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    United Methodists of Upper New YorkLiving the Gospel. Being God's Love.


    Perspectives: NEJ 2016

    NEJ 2016 begins Monday!

    July 7, 2016 / By Bill Allen

    Next week, July 11-15, 2016, the UNY Conference will be sending 28 delegates to the the NEJ Conference in Lancaster, PA. While there we will work with delegates from the other Annual Conferences in the NEJ to vote on resolutions, affirm a budget, and, most importantly, discern two new bishops for our Jurisdiction. 

    We have been hard at work as a delegation over the last 12 months. 

    We met together six times during which:

    • We worshipped God and prayed for wisdom and discernment for the tasks which were set before us
    • We worked on creating strong, relational bonds within our delegation
    • We used ZOOM in order to allow delegation members who could not be there in person to be present in the meetings.
    • We developed ground rules for our Holy Conferencing and discernment processes
    • We finalized the entire process for the endorsement of potential episcopal candidates from Upper New York
    • We organized all sorts of logistics for both General and Jurisdictional Conferences
    • We listened to various groups who wished to present their concerns to us about issues that were coming before those of us who attended General Conference
      - We presented two potential episcopal candidates to Annual Conference (Cathy Hall Stengel and Beckie Sweet) who were endorsed by UNY to be sent to Jurisdictional Conf in July.

    In short, our meeting times were packed with prayer, relationship building, decision-making, and logistics. I think it’s fair to say we worked hard, sensed the presence of the Lord, and had a good time!

    A few words on the episcopal process:

    One of the primary responsibilities of the delegation is to facilitate the process of determining whom, if anyone, to bring to the Annual Conference for potential endorsement as an episcopal candidate. Those chosen are then sent on to Jurisdictional Conference, where they are voted on by all the delegations in the NEJ to determine who will be the new bishops in our jurisdiction.

    We took this process very seriously. We realized that we had the opportunity to set some precedents for future UNY delegations. None of these things are binding, of course, but they do offer wisdom for those who face these decisions in the future.

    Some decisions we made for this year’s process:

    • Each delegate is allowed to vote his/her own conscience
    • A timeline was developed to gather nominations from the Annual Conference
    • Episcopal nominees needed only to be nominated by one person
    • All nominees who accepted the nomination would be interviewed
    • Because the Book of Discipline gives each jurisdiction the authority to determine the percentage of votes needed to elect a bishop, and because the NEJ has decided that the threshold for election is 60% of voting delegates, we decided to have the UNY threshold also be 60% for a nominee to be recommended by the delegation to Annual Conference as a potential episcopal candidate.
    • We were at peace in recommending to the AC multiple candidates, one candidate, or no candidates

    We ask for your prayers as we embark on this important work of choosing the next bishops for the NEJ. Please know that we are deeply appreciative that the lay people and clergy of UNY have entrusted us with this opportunity to serve. 

    Blessings,

    Bill Allen
    Head of the 2016 UNY Delegation to General and Jurisdictional Conferences 

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    With more than 100,000 members, United Methodists of Upper New York comprises of more than 675 local churches and New Faith Communities in 12 districts, covering 48,000 square miles in 49 of the 62 counties in New York state. Our vision is to “live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be God’s love with our neighbors in all places."