Social Holiness

1 2 3 4 The Social Holiness Team has had an active and eventful year since the last Annual Conference of Upper New York in 2021. The team is comprised of representatives of the committees of the Upper New York Annual Conference that deal with the majority of the issues many people would consider the social ministries. These include, but are not limited to, Peace with Justice, Peace with Justice in Palestine and

5 6 Israel, the Committee on Religion and Race (CORR), the New York State Council of Churches, the Committee on Native American Ministries (CONAM), the United Methodist Women (UMW), Men’s Prison

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Ministry, and the Task Force on Immigration. Some may see these may as being the “social” ministries of 8 the Church, I feel they are the “soul and life blood” of the Church. 9 10 While we may hear of God and God’s will for us on any given Sunday in any number of United Methodist 11 Churches, it is the other six days and the other 165 hours of the week when we can do more than just

12 speak or listen to and about God’s presence. It is in these hours that we, the people of the United

13 Methodist Church, live the faith we profess in the way we treat others, spend our resources, and care for

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 and about others. While the time of worship may be vital for those already within the Church, it is the time and energy we spend outside of worship that will either demonstrate the love Christ lived and preached or we will fail to be the people God has called us to be through Jesus Christ. Prayer is more than a time to list our needs or needs of others to God but making the space and listening for the call of God for the Church to be active in ministries of caring and helping to shape the world in the manner Christ led us to. I am proud and humbled to be able to convene the members of this team.

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 During this year the Social Holiness Team has held two different classes online concerning gun violence. These were led by the representative of Peace with Justice Heather Smith. We have also just recently started a new series of pod casts. They are entitled “The Common Table”. The purpose of these pod casts is to bring people from varying theologies to a common table and share their thoughts and to see if there is common ground that lays between them. This, I feel, is vital to the very existence of Methodism as we are more a Church of boundaries and varying understandings of scripture than a Church of dogma and only one perspective concerning the interpretation of scripture.

I feel that a committee that represents such diverse and unique ministries need be better represented in the leadership of our Annual Conference. While diversity needs to include race and ethnicity, it also needs to include diversity of theological understandings and practices for the leadership of our Annual Conference. At the present time we have limited and secondhand input in the leadership of this Annual Conference.

I am proud that the Social Holiness Team has representation of a great diverse theological stand and a greater number of ethnicities represented than almost any other portion of our Annual Conference. I feel we are a living and growing example that the United Methodist Church can be united with various understandings and interpretations of scripture. We need to be a witness to the world around us that we can not only list but continue to be a vibrant and strong witness to the claim God has upon us through our common call to diverse ministries and caring.