2020 West Virginia Annual Conference

On Aug. 1-2, 2020, A Special Called Session of the Annual Conference was held at 12 locations, connected virtually across the conference, in addition to a livestreamed Celebration of Ministry and a Service of Baptism and Ordination. This format and schedule replaced the original planned gathering at Wesley Chapel on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College.  

Dates of conference gathering:

Clergy session: June 6 (webinar, 10 a.m.)

Laity session: July 24 (webinar, 7 p.m.)

Annual Conference sessions: Aug. 1-2

• Legislative sessions (in person), Aug. 1, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
• Celebration of Ministry (Livestream), Aug. 1, 5 p.m.
• Baptism & Ordination service (Livestream): Aug. 2, 10 a.m.

To provide for safe distancing and short time in on-site meetings, the agenda of the Special Annual Conference was limited to those items requiring annual votes by delegates, as governed by conference, Discipline and state laws. Other matters were postponed until the scheduled June 2021 Annual Conference. Legislative work took place over two separate sessions on Aug. 1, with delegates each assigned to a one-hour time shift and location. Both sessions covered the same agenda and conducted the same votes. Only conference members in attendance at assigned sites could vote; all others participated by livestream. Votes were totaled from each session and across the 12 sites and announced later in the afternoon during a livestream of the Celebration of Ministry. Districts each facilitated meetings in at least one site, with Wesley Chapel maintaining the presiding table for the conference.

Officiating bishop:

Sandra L. Steiner Ball

Memorable points or quotes by speakers:

Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball said the challenges currently faced should not stop the church from being about the work of Jesus Christ. She said, instead, the challenges call for the church to continue its mission of being hope bringers to the people of West Virginia and the world. “We can be hope bringers in the midst of the challenges because hope bringers help people take the first step into a new and transformed life.”

Main actions enacted by the conference:

• Conference members approved a $12.8 million operating budget for 2021, with the same bottom line as was approved for 2020.
• Conference members approved a change in the conference’s health care plan to coverage by Cigna Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), along with a small employer exception regarding Medicare. According to Jamie O’Brien, chair of the Board of Pensions, the moves will benefit churches and the entire conference.
• The minimum salary for full-time clergy, CRSP, and medical insurance benefit were held to the same level as set in 2019.
• Approved the report from the Board of Trustees, which offered no changes from its report in 2019.

Names of delegates for 2021 General Conference (elected in 2019):

Laity:
Judi Kenaston
Rich Shaffer
Erin Sears (under 35)

Clergy:
Amy Shanholtzer
Jeff Taylor
Lauren Godwin (under 35)

• Nine persons were ordained, commissioned or received into membership by transfer.
• Two were elected to provisional membership and will be commissioned in their local settings.
• Four were elected to full membership. Of these, two were ordained during the Annual Conference session, including one elder and one deacon. Additionally, one elder was ordained later in a separate service, and one elected to full membership will be ordained elder at the 2021 Annual Conference.
• Three were welcomed into full membership by transfer from other conferences.
• 15 successfully completed the conference’s first online licensing school (in collaboration with Candler School of Theology) on July 17 and are beginning their first appointments as licensed local pastors.

Number of clergy retired:

• 20 clergy retired (10 elders, 10 associate members or licensed local pastors)

Additional information:

• Worship attendance stands at 33,829, down 6.53%.
• We had a 41% increase in participants in the Basic Lay Servant course from 2018 to 2019.
• Certified Lay Ministry continues to flourish, with 55 CLMs in 2020, increasing from 45 in 2019 (after 24 in 2018).
• We launched our first “Fresh Expressions” style new church in 2019 (New Wineskins in Parkersburg, Pastor Joe Webb).

— The Rev. Bonnie Glass MacDonald, Director of Leadership Formation & Ministry Staff, West Virginia Conference