News

Transition team to present one-conference motion

By Lisa Diehl, communications director Rev. Gary Beach, second from right, makes a point during the March transition team meeting. (photo by Lisa Diehl) The Nebraska- Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team spent its final face-to-face meeting prior to the 2012 Annual Conference sessions refining its reports and reviewing lingering questions about the proposal to create one new annual conference. The team met in...

Called clergy session receives positive feedback

By Kathryn Witte, Nebraska communications director More than 250 surveys were returned from the 750 attendees of the Nebraska Kansas Episcopal Area Joint Called Clergy Session Jan. 17-19. “Hope in the Face of Change 2012” was a success according to the evaluations submitted. Overall, the feedback was positive. Clergy enjoyed getting to spend time with friends and colleagues, getting to know pastors from different conferences, learning what the three conferences have in common and...

Small-membership church dream team begins its work

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas Area Communications director A dream team established to envision vital ministry for small-membership churches in the new Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area met July 22 at Red Cloud, Neb. More than 70 people from the Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska conferences gathered together to share ideas and visions for vital small-membership congregations. The team was named by the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team to begin thinking through how resources may be...

Great Plains recommended name for the new episcopal area

The Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team made its first recommendations for the new episcopal area and the possible new annual conference Oct. 3 and 4 at its meeting in Wichita. After listening to the report of the Six-Issue Team*, named to reflect the big issues they are working on, the group agreed to recommend the new episcopal area be named the Great Plains Area when the three conferences come together under one bishop Sept. 1, 2012. The group also agreed to recommend a new...

Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area transition work continues

By Kathryn Witte, Nebraska Conference Much work lies ahead over the next few months in preparation for 2012 annual conference sessions in Kansas West, Kansas East and Nebraska. The 2012 sessions will include a binding vote on becoming one new annual conference. “For two years, we have been discussing how best to become one episcopal area,” said Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones. “Many people are excited about creating one new conference, and the five-finger votes said we should...

United Methodist Church facing changes

By Susan Cooper, Communications associate director Rev. Gil Rendle shared his thoughts on The United Methodist Church’s need for change at the 2011 Kansas West Annual Conference May 25. Rendle, a consultant for Clergy and Congregational Excellence for the Texas Methodist Foundation, has been working with the Nebraska-Kansas Area Episcopal Transition Team. “We need to start a conversation about the future,” Rendle said. “We’re facing into incredible...

Support, concern expressed on reconfiguration of conferences

By Susan Cooper, Communications associate director On May 25 in Hutchinson, members of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team presented their case in favor of combining the Kansas and Nebraska conferences. The conferences will begin sharing one bishop in 2012 due to a General Conference decision to eliminate bishops in four U.S. jurisdictions. “We’re trying to make the best of that situation,” said team member Dixie Brewster. Bishop Scott Jones told the assembly...

Three conferences express support for moving forward as one

The count is in, and the majority of people who cast ballots at the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West annual conference sessions are in support of creating one new annual conference for the United Methodist Church in the two states.   Members of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team met June 13 at Grace United Methodist Church in Topeka to review the responses to the five-finger ballots cast at the 2011 sessions of the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West annual...

Explaining the five-finger vote

The Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team decided at its April 7 meeting that they will not be forwarding a motion during the 2011 annual conference sessions (in the Nebraska and Kansas Areas) as originally planned. Instead, the team will ask for a show of support for the one-conference concept. Once feedback from the March 13, 2011, webcast was evaluated, the Transition Team determined using the Rev. Gil Rendle’s “five-finger vote” to gauge support for...

Board of Ordained Ministry registrar hired to serve three conferences

Rev. Michelle (Micki) McCorkle, of Protection, has been named the registrar for the boards of ordained ministry for the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West United Methodist conferences. She will work with and be accountable to each conference’s board of ordained ministry and report to the Kansas Area Director of Clergy and Congregational Excellence. The combined position is timely as the three conferences become one episcopal area in September 2012, as determined by the United...

