Home / Assembly2010 / Pre-Conference...

Pre-Conference Events (Optional)

Three optional pre-conference events will be offered this year: Ubuntu Day of Service, Mission Forward Symposium and the Deaconess/Home Missioner Commissioning. Ubuntu Day of Service and Mission Forward are both offered all day on Thursday, April 29. You can register for them when you register for Assembly. Because they are both happening on Thursday, you may only select one or the other. The Deaconess/Home Missioner Commissioning is open for all, with no registration required.

Ubuntu Day of Service
Mission Forward
Deaconess/Home Missioner Commissioning

Ubuntu Day of Service

“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu: A person is a person through other persons”

A South African saying

Ubuntu is a unique word, a concept, a worldview which captures the very essence what it is to be human. A Zulu phrase, Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu says, “I am only because we are, and since we are, therefore I am.” It recognizes each human being as part of a community. Above all, it is a gathering of God’s people to celebrate God-with-us, Immanuel, who moves us to action on behalf of neighbor. Ubuntu is a celebration of being in community with people as mission.

Ubuntu Day of Service, a pre-conference experience on Thursday, April 29, is designed to celebrate mission as relational. Field Trips offer opportunities to experience how communities are impacted by persons and systems are how people are making a difference.

For $50, Ubuntu Day of Service includes:

A day of giving back to the community
Bus transportation to and from field trip sites, as well as service options at the America’s Center
Lunch
An Ubuntu Day T-shirt

Types of work opportunities are available. You can indicate your first, second, and third choices on the online registration form. Due to limited space, all selections are based on a first come, first serve basis.

Administration: Filing, envelope stuffing, etc.
Personal Interaction: After-school activities, arts and crafts, work with youth, teaching English as a second language, work with seniors.
Light Work: Food bank help, packing, sorting items.
Heavier Work: Yard work, painting, beautification projects, gardening.

Ubuntu Day of Service Schedule:

8:00-8:30am	Gathering
8:30-9:15	Orientation
9:15-9:45	Commissioning Service
9:45-10:00	Assignments and Boarding Buses
10:05	Travel to Worksites/Inside Work Assignments
12:00-2:00pm	Lunch (Determined by worksite logistics)
3:00-3:30	Return to America’s Center
3:30-5:00	Closing Celebration

Mission Forward: Lay Women, Vocation & Calling

The Mission Forward Symposium, an optional pre-conference event on Thursday, April 29, offers an opportunity to learn where mission has been, the changes and shifts that have happened in being in mission, and how to engage in forward-looking mission. Mission scholars, mission practitioners and church leaders share their insights on mission.

In a one-day symposium, we will listen to presentations and panel discussions on:

What is the multi-layered story of mission about?
What are the stories of persistence?
What is it to do mission in a pluralistic society?
How does context determine mission within the U.S. and abroad?
What is the nature of calling today?
How to live into God’s calling for mission today and tomorrow?

We will have interactive conversations, music and visuals that engage us in the synergy of God’s mission inviting us to live into the story of transforming mission yet to be told.

For $50, Mission Forward includes:

A series of panels on mission history, vocation and the future of mission
Lunch
Keynote address by Dana Robert, author of the 2010 Mission Study
A packet of “Mission Forward” resources

Mission Forward Schedule:

9:15-9:45am	Worship Service
10:00-10:40	Keynote Address by Dana Robert, author of 2010 Mission Study, “World Mission in an Age of Global Christianity."
10:45-12:15pm	Panel I: Mission History
12:15-2:00	Lunch (Provided)
2:00-3:30	Panel II: Mission Context
3:45-4:45	Panel III: Mission: Vocation & Calling
4:45-5:00	“A Charge to Keep” by Inelda González, President, UMW & Harriett J. Olson, Deputy General Secretary, Women’s Division.

Deaconess/Home Missioner Commissioning

When: 7:00 pm Thursday, Apr. 29, 2010

Where: Centenary United Methodist Church, 1610 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO 63103

Come to St. Louis and share in a sacred moment in the lives of men and women who, through faith and hope have determined to live love in action. The Deaconess/Home Missioners candidates will be commissioned at Centenary UMC, an historic St. Louis church foundationally linked to the Deaconess/Home Missioner program through the services of Deaconesses that lived and worked with the church through the mid-1800's.

The service will take place on Thursday, Apr. 29, a sacred culmination of the United Methodist Women Assembly pre-conference events. Thousands of members will arrive for Assembly in St. Louis a day early to either work with the community of St. Louis for Ubuntu Day of Service, or attend the Mission Forward Symposium. A reception will follow the service.

Deaconesses and Home Missioners are uniquely tied to the United Methodist Church in a lifetime of commitment of service. This Office is the singular path for those who wish to dedicate their lives to the church in a full-time vocational calling under the authority of the Church as laity.

When making plans for Assembly 2010, be sure to be in service on Apr. 29, and stand with those who have responded to a calling by God to lifetime ministries of love, justice and service. Join us for this sacred moment.