News

Read the 2023 - 2024 appointment list.

OWENSBORO, Ky. – The 2023 Annual Conference concluded Wednesday, June 7, with the traditional reading of appointments by district superintendents and a reminder from Bishop Leonard Fairley that we must be planters of gardens on ...

OWENSBORO, Ky. – When it comes to having adventures at Annual Conference, leave it to a couple of preachers’ kids to set the bar high. Buddies John Maynard, 17, and Noah Sparks, 14, had been swimming Tuesday evening, June 6, at ...

OWENSBORO, Ky. – Three clergy members and one lay member were elected  Tuesday, June 6, to the General/Jurisdictional Conference delegation during the third day of the 2023 Annual Conference. The Rev. Dr. John Hatton was elected ...

Rev. Dr. Tina Patterson has been in ministry for more than 20 years, starting in the Baptist Church and becoming United Methodist in 2009. Patterson was commissioned in 2012 and became a full elder in 2014. She has served at ...

OWENSBORO, Ky. – Two new staff members were formally introduced Tuesday, June 5, during the opening plenary session of the Kentucky Annual Conference – the Rev. Dr. Kimberly Pope-Seiberling, director of New Church Development, ...

OWENSBORO, Ky. – To truly be passionate spiritual disciples in an uncertain world, we must show the love of Christ in every aspect of our lives, Bishop Leonard Fairley said Monday, June 5, during Opening Worship of the 2023 ...

Rev. Dr. Kimberly Pope-Seiberling started as New Church Development director on May 1, 2023. She started her ministry career in the West Ohio Conference about 20 years ago as a student associate pastor. The church, which had an ...

OWENSBORO, Ky. – Members of the 2023 Kentucky Annual Conference voted overwhelmingly Sunday, June 4, to allow 286 churches to disaffiliate under Paragraph 2553 of The Book of Discipline. The final vote, taken electronically in ...

ERLANGER, Ky. – It’s not every day a church so new it still lacks an official name gets well-wishes and a pep talk from the president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church. But connections that reach all the ...

General Conference is scheduled for April 23-May 3, 2024, at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Initially planned for 2020, it's been postponed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   In March 2023,...

We are excited to announce that Greg Smithson has been hired as the Interim Director of Camp Loucon. Greg has been employed with Camp Loucon since 2016 as both summer staff for four summers and then as program staff from May 2022...

CRESTWOOD, Ky. – Bishop Leonard Fairley spent parts of four days over the past week and a half worshiping and breaking bread with clergy from across the Kentucky Annual Conference – and talking about planting gardens. “No matter...

When a line of severe storms passed through Louisville late in the afternoon on Wednesday, April 5, the strong winds ripped off part of the roof of the office building where Revolution Church is located. The rain poured in, ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Prayer vigils held at three Louisville-area United Methodist churches in response to a deadly shooting spree drew a total of about 150 people – people who needed the opportunity to pray and to begin processing ...

Maybe I should have waited until all the facts were in first. I have not given myself space to think about writing a nice theological episcopal statement around this most recent act of gun violence, this time in Louisville ...

Holy Week leading up to Resurrection Sunday shows how passionate God’s desire is to redeem the whole of creation – a passion lived out in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ every dividing wall is ...

Just in time for Holy Week and Easter resurrection, dozens of churches in the Kentucky Annual Conference are stepping forward as “lighthouse churches” – specially equipped to welcome members of disaffiliating churches who wish to ...

CRESTWOOD, Ky. – Three visioning task teams met for the first time Friday, March 10, to begin strategizing about how the Kentucky Annual Conference might look moving forward – a smaller conference but one still laser-focused on ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Uncertainty. Anger. Loss. Grief.  Those are among the most powerful and prevalent emotions that Kentucky’s United Methodist clergy are experiencing during this season of debate and disaffiliation. About 60 ...

Washington, D.C.  — Council of Bishops President Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton will deliver a Mid-Term State of The United Methodist Church Address on March 2, 2023, at 1pm EST. The video presentation will launch on the official ...

WILMORE, Ky. – Kentucky United Methodist college students were among those who took part in the National Collegiate Day of Prayer on Thursday evening, Feb. 23 – including a sizable number at Asbury University as a 16-day spiritual...

WILMORE, Ky. – When Georgia Dobson and Haley Smith saw on TikTok that a spiritual revival was taking place as Asbury University, they knew they had to go see it for themselves. The friends, both 16, live in New Albany, Indiana, ...

The Disaster Response Ministry (DRM) for Eastern Kentucky is now ready to enter the Recovery Phase for the July 2022 flooding that affected so many people and communities in our conference. The DRM is working directly with UMCOR ...

