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Bay District clergy and laity, get the New Year off to a great start – attend the Bay District Mission Strategy Event, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., at New Vision United Methodist Church in Millbrae, California.   Be energized by this time of inspiring worship and innovative planning, as an intentional growth strategy for the district is launched.   Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño will speak about the vision for the new Bay District, while church growth consultant Jim Griffith will begin ...

By this time of year, we would normally have started the process of the Annual Statistical Return.  However, as a result of delays at GCFA, we're not able to start – yet!   I hope we will be ready by January 1, 2019, and I will be writing to all churches as soon as possible. Please check our web section at https://www.cnumc.org/statistics for the latest information.  –Adrian Pell

The Western Jurisdiction communicators are pooling their talents and resources to curate a contextual digest of the special called session of General Conference in February 2019, in the form of a limited-edition newsletter for the Western Jurisdiction. Because of your interest in conference and district news, you have been included in the subscriber email list. This exclusive newsletter will only have seven editions. On January 6 you'll see the first publication, which will include an Epiphany ...

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,   As co-chairs of the California-Nevada Conference Delegation, we want to thank you again for the confidence you have placed in our delegation to represent the conference at the special called General Conference 2019 in St. Louis, MO, February 23 to 26, 2019.   Our delegation has been meeting monthly to prepare ourselves for the GC since September of 2017. We have invited caucuses of our conference for conversations to hear their thoughts on the various plans ...

By Jenny Copello Development Coordinator/Executive Asst., The Endowment Board   Beginning November 8, 2018 and lasting 17 long days until its containment on November 25, the Camp Fire destroyed thousands of structures in Paradise, California and surrounding communities. There was major loss, and those who made it out were displaced from their homes, their work, and their lives.   The Endowment Board owns Lakeview Apartments in Chico, and that became a haven and place of solace for survivors.   ...

Faith United Methodist Church in Sacramento will remember the survivors of the devastating Camp Fire during its Christmas Eve service this year. The church’s annual Candlelight Communion Service of lessons and carols will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 24. The offering taken during the service will go directly to aid Camp Fire survivors. Faith UMC is located at 3600 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95816, at the corner of J and 36th Streets. For more information contact Rev. Barbara ...

Register now for the Gathering of the Orders! Registration closes on January 7, 2019 and late registrations will not be accepted (this is a change from past years). Your $130 payment also must be received by that date. Please note that unless you are planning to commute, you must complete two registrations. Sign up here to attend (also covers meals). When you have submitted your registration, your confirmation email will include information about registering for hotel accommodations. Please ...

Come honor the lives of our sisters and brothers who died without homes in Santa Clara County, and bring awareness to the ongoing tragedy of homelessness in our community. Held on the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, the Homeless Persons' Interfaith Memorial service features leaders from the diverse religious traditions of the South Bay (Buddhist, Jain, Muslim, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, Protestant and Catholic).  We will share prayers, readings, songs, and read the names of...

By Cate Monaghan Interim Communications Director, CA-NV Conference of The UMC “We are going forth to live lives of love,” Bishop Minerva Carcaño said in her benediction Sunday evening (Dec. 9, 2018), as a packed congregation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of other faith traditions – and of no faith tradition – prepared for the next day’s Love Knows No Borders demonstration in San Diego. The ecumenical service dedicated to migrant justice was held at University Christian Church (Disciples...

By Fel Cao Director of Camping and Retreat Ministries and Young People’s Ministry I share the joy of both clergy and lay when we witness the growth of our children and youth as they are engaged in the ministries of the church. We have seen the children moved from children’s Sunday School to camps and Confirmation Classes and into youth and young adult fellowships. Pastors have witnessed in their congregations the children’s journey from baptism to service in the church, community, and the world...

By Sonja Edd-Bennett Director of Disaster Response Ministry, CA-NV Conference   Just slightly more than a month after being evacuated, Pastor Bob Chicou and Administrative Assistant Patty Wall were able to return for 30 minutes to Paradise United Methodist Church to view the property and collect important papers, a laptop, and worship materials. United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Consultant Angela Overstreet and I were allowed to accompany them.   A military escort was required to ...

