November 10, 2022
Greetings!
The past two weeks have been eventful and we thought it would be helpful to update you.
- Jurisdictional Conferences met last week. The major news from this meeting of the Southeastern Jurisdiction in Lake Junalauska, NC. is that Bishop Leonard Fairley was re-appointed to Kentucky and Central Appalachia Conferences. Bishop Fairley will therefore remain our episcopal leader for the next four years.
- General Conference in 2024 dates and location has been released. The Conference will be held in Charlotte, NC from April 23 - May 3, 2024.
- The Global Methodist Church launches a new conference in Kentucky. As we previously communicated, the GMC opened for business in May of this year and we expected to see a movement within some churches in Kentucky to align with them through the process of disaffiliation. The other news out of the GMC is that Mike Powers will be leading the process of organizing the GMC in Kentucky. I am personally very happy for Mike and know he will do a great job.
- A UMC congregation in Lexington is voting to disaffiliate in December. This is the first congregation in Fayette County to call a Church Conference and take a vote to leave the UMC. Out of respect for them I am not going to name the church but did want you to know so that you are not surprised.
Let me remind us that nothing has changed for Lexington First UMC. We continue to do the discernment needed to prepare for the impending split of the denomination at General Conference 2024. We are not looking at disaffiliation and instead are knee deep in the work that will lead to and through whatever General Conference 2024 may bring.
All the information about the process we are following can be found on the website at lextogether.org/generalconference. Let me encourage you to review the links to previous emails and take a listen to season 5 and season 4 of the Leaders Podcast.
As always, I love to hear from you if you have questions. You may contact me here.
All my best,
Todd
