Annual Conference 2005 - Friday Daily Snapshot Page

Peoria Civic Center
Photo by Hannah Edwards

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Hope and trust are on the rise in our denomination. Also I want to say that trust and hope are fragile.” – Annual Conference moderator Jim Hardenbrook, giving the moderator’s report to Standing Committee

OVERVIEW OF THE DAY
The Standing Committee of district delegates continued to meet for a third day today. Their meetings began Wednesday, June 29, and will continue through Saturday morning, July 2.

The General Board’s Executive Committee held a day of meetings in preparation for meetings of the full board on Saturday.

The Council of District Executives met all day and plans to continue meeting through the morning Saturday.

The Ministers’ Association began its annual conference this afternoon and will meet through Saturday morning on the theme, “Sustaining the Life and Ministry of God’s Servants.” The keynote speaker is Wendy Miller, assistant professor of Spiritual Formation at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.

Inside the Peoria Civic Center
Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

PREVIEW OF MAIN EVENTS AT THE 2005 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Peoria’s Carver Arena will be the site of business sessions and worship services. The Exhibit Hall will be in the Peoria Civic Center, which also will host the Conference offices. The Civic Center, the Hotel Pere Marquette, and the Holiday Inn City Centre will be the sites for meal events and insight sessions.

Worship services, which are free and open to the public, will begin with a Saturday evening service at 7:15 p.m. Worship services will continue on Sunday morning at 10:20 a.m., Monday evening at 7:20 p.m., Tuesday evening at 7:10 p.m., and Wednesday morning at 10:15 a.m.

Moderator Jim Hardenbrook and moderator-elect Ronald D. Beachley will lead delegates in business sessions beginning Sunday afternoon. Business sessions will continue on Sunday evening, Monday morning and afternoon, Tuesday morning and afternoon, and Wednesday morning.

In unfinished business, the Doing Church Business Study Committee and the Intercultural Study Committee will bring interim reports and ask for extensions. The four new business items are: an update of Annual Conference polity; an update of General Board polity; a New Mandate for the Review and Evaluation Committee, which will be appointed at this Conference to conduct the review and evaluation of denominational ministries that happens every decade; and a resolution brought by Brethren Benefit Trust regarding the Brethren Medical Plan. Delegates also will vote on a ballot and receive reports.

Closed captioning will be used in worship services and business sessions for the first time. Captions will be displayed on the large screens that show live video coverage.

Also new this year is “Alive ’05–Making Glad the City of God,” a multimedia presentation on Sunday afternoon, July 3, at about 2:30 p.m. The presentation will focus on ministries of districts, congregations, and individual members of the church. Each Annual Conference agency will give its own “live report” at another time in the business sessions.

A “Hall of Faith” of poems, prose, photographs, and drawings representing the “clouds of witnesses” who have influenced Church of the Brethren faith and life will be on display, sponsored by the Association for the Arts in the Church of the Brethren (AACB) and the Program and Arrangements Committee.

Events celebrating the Bethany Theological Seminary centennial will include an alumni choir, a centennial anthem, a luncheon, an insight session, and a presentation during a business session. Conference-goers also are invited to an open house at the seminary’s main campus in Richmond, Ind., on their way home from Peoria, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Thursday, July 7.

Onsite registration for the Conference is still available: for adults $85 for the whole Conference, $50 for the weekend, $25 for a day. A reduced fee schedule is offered for ages 12-21. Children under 12 are free. There is no charge to attend worship services only.

AN INTRODUCTION TO PEORIA
Set along the Illinois River southwest of Chicago, the Peoria area was the first European settlement in Illinois. The place was called “pimiteoui” or “fat lake” by Native Americans and French traders because of the richness of the river valley.

Nearly 350,000 people live in metropolitan Peoria, which is about a three-hour drive from Chicago and almost next door to the university towns of Bloomington and Normal, Ill.

The famous question, “Will it play in Peoria?” originated in the town’s vaudeville era of the 1920s, when Peoria was a test audience for new live acts and stage shows because it was viewed as the typical American town.

Today Peoria hosts the world headquarters and several plants for Caterpillar Inc., a major manufacturer of engines and earth-moving equipment. It also is the site of Bradley University and the home of the Peoria Chiefs, a minor league baseball team.

For more information see www.peoria.org.

Members of the 2005 Annual Conference news team, a ministry of the General Board, contributed to this report: Regina Roberts, Jesse Reid, Hannah Edwards, and Sarah Kovacs, photographers; Kathleen Campanella, Karen Garrett, Jill Kline, Frank Ramirez, Frances Townsend, Sarah Leatherman Young, and Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, writers; Amy Heckert, technical support; Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford and Becky Ullom, editors.