Note: Bishop Paul Hirschy sends a monthly newsletter to all United Brethren ministers. It is called B-Mail. Here is his May 2005 edition. You can also download a PDF of the original newsletter.

Paul Hirschy, bishop

May 2005

The preparations for the US National Conference being held June 20-23, 2005, on the campus of Huntington University are well under way. The notebooks were sent to the National Conference delegates the middle of May and an additional mailing of information for the notebook will be sent early in June.

The US National Conference begins with the evening worship service at 7:00 pm on Monday, June 20, in the Zurcher Auditorium in the Merillat Center for the Arts. Tuesday and Wednesday will be full days of business. The Wednesday evening worship service will be a combined celebration with the delegates from the UB international conferences. Rev. Brian Magnus, Bishop of the Canadian National Conference and Chairman of the General Conference, will be the speaker for the evening service.

The US National Conference will finish its work on Thursday morning and adjourn by noon. The international General Conference will then begin after lunch on Thursday and continue through Friday. The sidebar on page 2 lists the twelve US National Conference representatives who will attend the General Conference.

Anyone is welcome to attend the sessions of the US National Conference and the General Conference. However, only delegates will be permitted to speak and participate in the business of the conferences. I would certainly encourage pastors and lay people from churches within driving distance of Huntington to consider attending the Monday and Wednesday evening worship experiences. If you are interested in attending the entire conference or just one day, you can contact my secretary, Sherry Rupert, for information or ask your pastor to see the non-delegate registration form which was sent to all pastors in the US National Conference.

New International Conferences

The International Executive Committee will be recommending the addition of two international conferences to the General Conference. Proposals will be presented for Mexico and the Philippines. Both of these groups of churches have been preparing the necessary documents for the General Conference consideration.

Election of New US Bishop

I have been in conversation with the nominating committee for the US National Conference. We received input from at least two of the annual conference delegations to the National Conference that indicate we should have a new bishop elected to go along with all of the new proposals and changes that are going to be made at this US National Conference. I am in agreement with this decision, because I think it will be a good psychological benefit to the US National Conference to realize that with all of the changes, we will have a new bishop to give leadership for this next term. I think it will be difficult to make all of these changes and keep the same bishop, because many would say, "We are really not changing much." I am asking you to pray for the nominees to the US National Conference and for the delegates to the US National Conference who will select the next bishop for the US National Conference.

The nominating committee is presenting the following two names (in alphabetical order) for consideration to be elected as the next US Bishop.

1. Rev. Pat Jones, senior pastor of King Street UB church in Chambersburg, Pa.

2. Rev. Ron Ramsey, senior pastor of Main Street UB church in Walbridge, Ohio.

The biographical and ministry statement from each of these candidates will be presented to the delegates of the US National Conference in an upcoming mailing. This information will also be posted on the UB website, along with other reports.

Additional Discipline Revision Material

The last three issues of the B-Mail have talked about the ideas and suggestions coming from the recommendations of the US National Board in February 2005. Two annual conferences have taken action in the past few years to refer additional information to the Discipline Revision Committee. I would like to briefly share those two items.

First is a motion from Michigan Conference to adjust the wording in our Discipline regarding the use of alcohol. Right now, the Discipline is worded in such a way that the use of alcohol is a test of membership for the local church. The suggested revision is to change the wording so that it is strongly urged that members not use alcoholic beverage. This would remove total abstention as a requirement for membership in the local church. However, we would still require total abstention for all United Brethren ministers.

The second proposal comes from Central Conference. It addresses the issue of affiliate congregations. Since the affiliate congregations were added to our structure in the late 1960s, the understanding has been that affiliate congregations would not take any new lodge members into their membership. Over 30 years have passed, and most of the remaining lodge members on the affiliate congregation rolls are quite elderly. The Central Conference proposal, in essence, asks that we permit these congregations to become full-member congregations and grandfather the few elderly lodge members on their rolls as a special exemption to our position against receiving lodge members.

Pray for the US National Conference

Since this is the last B-Mail you will receive before the US National Conference meets, I am asking that each of our local churches make this a special prayer request during the upcoming weeks and especially during the week of the National Conference. The delegates of the US National Conference will be considering some very significant and important changes as we look forward to the future ministry of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Thank you for your prayer support.