news article
Getting Ready for Annual Conference: The Service of Commissioning and Ordination
April 30, 2018 / By Anne Canfield
The Service of Commissioning and Ordination of The Upper New York Annual Conference, will be held Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 2 p.m. in the SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. Upper New York Area Resident Bishop, Mark J. Webb, will preside with the full Upper New York Area Cabinet in attendance. Bishop Dennis V. Proctor, North Eastern District, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, will be the preacher.
Bishop Proctor's Sermon will be: "Living In Crete," based on the Epistle Lesson from; Titus 1:5. We look forward to hearing Bishop Proctor's mighty proclamation of The Holy Scripture. Surely, the Holy Spirit will be present to meld heart and minds together as The Call is answered. These candidates for ministry, will become our newly commissioned, ordained, and recognized members of our Annual Conference.
By answering God's Call, these men and women have chosen by God's grace," to serve rather than be served, to proclaim the faith of the church and no other, to look after the concerns of God above all" (words taken from the ordinal of the upcoming service). The following persons ministries will be celebrated as persons set apart by God for ministry:
- To Be Commissioned for the Work of a Deacon: Jessica Glaser
- To Be Commissioned for the Work of an Elder: Cheryl Ann Brown, Raymond C. Gilman IV, Linda Haight, Danyal Mohammadzadeh, Melissa MK McCarthy, Hector D. Rivera, and Lisa Dawn Taylor
- To be Received as an Associate Member: James Edward Barnes II
- To Be Ordained to the Order of Elder: Stephanie Jo Brown, Kevin Duane Slough, and Paul D. Winkelman.
Special Music will be led by Casowasco's Praise Band:"InsideOut," and The Elder Trio, from our Conference's Board of Ordained Ministry. We look forward to hearing the musical gifts of Mr. Fred Willard, Accompanist and Mr. Jeff Stockham, Trumpeter.
The culmination of the service will be when Bishop Webb invites new persons from the congregation to answer God's claim upon their lives as ordained, commissioned, and local pastors Let us be in prayer for those being ordained, commissioned and received into our Annual Conference as new clergy of Christ' Church, in The Upper New York Conference of The United Methodist Church. Let us pray for those who upon hearing Bishop Webb's invitation to ordained and licensed local pastor ministry, will respond in faith, by God's grace: "Here I Am Lord, send me to serve your Church.”