06/21/2024
Last weekend clergy and laity from across the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church gathered for the 2024 Annual Conference. It was a great joy to come together in love and unity with our United Methodist siblings in Christ to celebrate accomplishment and growth, share in Spiritual affirmation and covenant, to honor and mourn people and places we've lost along the way, celebrate new life and new calls in our local churches, to discuss and vote on delegations and agendas for our future, and to break bread together in devotion to Christ.
As items on the agenda addressed future conferences and delegation, new clergy assignments were announced, redistricting is planned, and lots of our friends and family are now preparing for new titles, new job descriptions, new locations and congregations, we took moments to celebrate the great love we, individually and collectively, hold for God and for our neighbors - from UMCOR disaster relief and collecting donations for various local ministries, awarding scholarships and encouraging growth, to ensuring every person is welcome and has a seat at the table and reminding us that the Bible is not a weapon for exclusion but a tool for greater inclusion to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
We celebrated becoming an Acts church.
A truly inspiring testament of our future was the youth delegation from across North Georgia. They showed up, listened, and participated in incredible ways - including standing up for themselves and asking for increased representation of youth delegates as our conference restructures.
They received more than 97% support to increase the number of youth delegates per district.
Way to go youth! The future is yours!
Important updates regarding Sugarloaf specifically:
As you know, in the beginning of May 2024 Sugarloaf members voted as a church to stop meeting on Sunday mornings in order to prepare and welcome our North GA Conference to our Sugarloaf property and ensure a smooth transition for all. And we held our final official service on Pentecost Sunday just a few weeks ago.
At this Annual Conference, the motion for redistricting was approved to now have 5 districts in the North Georgia Conference and for the Conference offices to be moved from their current location to our Sugarloaf property - right at the center of North GA, we are at the heart of our full conference.
The move will be taking place over the next few months and we encourage our local Sugarloaf friends and family to extend a kind and loving welcome to our friends at the conference as they settle in to their new home here.
We are honored to welcome Bishop Robin Dease and the entire cabinet and excited for what the future holds!
Below are photos of our Sugarloaf laity at the 2024 Annual Conference, and a glimpse of their experience there this year.
