Annual conferences in the U.S. meet in May or June. Gathering at these sessions are all clergy members and an equal number of lay members for worship, fellowship, and ministry decision-making. The bishop presides over plenary sessions, which include reports, programs, budgets, ordination services, memorial services, retirement services, and the election of delegates to Jurisdictional and General conferences (every four years). 

Our Northern Illinois Conference met in June under the theme “Yield,” taken from a line in John Wesley’s covenant prayer: “I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.” I strongly believe that annual conference session is a time to celebrate and strengthen our “connexion.” 

It’s inspiring to see clergy and lay get together at the annual conference, taking meals together, attending special dinners, supporting their caucuses, taking selfies with new and old friends, sharing about their ministries, enjoying snacks at their tables, and just being happy to be together.  

We celebrated the commissioning of three provisional elders and the ordination of a deacon, and recognized the licensing of new local pastors. We also applauded the five churches that received One Matters awards and heard their testimony of how God has used them in their community.  

Worship services were another area in which we experienced connectionalism. Many people created, designed, and developed the various worship services. Many gifts, talents, inspiring music, and other expressions of adoration helped us praise God and celebrate as God’s people. 

Annual conference sessions are an opportunity to celebrate and strengthen our “connexion.” John Wesley used the word “connexion” (the eighteenth-century spelling) to describe the network of Methodists in societies, groups, classes, and annual conferences. He believed that faith and spiritual journeys are deeply personal but not private; and because our spiritual journey is not private, we need each other, we need to live out our faith, and to be the church in the world in “connexion” with each other. Connection is relationships and connectionalism reflects the relational nature of Christian discipleship. It is the basis of the Methodist movement. 

Our Northern Illinois Conference has many reasons to celebrate. Although we are not all the same, come from diverse backgrounds, and have different opinions, we are one in Christ Jesus, and attending this annual session helps us live out our connectionalism in extraordinary ways. As we work for the kin-dom we are not islands; we are one body working together to make a difference in this world.  

Because we are one family, I encourage you to explore ways to strengthen your “connexion” with your neighbor churches, share resources with others, exchange fruitful ministry ideas, and support each other in love. 

Bishop Schwerin shared at the end of his address to the annual conference, “We must help each other yield to the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, to seek the healing of the gospel of Christ, and to seek life in Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free—all are one in Christ Jesus.” 

 Let us begin this new year “yielding” to God’s call and always finding opportunities to celebrate and strengthen our “connexion.”

Let us always remember that we are stronger together. 

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