Annual Celebration 2021

About Annual Celebration

CHURCH ANEW
This year as we gather we will explore what it means to be Church Anew. The dictionary defines anew this way: “in a new or different and typically more positive way.” This year we want to share stories of how we are living into a new and different church. What experiments have we tried? What has worked? What has failed? What have we learned about being church? How have we changed? What does it take to sustain innovation and imagination? What is needed from our faith tradition in this particular moment? What is our unique contribution? We are eager to be in these questions and others as we gather together in multiple ways during our Annual Celebration as a Conference. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Our keynote will be presented by Valarie Kaur, a civil rights activist, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, author of See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love, and Sikh American voice. The first 125 Voting Church Delegates to register will receive a free digital copy of Valarie Kaur’s book See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. We strongly encourage you to read this incredible book before Annual Celebration begins.

MEETING RECORDINGS
Church Anew: Leading from the Emerging Future
RMC Business Meeting Preview
Lunch Session: Tech Anew with Daryl Schreiber
Lunch Session: Mission Anew
Keynote Webinar with Valarie Kaur – Only available to registrants of Annual Celebration. Please contact us for access.

GRAND AGENDA
We will offer a wide variety of meetings this year. From sacred worshipful space, to content sessions, to the business meeting, there is sure to be something – a few things, in fact! – that you won’t want to miss! Please see the Detailed Grand Agenda for session times and descriptions. You can also find the block schedule here.

BUSINESS ITEMS 
Everything you need for the Annual Meeting can be found here: 

You can see more details and explanation of these items in the Program Guide (posted 5/11/21).

BUSINESS MEETING
How will the business meeting work? 
On the morning of June 12, for the business meeting, you will need to “check in” prior to 8:50 am.  If you have not joined the meeting by 8:50 am, you will be marked as “not present” and will be unable to vote.  We will ask you to check in by the first letter of your last name:

A – G, 8:30 am
H – N, 8:35 am
O – Z, 8:45 am

We will have a roll call vote for the business items presented.

WORSHIPPING TOGETHER DURING ANNUAL CELEBRATION 
As we explore church anew we are excited to Worship Anew as well! Using Valarie Kaur’s book See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love as our guide, we are offering a variety of ways to encounter God and encourage participants to engage in one or many of these options. Monday through Friday mornings there will 30 Minute Contemplative Sanctuaries, each led by a Member in Discernment. Throughout the Annual Celebration, there will be a social media campaign that will spotlight creative ministries outside the church building and will include questions for us to engage in together. We will interweave worshipful moments into our business meeting concluding with Holy Communion. Finally, there will be a prerecorded worship experience for congregations to use on Sunday morning aligning with the chapters Breath, Push, and Transition. 

COST
This year, we will ask each RMC church to contribute $100 to share the costs of the Annual Celebration; each church will receive information on this in the near future.  This $100 contribution will be the full registration fee for your church’s delegates, pastor(s), and as many visitors as you’d like!  We hope this encourages wide participation across the Conference.  Each delegate, clergy member, or visitor will need to register in order to receive Zoom invitations to each event, but it will cost them nothing to register.

QUESTIONS
If you need any help at all navigating the schedule, registration, or participation in these events, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at connect@rmcucc.org