It's Off To Annual Conference

To: all my friends who don't know much about the United Methodist Church and those who do.

Subject: Annual Conference is the yearly meeting of our churches of the state of Missouri.
We hear reports, conduct business, set the budget and end with the appointment of our pastors to their churches for the next year.

I attended my first Annual Conference in 1960. A lot of changes have been made down through the years. The thing I anticipate the most is to see persons I haven't seen for a while. I will not be in much of the business sessions. I will attend the retirees luncheon on Saturday. I will spend a lot of time at the booth for the Credit Union (I'm on the board). I'll probably have a number of my poetry books with me!!!! I anticipate attending the ordination of the pastor who is coming to the church I attend.

After a year not serving a church, I will be appointed to serve a small church along with another retired minister. I'm surprised I said "Yes" but having met the leaders of that church and talking to the minister with whom I will be working, I'm excited about the opportunity. I won't be tied down every Sunday and I really, really enjoy the entire process of preaching.

I don't have a laptop so I will not be updating the blog until the first of the week. This would be a good time for you to log in and read some of the old poems again. Do you suppose I might write several poems while I'm at Conference? Probably. Right now I'm working on a poem about "seein' as how."