  Bishop Minerva G. Carcano has released the following message to the members of the California-Nevada Conference: December 11, 2018 Brothers and Sisters, Thank you for your prayers during this time of discernment in our work with the Glide Foundation. I want to assure you that your conference leadership has worked diligently with me in our efforts to reach a good and faithful place with the leaders of the Glide Foundation Board of Trustees. Unfortunately, it was not possible.   Due to the ...

The Instant Connection publication dates for December and January are: December 13 December 20 January 10 January 17 January 24 January 31 There will be no Instant Connection on December 27 and January 3 because of conference office closures during the Christmas-New Year’s holiday period. As a reminder, the deadline for receipt of submittals is 5 p.m. on Friday of the week prior to the week of desired publication in the Instant Connection. For the Dec. 13 issue, the deadline is 5 p.m. this ...

By Kristin Stoneking CFA Chair   Connectionalism is a key dimension to who we are as United Methodists. It fuels our understanding of our relationships and commitments to God, to each other, and to the world. Our connectional structure has undergirded the strong United Methodist response to the Camp Fire, and to disasters around the world. Our denominational boards and agencies – such as the Board of Church and Society that sits directly across from both the Supreme Court and Congress – make ...

By Mary Nakamura Lay Leader, Los Rios District   On November 17, 2018, in response to the need for disciple-making ministries in the local church, Rev. Dr. Craig Kennet Miller was invited to present “TeamWorks Tools for Creating Vital Faith Communities” to 45 laity and clergy from the three circuits comprising the Greater Sacramento Region of the Los Rios District of the California-Nevada Conference of The United Methodist Church.    TeamWorks Tools for Creating Vital Faith Communities contains ...

On Saturday, Dec. 1, around 20 volunteers responded to an appeal by the California-Nevada Conference’s Disaster Response Ministry and showed up at the United Methodist Center in West Sacramento, to lend their data entry skills to the Camp Fire recovery effort. There were supposed to be two shifts – 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and 2-6 p.m. – but some volunteers put in an 11 ½-hour day, beginning work at 10:00 and leaving at 9:30 p.m., and then only because a crew showed up to shampoo the carpet in the ...

By Leslie Carmichael Emergency Response Team Coordinator CA-NV Conference Disaster Response Ministry Butte County announced last week that beginning December 10, they expect to reopen parts of Paradise to allow survivors of the Camp Fire to visit their properties. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Depot West in Salt Lake City shipped 1,656 cleaning buckets immediately after the fire, to assist people whose homes are intact but that will need cleaning. Now the California-Nevada ...

It’s time to begin thinking about legislation for our Annual Conference Session, June 19-22, 2019, including petitions to the 2020 General Conference. Please note the following guidelines: Recommendations, resolutions and petitions may be brought before the session by councils, boards, commissions, committees or agencies of the Annual Conference; by a local church, through action of its church council, charge/church conference; or by individual lay members of local churches within the Annual ...

WASHINGTON, DC | The Council of Bishops (COB) of The United Methodist Church is mourning the death of the 41st U.S. President, George H. W. Bush. President Bush is the father of 43rd President George W. Bush. George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are staunch United Methodists. The 41st President died November 30 at his home in Houston. He was 94. His death came fewer than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush. In a letter sent to President George W. Bush, Bishop Ken ...

El Amor No Conoce Fronteras: Un Llamado de Justicia para Migrantes   The General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) of The United Methodist Church is joining in a National Week of Action for Migrant Justice, organized by the American Friends Service Committee, Dec. 10-18, to stand in solidarity with the migrant exodus and all who seek refuge and asylum in the U.S.    “Together, we are calling on the U.S. to end the detention and deportation of immigrants, respect the human right to migrate and ...

