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204th Annual Meeting will put forth a new, younger face
March, 2003
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204th Annual Meeting
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The 204th Annual Meeting, to be held June 6 – 7 at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, will have a decidedly younger face than usual this year.
The theme of the Meeting is: “Widening the Welcome; joining generations”
and it will be focused on ministry to and by young adults.
“We are involving a lot of young adults in this Meeting,” said Joanna
Bickford, who staffs the Annual Meeting planning committee. “We are
really trying to model ministry with young adults, rather than solely
trying
to talk about how to do it.”
The presenters will be two young adults: Matthew Myer-Boulton, Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching at Andover Newton Theological School; and his wife, Elizabeth Myer-Boulton, pastor of Hope Church in Roslindale. The moderator, Daniel Smith, is also a young adult; he is associate pastor of the Hancock United Church of Christ in Lexington.
On Saturday, the majority of small group ministries and workshops will be led by young adults, and several young adults are a part of the worship planning committee.
“We have tried to involve young adults in every aspect of the meeting, said Bickford, the Associate for Administration.
This is the third year that the Annual Meeting theme has been based on one of the four initiatives of the Conference’s Vision for Renewal and Growth.
The third initiative of the Vision places emphasis on ministry with young adults and youth, but Bickford said that those two ministries are so different that the planning committee felt that focusing on both would be too difficult.
“The committee felt that our churches know how to do youth ministry. Young adult ministry is where the questions are, so providing a forum for those questions seemed to be a worthwhile subject,” she said.
Youth will be involved in this year’s Meeting in a new way, however, as plans are being developed for teams of youth and adults to take part in a mission project in the Mount Holyoke area at the end of the Meeting, on Sunday, June 8.
“We want to send the message that the church is not just in the pews, but it is out there, serving the community,” said Carl McDonald, Associate for Youth and Young Adult Ministries. “And this project will be one attempt to find more ways to have youth and young adults attend Annual Meeting.”
Another change in the format of this year’s Meeting: Saturday’s closing worship will be held after dinner, instead of before.
“The committee felt that the plenary session last year was too rushed, so this will give us more time,” Bickford said. “We are also hoping more people will stay overnight Saturday night, and take part in the evening activities that are being planned as well as the mission project on Sunday.