Sisters and brothers in Christ, I have watched with great sadness as congregations have inquired and voted on disaffiliation. It is out of this sadness that I speak to you now. I know many of you are wondering if I will call a ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nearly 400 youth and their leaders – a larger-than-expected group – attended the Kentucky Annual Conference’s Winter Blitz 2023 held Friday-Sunday (Feb. 3-5) in the West Wing of the Kentucky Exposition Center.  ...

Bishop Leonard Fairley can remember, as the newly assigned bishop of the Kentucky Annual Conference, his first brush with disaster response. Severe flooding hit the Augusta area and other parts of northeastern Kentucky in the ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A two-hour worship service commemorating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday culminated in a moving altar call, as more than two dozen people went to the front of the Crescent Hill UMC sanctuary Saturday,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Council of Bishops (COB) of The United Methodist Church is petitioning the denomination’s top court for clarification on its recent decision regarding the General Conference that will be held in 2024. The ...

In an effort to improve consistency and reliability, all active and retired clergy in the Kentucky Annual Conference soon will have a dedicated address where they will receive all conference-related emails. The initiative, which ...

When it comes to inner-city ministry work in Louisville, Rev. Dr. Larry Stoess wrote the book – literally. Stoess, who has ministered in the city’s west-end Portland neighborhood since 1996, has written a book about that ...

The Kentucky Annual Conference Office will be closed Friday, December 30th and Monday, January 2nd, in celebration of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The office will reopen on Tuesday, January. 3, 2023. God’s blessings on all ...

DOCUMENTS FOR THE SPECIAL SESSION Bulletin for the Special Session Bulletin for the Special Session (Spanish Version) Board of Trustee's Report Board of Trustee's Report (Spanish Version) Minutes of the Special Session .   VIDEO...

Kentucky Annual Conference members overwhelmingly approved a motion to allow 57 churches to disaffiliate during a special session held online Sunday, Dec. 4. Clergy and lay members voted 332-29 to accept a report by the ...

Final preparations are underway for a special session of the Kentucky Annual Conference called for the sole purpose of completing the process of disaffiliation of churches that have met the requirements outlined in Paragraph 2553 ...

Volunteer work crews to begin long-term recovery efforts in flood-ravaged Eastern Kentucky are starting to form and will begin work in the region in early spring 2023, according to Rev. Jim Savage, the Regional Response ...

Harry Todd has lived a full and interesting life – basketball star in high school and college, lengthy Army career, tourism director in Trigg-Christian counties, and in recent years as a lay supply pulpit speaker in the ...

 In this season when some churches are choosing to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church, we are frequently asked what to do if your local church votes to leave but you wish to remain.  If your local congregation is ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Council of Bishops (COB) of The United Methodist Church is welcoming thirteen (13) bishops who were elected during last week’s jurisdictional conferences in the United States.   “It is a joy to welcome this ...

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. – Bishop Leonard Fairley has been reassigned to the Kentucky Annual Conference, the Committee on Episcopacy announced Friday morning, Nov. 4, during the final day of the Southeastern Jurisdictional ...

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. – Three resolutions – all of which ultimately passed – received considerable debate that included a peaceful protest during Thursday night’s session of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference.  The three ...

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. – Rev Dr. Iosmar Alvarez, Kentucky’s nominee to the episcopacy, withdrew his name from consideration Thursday morning, just as the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference was preparing for the 13th ballot. As...

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. – Two of three bishops were elected Wednesday, Nov. 2, as Rev. Tom Berlin, the nominee from the Virginia Conference, was elected on the fourth ballot, receiving 213 of the 208 required, or 61.56% of the vote....

LAKE JUNALUSKA, North Carolina—Delegates, reserves, bishops, volunteers and members of the media filled the seats of Stuart Auditorium early Wednesday, Nov. 2, for the first day of the 2022 session of the Southeastern ...

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. – The Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference’s opening day Tuesday, Nov. 1, was largely taken up with a series of “round robin” sessions that episcopacy nominees – including Kentucky’s Rev. Dr. Iosmar Alvarez...

Delegates from Kentucky and other annual conferences in the Southeastern Jurisdiction will gather this week at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, to elect bishops – including the election of three to fill openings from retirements. ...

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Sometimes we need to be reminded of what makes us unique, and Monday morning on a beautiful fall day, under clear blue skies and a canopy of trees exhibiting their most beautiful colors, approximately 60 ...

WASHINGTON, DC – The Council of Bishops (COB) of The United Methodist Church has named MS. Eliza Love as the 2023 recipient of the $10,000 scholarship to attend the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Bossey in ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After a two-year delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kentucky Annual Conference’s Administrative Services Team was finally able to host the National Association of Annual Conference Treasurers (NAACT) ...

HOPKINS COUNTY, Ky. – Andrew Pence could have spent his fall break from Lincoln County High School relaxing in between cross-country practice sessions. But he had something more ambitious in mind. The 16-year-old sophomore was ...