committee narrowed the choice to New and another candidate. The team recommended New to the board as the best choice for the foundation going forward.

“It is such a privilege to have been chosen as the next president of the Florida United Methodist Foundation,” New said.  “What attracted me to the role is what continues to excite me about the journey ahead — the opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and create new ones as we seek to ensure that all of our constituents, our account holders, our parishioners, our churches and our ministries have every resource they need in order to plan for a blessed and bright future.”

New was ordained an elder in full connection in the Florida Conference in 2009 and served churches in North Carolina before becoming associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Lakeland in 2013.

Rev. Mark and Marie Becker

He most recently served as associate head of school for institutional advancement at All Saints Academy in Winter Haven, where he led a fundraising campaign raising more than $500,000 annually.

He also developed a five-year strategic plan focused on boosting the school’s institutional identity and connections within the community and directed a $550,000 micro-campaign to revitalize the school’s fine arts center.

In addition to earning a Master of Divinity at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 2005, New earned an MBA at Southeastern University in Lakeland in 2017. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications and a minor in business administration from Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, in 2001.

Becker believes the future of the foundation is strong.

“The foundation does great work, and it has been a pleasure to be a part of it,” he said. “There is a strong work ethic here and a strong commitment to ministry. As long as we stick to those values, we can look forward to a very bright future.”

New and his wife, Judi, who serves as conference archivist, have three children.

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Parham is the foundation’s vice president of marketing and communications.

UMC Bishops agree to call regular sessions of jurisdictional conferences in 2022

In response to Judicial Council decision 1445, the Council of Bishops (COB) has formally set the dates for regular sessions of the Jurisdictional Conferences of The United Methodist Church (UMC) to be convened November 2-5, 2022. Click HERE to read the article.

2022 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference will be November 2-4, 2022.