Bishop Héctor F. Ortíz Vidal of the Puerto Rico Methodist Conference has written to Bishop Minerva Carcaño, extending his gratitude to the people of the California-Nevada Annual Conference for all their support, solidarity, and prayers since Hurricane Maria ravaged his country in September 2017.   Cal-Nev’s 2018 Annual Conference offering went to relief efforts in Puerto Rico and amounted to more than $106,000.   Bishop Ortíz Vidal says the donation will be used to rebuild churches and ...

2018 Advent can begin with the special blessing of having done something to help the victims of the Camp Fire disaster. This Saturday, Dec. 1, the day before the start of the Advent season, volunteers are needed for data entry at the United Methodist Center in West Sacramento.   The information from 1,300 paper intake forms needs to be entered into a computerized record-keeping system. There will be two shifts: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and 2-6 p.m. It’s estimated that 237 volunteer hours will be needed ...

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño has prepared a series of special messages to be read during the Sundays of Advent.   A new article will be posted in the Bishop’s Message section of the California-Nevada Conference website at 6 o’clock each Sunday morning, Dec. 2-23. The Advent inspirations will also be emailed to Cal-Nev communication subscribers and shared on social media.   Look for the first Advent message this Sunday at 6 a.m.

The San Francisco Chronicle shined a spotlight, this week, on First United Methodist Church of San Jose and one of its pastors, Gerardo Vazquez, for their weekly food ministry to immigrants. Click here to read “Tending the hungry: In San Jose, a pastor feeds an immigrant community that avoids food banks” by Tara Duggan.

Auburn Senior Fellows, including Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, are responding to the tragedy at the border and the impending budget showdown over border funding by, in part, endorsing a faith leader sign-on letter. You are invited to participate and to share this link with your networks.   This is open to all faith leaders. NETWORK Advocates for Social Justice, inspired by Catholic sisters, will deliver the letter on Capitol Hill next week at the most strategic time.   Click here to access the ...

In the wake of the horrific shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pennsylvania, regional districts of the Department of Justice are offering "Active Shooter" trainings to help give congregations some tools to improve members' safety.   The half day seminar will be December 11 from 9:30 a.m. to noon, at the Kennedy Learning Center inside the Robert Matsui Federal Courthouse, 501 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.       The deadline for registration is this coming Monday, December 3.   You may bring ...

We have created a new section on the website for the California-Nevada Annual Conference, focusing on information and resources to help prepare United Methodists for the special called General Conference, to be held in St. Louis Feb. 23-26, 2019. The “2019 Special Session of the General Conference” section will be updated regularly with articles, videos, and commentaries that we think will be helpful toward informing you about the issues under consideration, and promoting awareness and ...

An otherwise plain, underused patio at First United Methodist Church of San Leandro has been transformed into a garden space with a Chartres labyrinth in seven colors – a place for prayer, centering, and meditation.   The sacred space will be dedicated and blessed at the end of the 9:30 a.m. Sunday worship service this weekend (Dec. 2, 2018) – at around 10:15 a.m.   Church member Betsy Borruso says the labyrinth was the vision of San Leandro First’s pastor, the Rev. Myrna Bernadel-Huey, Borruso ...

The Israel/Palestine Task Force of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church endorsed the Boycott of Puma, at its Nov. 7, 2018 meeting.   Puma sponsors sports teams based in the illegal Israeli Settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank, explains task force member Gloria Fearn.   Resolutions of the United Methodist General Conference in opposition to these settlements have been reaffirmed at every General Conference since 2004, Fearn notes. “The 2012 GC ...

The Western Jurisdiction Hispanic-Latino Ministry Council drew up a timeline, at its 2018 annual meeting, for working on issues of Advocacy, Leadership Development, and New Communities of Faith – the three issues of its strategic plan. Participants from the California-Pacific, Desert Southwest, Mountain Sky, Pacific Northwest and Oregon-Idaho conferences joined colleagues from California-Nevada and representatives of general agencies at the Oct. 8-9 meeting, held at the United Methodist Center ...

Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in Oakland is busily preparing for its 4th Annual Winter Concert, "A Night of Miracles," featuring the Taylor Anointed Praise Choir and a variety of musical guests. This year’s program will be a narrated musical, designed to inspire audience members to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas – the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   The event is a fundraiser to help support the music ministry of the church through purchase of choir robes, along ...

The Commission on the Annual Conference Session (ACS) for the California-Nevada Annual Conference set the start date for ACS registration at its Nov. 27, 2018 meeting, and moved forward in other areas of planning, as well.   Registration for the annual conference will open Feb. 28, 2019.   Pre-ACS Orientations have been scheduled for May 18 and June 1. Details will be forthcoming.   The emphasis of the June 18-22, 2019 gathering will be on fixing our focus on Jesus, in reference to Matthew ...

The California-Nevada Annual Conference was well represented at the San Francisco Interfaith Prayer Breakfast Tuesday morning (Nov. 20). Bishop Carcaño attended, along with Bay District Superintendent Staci Current and other clergy and laity from the district.   Also in attendance were the Revs. Alex Cambe, Sadie Stone, Harold Gordon, and Angela Brown; Belinda Robinson, and Tyree Johnson.   The breakfast is a staple of Thanksgiving week and each year attracts the city’s most influential ...

Sisters and Brothers,   As we gather round the table of grace in our homes this Thanksgiving, let us remember the victims of the Butte County Camp Fire and other fires throughout the state of California. Let us hold them up to God through prayer and let us consider how we might come alongside them to comfort and sustain them.   This past weekend I was able to join a group of our United Methodist leaders who were providing relief to victims of the fire that devastated the community of Paradise, ...

By Toua Yang Communications Associate CA-NV Conference of The UMC   As Oakland and the surrounding Alameda County area digs in its heels to combat the homeless crisis, many churches in the California-Nevada Conference are involved in doing their part. As an example, this past Sunday, Nov. 18, Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church held its annual Pre-Thanksgiving Meal event for the homeless – or, as senior pastor, the Rev. Anthony L. Jenkins, Sr. frames it – the unsheltered community.   It’s an...

By John M. Kraps p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-stretch: normal;-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px"> My wife and co-pastor, Rev. Rachel Berry, and I are retired pastors from the Cal-Nevada Conference, who live in Champaign, Illinois now, and winter in Venice, Florida. Over the years Rachel kept hoping that one of our children would want to take their children camping, just as we did over the years: visiting Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, etc., in ...

By Cate Monaghan Interim Communications Director CA-NV Conference of The UMC   Heading north on CA-99 from West Sacramento, California on Saturday (Nov. 17), Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, Episcopal leader for the San Francisco Area of The United Methodist Church, Jorge Domingues, Director of Connectional Ministries for the California-Nevada Annual Conference, and I saw little evidence, at first, of the inferno that has killed at least 76 people and scattered more than 10,000 households. We could ...

The directory of bishops and ordained, licensed, and appointed or assigned ministers is available for download on the Journals page of the conference website. An update will be published on December 1, 2018.   “Those who have not already done so are enthusiastically encouraged to review your entry today,” says California-Nevada Conference Secretary Mark Wharff. Submit additions and/or corrections to Database Coordinator Renee Tefft at reneet@calnevumc.org or 916-374-1584 for inclusion in the ...

Good Afternoon,   In light of the smoke that’s affecting the Sacramento area and that is clearly affecting our Conference Center, we are closing the office for the rest of the day and will remain closed until Monday morning. We hope that this will help everyone in being safe and caring for their body.    I would ask that you continue to pray for those who are even more affected. I’m praying for all of our staff and for all that you are doing to be supportive of our churches and clergy in the ...

United Methodist News Service (UMNS) writers Jim Patterson and Sam Hodges filed a story on Monday (Veterans’ Day) about the California wildfires. In addition to the Camp Fire in Butte County that to date has claimed 48 lives and consumed 135,000 acres and nearly 8,000 homes, there have been two deaths in Southern California due to the Woolsey Fire; it and the Hill Fire have swallowed more than 102,000 acres and 432 homes.   The story makes mention of the fact that So Cal was already reeling from...

