General Assembly News - Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

“When I Retire, I Want to…”What do you want to do in retirement? During the 2013General Assembly, Pension Fund of the Christian Churchchallenged its members and Assembly participants of all agesto answer this very question, displaying the results via aninteractive answer board in the Pension Fund event booth.Top answers included volunteer work, travel and spendingtime with family.Assembly attendees were also able to participatein various Pension Fund retirement planningworkshops. In the “Sustaining Clergy in LocalChurch Ministry” workshop, attendees learnedthe results of a Disciples of Christ clergy surveyand the implications for local congregations. Inthe “Best Employment Practices for Churches”seminar, clergy and lay leaders learned employmentbest practices for compensation and benefits.Pension Fund hosted the “President’s Breakfast for Retired Ministers” aswell as “Minister and Mates Breakfast” with speaker Rev. Dr. Katie Hays.Hays’ speech on the topic “Go and Learn What This Means: Jesus’ Syllabusfor the Religiously Learned” was enjoyed by over 500 breakfast attendees.Visit Pension Fund’s website, www.pensionfund.org, for an audio recordingof Hays’ talk.Pension Fund led the “13th Check” special offering at Saturday night’sworship gathering, raising funds to support Pension Fund’s 13th Check fundfor retired ministers. “My colleagues and I were delighted to share so manypoints of contact with pastors and church leaders during the GeneralAssembly,” said Pension Fund President James P. Hamlett. “We wereblessed by the measure of support for our ministry we received in Orlando.”Week of Compassiontheme was collaborationWeek of Compassion celebrated itspartnerships and the many ways collaborationand generosity bring the Gospel to lifethrough disaster response, sustainabledevelopment, and refugee resettlement at aworship service hosted by Pershing AvenueChristian Church.Following was a coffee hour featuring EqualExchange Disciples Coffee Project productsas well as information from Green Chalice.Preachers included Lorenzo Mota King, FoodsResource Bank, Dominican Republic;Samantha Nicodemus, South Joplin ChristianChurch, Missouri; Vy Nguyen, Church WorldService, California; Abdel Direny, IMA WorldHealth, Haiti, and Moo Kho Paw, ProsperityCandle, Burma. Special music was offered bySteve Gretz, Leslie Lee, and Seth Connelly.Executive Director Amy Gopp and AssociateDirector Brandon Gilvin, joined ResourceDevelopment Associate Johnny Wray,Disciples Volunteering Director Josh Baird,Rev. Bonnie Osei-Frimpong, and Rev. JillMichel on a panel discussing the upcomingrelease of Help and Hope: DisasterPreparedness and Response Tools forCongregations.Actress and playwright Young Lan Kim brought “The Suitcase” to life in thestory of a Japanese woman forced into an interment camp during WorldWar II and allowed to bring only one suitcase.JoAnne Kagiwada shared her experience in the JapaneseAmerican community as they sought recognition of themistreatment that population suffered during the WorldWar II interments. The community adopted “for the sake ofthe children” as their motto.14CHRISTIAN CHURCH DISCIPLES OF CHRIST | JULY 13-17, 2013