Bishop's Challenge

Bishop Hopkins has issued a challenge to every Annual Conference member in hopes of raising a significant offering to support the 3C’s Mission Initiative: It is his hope that local churches will send $100 along with each conference member, enabling entire congregations to pull together and play a role in funding this initiative through a special offering in Lakeside.

Checks for this purpose should be made payable to East Ohio Conference and marked for Fund #9936. For a church to receive credit for mission giving please have the check in an envelope with a note that identifies the church for which the special offering is to be credited.

Annual Conference
promises a time of Hope and Healing

For four days in June, Lakeside will be a haven of Hope and Healing – the theme of this year’s Annual Conference. From June 14-17, speakers invited by East Ohio Conference resident bishop Rev. John L. Hopkins will share their thoughts and messages, and there will be a day of workshops centered on the conference theme.

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of Mississippi will be the first of the conference’s three planned speakers with a presentation on Tuesday, June 15. Elected to her position and appointed to the state in 2004, Ward is believed to be the first woman to lead a mainline denomination in Mississippi and is only the second female bishop elected to serve in The United Methodist Church’s nine-state Southeastern Jurisdiction.

Growing up as a seventh-generation resident of the Morgan family farm in North Carolina, Ward experienced a family life centered in the Wesleyan tradition with weekly worship, Sunday school, vacation Bible school, youth choir, youth fellowship, covered dish dinners and mission projects.

She went on to graduate from Duke University and then became youth director of Fairmont United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C., where she discovered love of ministry and mission. Ward later served 10 years as pastor of Soapstone United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C. and became superintendent of the Raleigh District in the North Carolina Annual Conference.

Hope and Healing-themed workshops are planned for Wednesday, along with a presentation by guest speaker Dr. Scott Morris, a family physician, ordained United Methodist minister, and founder of the Memphis, Tenn., Church Health Center clinic.

Dr. Morris, who also wrote the book “I Am the Lord Who Heals You: Reflections on Healing, Wholeness, and Restoration,” has long advocated strong ties between health, wellness and faith, believing in a responsibility to take care of the bodies God gave us. He writes regularly on healthcare issues and the church’s role in both community and individual wellness practices.

The Church Health Center opened in 1987 with the goal of providing quality, affordable healthcare for working uninsured people and their families, and has since become the largest faith-based clinic of its type in the country. The center cares for more than 50,000 patients of record without relying on government funding.

Its outreach staff also offers training to start and strengthen health ministries, and its online ministry, HopeandHealing.org, offers a forum for sharing its resources, ideas and encouragement.

East Ohio’s own Rev. Orlando Chaffee, superintendent of the North Coast District of the United Methodist Church, will close out the speakers’ slate on Thursday, June 17.
Originally from Detroit, Chaffee grew up in the suburbs southeast of Cleveland and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University and Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.

His first appointment was a two-point charge as part-time associate pastor at Cory United Methodist Church, and full-time pastor at Willson United Methodist Church. He later served as pastor at Windermere United Methodist Church in East Cleveland and returned to Cory UMC as senior pastor.

Extremely active in the life of the greater church and community, Chaffee has served on many East Ohio Conference teams, groups, committees and councils, and was the superintendent of the Mahoning Valley District.