The delegates from the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church have issued a statement of support for the One Church Plan, one of three proposals advanced by the Commission on a Way Forward that attempt to resolve the denomination’s decades-old struggle with LGBTQ issues. The Council of Bishops has called a special session of General Conference for February 23-26 in St. Louis to debate the issue.   In their Nov. 14, 2018 statement, the delegates pledge to support the unity of the ...

What happened in Butte County last week, and its aftermath, is beyond the scope of our imagination. We feel compelled to help – those of us with intact families and homes, warm beds, and safe drinking water – and those of us who remember what not having those things is like. But what can we do?   It may feel impersonal, but making a cash donation is the most helpful thing you can do right now. Giving to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) or to the conference’s Disaster Response ...

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño’s formal request for a $10,000 grant to help the California-Nevada Annual Conference meet immediate needs of Camp Fire survivors has been approved by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).   Cathy Earl, UMCOR’s Director of Disaster Response and U.S. Partner Relations, responded to the request with the following message:   “It is with a mix of gratitude and shared sorrow that we join you in the efforts your conference is making to be hope for those who are ...

Friday, November 2, 2018 7:30 p.m.:   As the customary hour of shabbat observance for Congregation Etz Chaim of Merced approached, it became very evident this would not be the usual gathering for prayer, worship, and reading of sacred texts. Cars had filled the parking lot of United Methodist Church of Merced and persons of varied faiths and no faith; differing backgrounds, politics, and ethnicities; young, old, and of various stations in life gathered to remember Jewish brothers and sisters who...

The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church this week approved a statement from its Immigration Task Force regarding migrant caravans.   The statement was presented by Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, who chairs the task force, during the plenary session of the Council’s November 2018 meeting at Epworth by the Sea on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia.   It calls on governments to treat these migrants in ways that recognize and respect their God-given humanity, and with compassion and dignity.    ...

The California-Nevada chapter of United Methodist Women (UMW) gathered for its annual celebration Oct. 20, 2018 at Campbell UMC, with national UMW President Shannon Priddy as keynote speaker. Officers were elected at the business meeting, including first-time officers for the Cal-Nev Annual Conference’s newly created fifth district, the Bay District, that came into being in July of last year.   The following is a report on the keynote address, by UMW member Bonnie Holmes of San Jose.     Keynote...

Did you notice the graphic above? It features California-Nevada’s own Emily Allen, Agenda Chair for Annual Conference Session and one of our first electeds to General Conference. Her testimony is a powerful one! Right now, there are UMC young people – who might not have had the resources to attend a school of their choice, or, for some, any school at all – who’ve been sent by you into the world God loves, because of your giving to United Methodist Student Day. When you give generously on Nov. ...

Monday, November 05, 2018                                                                        For Immediate Release   St. Simon Island, GA – Council of Bishops President Bishop Ken Carter this morning urged fellow bishops to call upon God to help The United Methodist Church to move forward during this time when the church finds itself in unfamiliar territory. In his presidential address at the opening plenary of the Council of Bishops November meeting at Epworth by the Sea, Bishop Carter...

  A Statement of the Extended Cabinet of the California-Nevada Conference of The United Methodist Church   November 1, 2018             We, the bishop and extended cabinet of the California-Nevada Conference of The United Methodist Church, have gathered in worship and prayer, seeking to discern the will of God and to give expression to such discernment as we consider the paths that lie before our beloved United Methodist Church.  In our discipleship with all the challenges we face, we turn to ...

Clergy in the California-Nevada Annual Conference will begin 2019 by being Called to Wholeness.   This new experience, developed by a task force from the Board of Ordained Ministry and Cabinet, including Bishop Minerva Carcaño, is to be an eight-month process of personal and professional assessment and renewal. For deacons and elders, it will commence on the five-year anniversary of their full connection and ordination; and for licensed local pastors, on the fifth anniversary of receiving their ...