Transition team modifies course for additional input, bolder future

The Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team met April 7-8 in Topeka to reflect on the feedback garnered from the March 13 webcast announcing a one-conference concept for the new Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area, which takes effect in September 2012. The team has modified the draft recommendation that was a part of the March 13 announcement. That draft contained a proposal that a vote to become one conference be taken at each of the three annual conferences’ 2011 sessions. The...

Area leadership plan leads to staffing changes

Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones presented a plan for strengthening leadership development in the Kansas Area and a related area-staffing plan at the March 26 meeting of the Kansas East Leadership Team. The plans were previously shared with and approved by the Kansas West Focus Team on March 19. “The United Methodist Church is facing an adaptive challenge,” Jones said.  That challenge has been discussed extensively by the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team and by...

Transition team names members to do technical (operational) work

By Lisa Elliott Diehl and Kathryn Witte, Kansas Area Communications director and Nebraska Communications director Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team members established two technical teams at their February meeting in Lincoln, Neb. Based on provisions in the Book of Discipline and information collected from other conferences going through similar transitions, the team approved the creation of a Joint Distributing Committee and an Asset Allocation Team. The teams were given an...

Great Plan for the Great Plains: Transition team announces recommendation to become one conference

General Conference prompts change United Methodists in Kansas and Nebraska will share a bishop beginning in 2012 under a reorganization plan announced by the South Central Jurisdiction’s (SCJ) College of Bishops in 2009. Four of the United Methodist Church’s five U.S. jurisdictions will lose a bishop in 2012 due to a 2008 decision by the denomination’s top legislative body, the General Conference. A team consisting of...

Transition team invites participation in webcast

“Great Plans for the Great Plains” is the theme adopted by the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team. Rooted In Jeremiah 29:11, the scripture communicates that there are many ways that our three conferences (Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West) can live out the call to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world The team embraces a vision that integrates the resources of the three annual conferences to meet the needs of a regional episcopal area...

Breaking down the appointment process

By Susan Cooper and Trish Johnson  Kansas Area Communications associate director and Nebraska Area Communications coordinator LINCOLN, Neb.—The process of appointing pastors is spelled out in the “Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church.” While all annual conferences follow the guidelines of the Book of Discipline, the Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska cabinet deans all are in agreement that a great deal of prayer and careful contemplation...

No secrets: Episcopal Area Transition Team announces general direction

By Lisa Elliott Diehl and Kathryn Witte Kansas Area Communications director Nebraska Conference Communications director TOPEKA—Tom Watson, chairperson of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team, wants people in all three conferences to know that it is not a secret process when it comes to figuring out how the two episcopal areas will align as one in September 2012. “There's sometimes a sense that decisions are made and people have been left out of the process,”...

Conferences find they’re more alike than different

By Lisa Elliott Diehl and Kathryn Witte Kansas Area Communications director and Nebraska Area Communications director MANHATTAN—“Each time scripture contains the words, ‘Be not afraid,’ the next verse usually contains something bold that will scare you,” consultant Gil Rendle told the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team. “If ever there was a time to be bold, this is it,” he continued. Rendle, a United Methodist elder, is senior consultant...

Team begins to hone in on mission field, big questions

By Lisa Elliott Diehl Communications director WICHITA—Members of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team will be inviting clergy and laity from the three conferences to join the conversation at the Annual Conference sessions this May and June. The team has formed three subgroups to work on a communication strategy for their work, defining the mission field and identifying the questions a plan for the new episcopal area must address. Some of those questions will be asked at...

Episcopal Area Transition Team seeks to ask the right questions

By Kathryn Witte Director of Nebraska Area Communications LINCOLN, NE—“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” With this reading from Isaiah 43, Nebraska Area Bishop Ann Sherer-Simpson opened the second meeting of the Episcopal Area Transition Team. The team is tasked with determining the best way to merge the Kansas and Nebraska areas, which was directed by vote of the...