March 3, 2021
Clergy News
March Worship Service Honors Women
The Alabama-West Florida Conference is honoring Women's History Month in March. The monthly collaborative worship service linked below will premiere on Facebook on March 21 for public views. We invite you to stream this worship service on your Facebook page, share with your congregation through email, or stream at your regularly scheduled worship time so that you may have time away.
Welcome: Dawn Wiggins Hare, COSROW General Secretary
Prayer Experience: Rev. Virginia Kagoro, South Brookley & New Life UMCs
Musical Offering: Kory Boyett, Thomasville UMC
Scripture: Katy Wrona, COT Director
Message: Rev. Kristen Wright, Ashland Place UMC
Click here for service.
2021 Annual Conference Information, Registration Live
Due to the continued threat of COVID-19, Annual Conference 2021 will be held virtually through Zoom webinar. Several important services will be by invitation only to honor the work of pastoral candidates. The Zoom clergy session will be held on Sunday, May 23, 2021, from 4:00-6:00pm and the Zoom four-day annual conference session will be held June 6-9, 2021. Two of the four days will be morning-only sessions (Tuesday and Wednesday). A non-voting live stream option will be available for guests. A working agenda for the annual conference is available by clicking here. The theme for Annual Conference 2021 is, "Come to the Table" based on Luke 24:35. Registration is now live and may be found here.
Upcoming Trainings for Clergy
Bolsinger Headlines Next Bishop's Time Apart
Join us for another Bishop’s Time Apart on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, with Tod Bolsinger. Most known for, "Canoeing the Mountains," Bolsinger serves as vice president and chief of leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has extensive experience in church and nonprofit consulting and executive coaching, and writes infrequent weblogs on church and leadership formation. His faculty role at Fuller includes teaching the Practices of Vocational Formation class and a cohort in Leading Change for DMin students. Registration is now live and may be found here. Click here to access video from the Susan Beaumont time apart that was held on February 4, 2021.
Additional AWF "Reboot Recovery" Trainings Offered
Rev. Ashley Davis and Celeste Eubanks will be leading Reboot Recovery trainings starting Thursday, April 8, 2021. The complete training will take place over three, two-hour sessions. Over the past year, Rev. Davis and Celeste have led these trainings with clergy, lay leaders, and board of laity members in our conference. Due to requests to offer Reboot Recovery to a larger demographic of people throughout the conference, these trainings will be open to any AWF clergy and laity who wishes to enroll. Registration is required (see links below). Please note that to complete the full training, you must attend all three training dates. CEUs will be awarded. More information on Reboot Recovery can be found here.
Registration Links:
Reboot Recovery (Sessions 1 & 2) – Thursday, April 8 @ 5:30pm CT
Reboot Recovery (Sessions 3 & 4) – Thursday, April 22 @ 5:30pm CT
Reboot Recovery (Session 5 & Final Wrap-up) – Thursday, May 6 @ 5:30pm CT
Clergy Resources and Tools
UMCOR Sunday is March 14
UMCOR Sunday celebration is March 14, 2021. This offering is collected on the fourth Sunday in Lent and provides major support for immediate assistance in the wake of natural and human-caused disasters and helps support ongoing ministries of food, shelter, health and peace. UMCOR Sunday giving allows 100 percent of designated gifts to be used for the specified disaster response or other ministry. Our conference has been the beneficiary of multiple grants from UMCOR after devastating natural disasters. More here.
Join the Easter Virtual Choir!
(Discipleship Ministries) - Last year we created an opportunity for United Methodists worldwide to join in a Virtual Choir Easter video. The virtual choir brought people together from different countries, congregations, and communities, providing the sense that we are united even in the midst of a pandemic. We are announcing a new opportunity to be a part of a worldwide video for Easter Sunday. Congregations from all around will be able to use these videos in their upcoming Easter worship services and post to social media. It’s easy to participate. More here.
Walking Program 2021
Welcome to the AWFUMC Wellness program. 2020 was without a doubt a challenging year. While some of you were able to make your health and wellness a priority, others were not able to do so. The conference would like to partner with you to help you prioritize your health. All we need is a few motivated folks with some good walking shoes, a willing spirit and a desire to get healthy and have some fun. On February 15th, we started a walking challenge that will take us on a virtual journey around the bounds of the Alabama-West Florida Conference, from Chilton county, down to Gulf County, over to Mobile and all the way back up to Bibb, until we have made a complete circuit. You have heard the term circuit riders, we will be circuit walkers! More here.
