Worshipping Together
4/17/2024
Worshipers gathered at last year’s Annual Conference for morning worship.
One of the most beloved parts of annual conference is when we worship together. There is nothing like a group of United Methodists singing together and praising God by lifting our voices in unison. This year, we will offer four different worship services and each will be very special and unique. Please make plans to attend all of them.
All of the worship services with the exception of the Celebration of Ministry will take place at Chapel Hill UMC. The church is located at 2717 West Hefner Road in Oklahoma City.
Our opening worship will be the Eucharistic Memorial Service. It will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 30 with the pre- worship concert beginning at 6:30 p.m. Groups of musicians from New Light Korean UMC in Lawton, including a famed harmonica player, will offer the pre-worship concert. Rev. Connie Gibson will serve as our preacher for the evening and Bishop Nunn will preside over Holy Communion. The names of those clergy and spouses who have died between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 will be memorialized. A reception follows the service.
The Celebration of Ministry Service will take place at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 31 in the Freede Center as a part of our business session that day. Rev. Dr. Joe Harris will be the preacher. This service includes the introduction of those who will be commissioned or ordained, recognition of 16 elders, deacons and local pastors who are retiring from active ministry and the consecration of deaconess Bonnie Reckinger of Owasso. The choir from First UMC in Edmond will provide special music.
A Celebration of the Districts will take place on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. with Rev. Dr. Carol Cook Moore preaching. There will be lots of special music and a celebration of the eight districts that we have been organized in since 2015. Following the worship service, there will be a social hour for the five new districts to gather and meet each other over punch and cookies. Rooms have been reserved for each district to meet in.
The Commissioning and Ordination Service will take place on Saturday, June 1 at 2 p.m. Bishop Nunn will preach his final sermon to the Oklahoma Annual Conference during this service. We will ordain four people and commission another four. Chapel Hill UMC’s choir will offer a pre-worship concert beginning at 1:30 p.m. A reception for those commissioned and ordained as well as a time honoring Bishop Nunn and his wife, Mary, will be held following the service.
As we have been doing for the last few years, Judy Horne and Tyler Stone will be with us each day on the piano and organ leading us in the great hymns of our faith as we begin each session as well as a 15-minute hymn sing on Friday afternoon at the end of the lunch break.