news article
Getting Ready for Annual Conference 2018: Clergy Session and Laity Session
March 20, 2018 / By Shannon Hodson
Clergy Session and Laity Session for the 2018 Annual Conference will be held from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesday May 30 at the SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. Clergy must check in at the registration table before heading to their session.
The Clergy Session is a time for the clergy to come together for brief worship, and to fulfill the Book of Discipline responsibilities. The primary purpose of the Clergy Session is to review and approve the Business of the Annual Conference (BAC) document prepared by the Board of Ordained Ministry. In paragraph 605 of the 2016 Book of Discipline, it states that: “…Questions relating to matters of ordination, character, and Conference relations of clergy shall be the business of the clergy session.”
For the Laity Session, Upper New York’s Board of Laity has invited laypersons from the local church, District church, Conference teams, and the wider world of UMC to offer testimonies. Young people, Volunteers in Mission team members, a local church team from the Binghamton District, and others elaborate how this year’s Conference theme, “Together in Prayer: Boldly living our Call” relates to them. The UNY Conference Lay Leader, Susan Hardy, said, “This year’s laity session will celebrate the calls and courageous experiences of laypersons throughout our UNYAC.”
Be sure to have your accommodations arranged and transportation methods determined for Wednesday, May 30, so that you can attend this year’s Clergy Session and Laity Session, which for the first time take place on a Wednesday evening as opposed to Thursday morning. Please note that the shuttles from the hotels will not run on Wednesday evening.