Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506200032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At its annual meeting in Roanoke, the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church approved a series of other resolutions Saturday as well as petitions to next year's governing meeting of the national denomination.
The national church's Board of Church and Society has voted to recommend that the General Conference delete language in the Book of Discipline saying the church "does not condone" homosexual activity and considers it "incompatible with Christian teaching." The 1992 General Conference rejected similar proposals to eliminate or weaken the rule.
A sentence in the Virginia resolution calling for the dismissal of homosexual pastors was ruled out of order by Bishop Thomas B. Stockton. The modified resolution passed overwhelmingly on a show of hands.
The delegates, representing congregations from all parts of the state except Southwest Virginia, also will ask the national church to amend its rules to allow bishops to call meetings of their conferences less often than once a year.
Alvin Horton, an ordained minister and editor of the state Methodist magazine, estimated that each annual meeting costs Virginia congregations and the conference at least $1 million. If bishops, who have statutory authority to set the date of the meetings, could call them every other year, that would result in substantial savings for a denomination that is already dipping into reserves to pay for programs, Horton said in defending his proposal.
His recommendation would not mandate that bishops call meetings less frequently.
In other action Saturday, delegates rejected two proposals that would have limited local congregations' authority to set their ministers' salaries. They also soundly defeated a resolution that would have taken funds from United Methodist-related colleges in the state for failing to effectively ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages on campus.
Annual Conference is also the time when churches that are to have new ministers get the official announcement of those appointments, although the changes usually are common knowledge in the congregations by the time the meeting is held.
Several congregations in the Roanoke Valley District will have new pastors beginning next month.
The Rev. Jerry O. Campbell is leaving Greene Memorial United Methodist Church in downtown Roanoke to serve Larchmont church in Norfolk. His replacement at Greene Memorial will be the Rev. Robert L. Watts, who comes from Washington Street United Methodist in Alexandria.
Watts' position will be filled by the Rev. Gregory L. Adkins, who is leaving Roanoke's Raleigh Court congregation. Adkins will be succeeded by the Rev. William B. Ramey Jr. of Chester United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Jeanne T. Finley comes from Danville to be pastor of Newport/Mount Olivet in Newport. She succeeds the Rev. Alan D. Thorne, who becomes associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Salem.
The Rev. Robert H. Garner is retiring from the pastorate at Goodwin Memorial United Methodist Church in Salem. He will be replaced by the Rev. James Angle, who moves from St. James church in Ferrum.
The Buchanan "charge" - a circuit of four congregations near Buchanan - will be served by the Rev. James W. Tinney, who comes from Blue Grass. He replaces the Rev. Donald M. Warrick Jr., who moves to Kilmarnock.
And at Blacksburg United Methodist, the Rev. Lynne Alley-Grant gets her first appointment as associate pastor.
Ministers in the United Methodist Church serve at the pleasure of the bishop. The church operates on a system of pastoral rotation called itinerancy. Though a pastor may serve as little as one year in a particular congregation, lengths of service now routinely last five years or more.
by CNB