The 56th session of the Central Appalachian Missionary Annual Conference was convened by Bishop Leonard Fairley on May 18 at the Thousandsticks United Methodist Church in Thousandsticks, Kentucky. The theme for this year’s annual conference session was “Our Journey of Hope.”
The session opened with the Memorial and Communion Service at Thousandsticks United Methodist Church, where clergy, mission institution employees and volunteers, and conference laity who died this past year were remembered. Bishop Fairley preached the message for the service.
Following a short break, the clergy and laity sessions convened and both meetings went well. The business of the clergy session had discussions about General Conference, which had ended just two weeks prior.
Following lunch and with the tap of the gavel at 1 p.m., Bishop Fairley opened the business session of the conference as the conference reconvened in the reconfigured sanctuary of Thousandsticks United Methodist Church. The Rev. Robert Amundsen, conference secretary, started with greetings, introductions of guests and announcements. The bishop’s wife, Dawn Fairley, was recognized first and received a small gift on behalf of the conference. Following regrets, the Rev. Karen Stigall, conference superintendent, came forward to recognize the clergy spouses of the conference.
Following the recognitions and regrets, Amundsen read the roll call, setting of the bar and voting instructions for the 2024 annual conference.
Following the preliminary motions, the conference heard from Red Bird Mission followed by a report of General Conference from delegation head, Amundsen, and Bishop Fairley. The rest of the session was filled with reports from the various committees, Henderson Settlement, General Council on Finance and Administration, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Publishing House.
During this time, the Rev. Daniel Henson, chair of the conference’s Council on Finance and Administration and the director of the Conference Finance Team presented the budget for 2025 of $295,000. Amundsen, conference statistician, shared that there was a loss of members of 76 but reported that the conference saw 12 baptisms in the last year. The production of the 2024 Journal to be done in house and virtual was the last item of business in the plenary session.
In the afternoon Mission Celebration service, four of our conference staff were recognized as Global Ministries Certified Earthkeepers, which lead into the introduction of our conference mission offering for the Hope Harvest-Food Insecurity Initiative in the Conference.
The Rev. Karen Kluever, clergy member in the Kentucky Annual Conference and minister of church relations and development at Hinton Rural Life Center in Hayesville, North Carolina, preached at the Mission Night service where around $3,000 was collected for the Hope Harvest Food Insecurity Initiative. This year’s Harry Denman Award for Evangelism recipients were Dr. William David Woods (Laity), Rebecca Whittle (Young Adult) and Pastor Nathan Lewis for the clergy.
The churches of the conference were recognized for Special Sunday, 5-Star and apportionment giving. The appointments were read at the end of the service. The appointments found four churches open for appointment, on church sharing two pastors and the Revs. Daniel Henson and Amundsen were named as co-conference superintendents in addition to their pastoring of two churches each. Following the reading of the appointments, Bishop Fairley issued an invitation to ministry.
Bishop Fairley opened the floor to receive invitations to host the 2025 annual conference. Beverly United Methodist Church offered to host next year’s annual conference with help from other churches. The invitation was accepted to have the 56th session of annual conference at Beverly United Methodist Church next year on May 9-10. The annual conference concluded with a Benediction from Bishop Fairley.
— The Rev. Robert Amundsen, conference co-superintendent, conference secretary, conference statistician, director of connectional ministries, director of Conference Administrative Team