The Journey

Today we are at Annual Conference… that place where United Methodist Clergy and Laity delegates get together each year to discuss the business of the Annual Conference. This afternoon we were in the clergy session – where only clergy are allowed in and we discuss the changes of categories of ministers… i.e. being commissioned or ordained, status changes like going on disability or leaving the conference or leaving the ministry. Now the retirees have gone through a mound of paperwork and meetings with the conference in order to retire.

Today we made our way through all the other status changes and came to that point where we were going to deal with the elders who will be retiring this year. In front of me is a list of some 33 ministers retiring. I quickly scan this document and came to the “M” section only to find there is no Martin…