In September of 2021, the
North Central Jurisdiction (NCJ) College of Bishops decided to hold a special session of the NCJ virtually rather than in-person and pare down the schedule to focus on three critical areas: the work of dismantling racism, the future United Methodist Church, and the role and deployment of episcopal leadership within the jurisdiction. The “Building Beloved Community” session will be livestreamed from
here. Bookmark this page in your browser so you can navigate to it easily on Wednesday, November 10, beginning at 8:00 a.m. CST.
The Wednesday morning session will be from 8:00 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. when
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung presiding bishop of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, preaches the opening worship.
At 8:30 a.m., a presentation and a discussion led by
Bishop Hope Morgan, retired bishop from the North Carolina Annual Conference and chairperson of the anti-racism task force for the Council of Bishops, will frame the Antiracism teaching session in two movements: truth-tellers and commitment. After, the delegates will break into small group conversations led by non-delegate facilitators.
After the lunch break, at 12:05 p.m.,
Bishop David Bard, presiding bishop for the Michigan Area and the Minnesota Annual Conference and who is also the president of the NCJ College of Bishops, will co-lead a special presentation about the Future of the Episcopacy with Rev. Sara Isbell from the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference and the NCJ Committee on Episcopacy chairperson.
At 1:45 p.m.,
Bishop Laurie Haller, presiding bishop of the Iowa and Dakotas Annual Conferences, will present on the Future of The United Methodist Church.
Following Bishop Haller at approximately 2:05 p.m., Michelle Hettmann, board member of the
Connectional Table and the Southeastern Jurisdiction, will introduce the Connectional Table visioning process the delegates will engage in during the afternoon. While the Connectional Table doesn’t expect to write a vision statement for the global UMC due to this process, the conversations will encourage and help all trying to shape the vision of the UMC moving forward and produce a written covenant. This section will include presentations and breakout group discussions. The team planning this expects feedback from the conversations to form a document for consideration of the delegates at Thursday’s plenary session.
Thursday’s sessions opening worship, led by
Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, presiding bishop of the West Ohio Annual Conference, begins at 8:32 a.m., introducing the writing team’s draft of the covenant, followed by refining and voting. The session should convene at approximately 11:00 a.m. CST.
You can find more information and a detailed schedule of the NCJ Special Session
here.
