THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Charlotte Episcopal Area WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE
Kenneth H. Carter, Jr.
DeEtta Rivens
RESIDENT BISHOP
EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Saturday, November 4, 2023 Greetings Laity and Clergy of the Western North Carolina Conference, Today, we held a special called session of the Western North Carolina Annual Conference on the requests from 113 of 758 churches in our Conference to disaffiliate under protocols established by Paragraph 2553 of the 2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline. We expect to know the results early this week and this will be communicated with you. The final vote count will be posted to our website no later than Wednesday, November 8. I thank those of you who participated in this exercise of Christian conferencing. To those who are departing, we offer you a benediction: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26) We ask for the same blessing from you. To the people of the United Methodist Church, our journey continues, and our work is unfinished. We are already experiencing a revival of the Holy Spirit in our local churches, district and conference ministries, and worldwide. I invite us all to reclaim our United Methodist values of grace, connection, and holiness. As we look forward to hosting the postponed General Conference in Charlotte in 2024, we recommit to being a church for all; God using us as the instruments by which the spirit is poured out on all flesh (Acts 2). I ask us now to turn our eyes upon Jesus, who gave us the great commandments: to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22). Grace and Peace, +Bishop Ken Carter Resident Bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church P.O. Box 2428, Huntersville, NC 28070 13924 Professional Center Drive, Suite 200, Huntersville, NC 28078 Office 704-714-2344 ■