Laity tell their stories at Annual Conference 2026

By Tara Barnes | Email

Lay members to the 17th gathering of the Upper New York Annual Conference attended the conference laity session held Thursday, May 28 at the Oncenter in Syracuse, New York.

Conference Lay Leader Jessica White welcomed laity to the gathering and named the session’s speakers. Robert Mueller opened the gathering with prayer.

Upper New York Bishop Héctor Burgos-Núñez greeted those gathered.

“If the love of Christ is going to explode out of church and into our communities it’s dependent on the witness and ministry of the laity,” he said.

Laity were reminded of the joy of serving from Dr. Maggie Graham, chair of the Upper New York Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development, and Carmen Vianese shared how laypeople in Upper New York can shape the future of The United Methodist Church by serving as delegates to the 2028 General Conference.

Vianese, the current lead delegate for Upper New York, let attended know that the next General Conference takes place May 8-16, 2028, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and that the Northeast Jurisdictional Conference takes place July 10-14 of the same year, hosted by Upper New York.

Upper New York will be electing its delegates at our 2027 annual conference.

“Being a delegate to the United Methodist Church's General Conference is crucial, because it is the only body that can officially speak for the denomination, setting policy and doctrine, amending the Book Discipline,” she said. “Delegates shape the global church’s future, manage the budget, elect bishops, and vote on critical social and theological legislation.”

The Conference Council on Youth Ministry spoke about the work they’ve done together in the past year, including a mission trip to Watertown and a conference-wide confirmation celebration. They encouraged attendees to buy their one-of-a-kind t-shirts celebrating the new United Methodist vision statement as well as their Youth Service Fund branded fleece blankets to stave off the conference center chill.

A video from United Women in Faith invited women to be inspired and inspire others.

Learning about public narrative

The session then moved to leadership training titled “Telling Your Story,” based on Harvard University professor Howard Ganz’s teachings on public narrative and the power of story.

Deaconess Tara Barnes kicked off the training by saying, “When I was 15, two members of United Women in Faith registered me for annual conference, paid my fee, and drove me to and from the University of Scranton, where the Wyoming Annual Conference met each May. I didn’t know anybody at that conference. Today, I’m still part of The United Methodist Church, and still friends with people I met that very first day.” The Wyoming Conference became part of the Upper New York Conference in 2010.

“What’s your story?’ Barnes asked attendees. “There’s a reason you’re here today. There’s a reason you’re United Methodist. There’s reason you’re a Christian. Others need to hear your story and know they too can have this in their lives.”

Barnes’s son, Henry, was confirmed this spring and is attending his first annual conference this year as youth equalization member. He, along with White and fellow youth Eva Stamm helped facilitate the training.

White asked attendees if their favorite Bible passages came from the Book of Numbers, or from the genealogies or the list of laws.

“Most of us remember the stories,” she said. “The widow and the unjust judge, Hagar, Jonah and the whale, Esther, the woman at the well. Scripture gives us examples of how to be effective in our public narrative and communication.”

Henry explained that a public narrative is “the story of self, us, and now. It is a personal story to engage or inspire others. Unlike classic storytelling with a beginning, middle, and end, a narrative ends with a question, suggests a challenge, or invites others to an action.”

The laity of Upper New York were encouraged to share their story—and were given tools to help them do so. In addition to the presentation and table conversations, worksheets were included in the conference Journal.

Participants heard an example of a successful public narrative with a reading of an Op-Ed by the actor Tom Hanks in support of community colleges. Other examples of public narratives are Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” and Malala Yousafzi’s Nobel Peace Prize speech.

Some of the questions discussed included: What urgent challenges does Upper New York face right now? What is the hopeful vision of how things could be better that can inspire us to risk action? What values do we share? Who needs to hear our stories?

“Leaders who only describe problems but fail to identify a way to act and bring others together to address the problem aren’t very good leaders,” said Barnes. “If you are called to address a real challenge, you also have a responsibility to invite others to join you in action that has some chance of success.

“If we don’t author our public stories, others will, and they may not tell it in the way that we like,” she continued. “What do we want the world to know and believe about the United Methodists of Upper New York?

White reminded attendees that God is using Upper New York to do God’s work in the work and they were called to leadership for a reason.

“You’re all here because you believe the church has a role to play in making our world one that reflects God’s love,” said Stamm. “We live our faith. Faith is an action. We believe we can make a difference, together.”