This year’s Annual Conference was held at Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, IN, on June 9 – 11. The theme was “Love God, Love Neighbor.”

At this year’s conference we were blessed with spirit-filled music, passionate preaching and powerful presentations and testimonies. The praise team was “The Many” from Chicago and led most worship services with both traditional and modern/creative songs. The conference business reports and motions were quickly settled, and the theme of the Annual Conference was then our main focus.

Some of the highlights included:

The Rev. Angelo Mante of Alive Community Outreach was among the presenters at the conference. Along
with the Rev. Jen Huff, he presented a powerful message about gun violence and the need to advocate for legislation.

Indiana Conference Child Protection requirements regarding Child Abuse and child safety measures were then addressed by the Rev. Shannon Stringer.

The endorsement of Rev. Dr Aleze

Fulbright as an episcopacy candidate at the Special Jurisdictional Conference. New bishops will be elected at the conference, which will be Nov. 2-5, 2022, in Fort Wayne.

The conference 2021 finance report (income $12,018,142) finished with a surplus of $692, which was added to conference reserves. Our General Church apportionment was paid at 100%.

The annual conference Missional offering was to support our Afghan “neighbors” and also our new Ukraine “neighbors.” Exodus Refugee Inc.,
which is in Indianapolis, and other immigration and resettlement agencies will be receiving gifts that total more than $102,300 as of the adjournment of annual conference.

Our conference materials support mission was for School Kits, which would be donated to the Midwest Missions Warehouse. About 2,000 school kits were collected.

The Conference honored the lives of 46 clergy and 27 spouses by lighting candles in their memory.

At the Ordination Service, eight clergy were ordained as Elders, and six were commissioned as preparing for ordination as deacon or elder.

Fifty-eight retiring clergy were honored for their combined 1,282 years of service. Twenty-one legacy churches were recognized for their many years of changing lives, though they disbanded in the last year.

In 2022, 29 congregations have completed the requirement for disaffiliation from our Annual Conference. The conference delegates voted to approve these disaffiliations. We were all reminded that even though these churches are leaving our conference, they are still our brothers and sisters in Christ — and WE STILL LOVE THEM.

You can read additional details and actions that took place at the conference by searching the Indiana Conference website, INUMC.org.