LAKELAND — After nearly three months away on medical leave of absence Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson will return to Florida June 1-5 to preside at the Dare to Share Jesus 1999 Florida Annual Conference Event at the Lakeland Center here.

Henderson was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the immune system, late last April and has been receiving treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for it and kidney failure caused by the disease.

In a telephone interview May 19 Henderson said he plans to be at the annual conference event each day "presiding and sharing with the other bishops and speakers."

"I am looking forward with great anticipation to this year’s annual conference as we go forward with the theme Dare to Share Jesus and the Operation Evangelization thrust," he said. "I am very excited about the appointment of Dr. Roger Swanson as the director of Operation Evangelization and the other wonderful ministries that will be celebrated and acknowledged."

A major agenda item this year is election of delegates to the denomination’s General and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2000. Henderson says his prayer is that event attendees will elect "men and women committed to the church of Jesus Christ and prepared to work hard at the General Conference."

Following the conference event, Henderson will fulfill commitments made before his leave of absence. He will visit several districts in June to attend scheduled events and take a month-long renewal and study leave in July. All bishops in the denomination are required to take at total of three months of leave during a four-year period, according to Dr. Keith Ewing, Henderson’s administrative assistant. July was approved before Henderson’s diagnosis as one of his months.

Despite his illness, Henderson says he has been hard at work in Atlanta. "I put in a full day’s work — 10 to 12 hours a day — with matters pertaining to the conference," he said. "I feel great 99 percent of the time."

Although treatment for both the cancer and kidney failure will continue, "numbers from the doctors look good," Henderson said.

LAKELAND — "Too often we bury controversy within the church and just pretend it doesn’t exist," said Bill Walker, current chairperson and incoming director of the Florida Conference Council on Ministries (CCOM). Walker said he hopes the CCOM’s agenda time at the Dare to Share Jesus 1999 Florida Annual Conference Event June 1-5 at the Lakeland Center will provide a forum for honest discussion of controversial topics in the conference.

Walker will moderate a "Town Hall" meeting Friday afternoon. Delegates will be invited to express their opinions and ask questions of a panel of ministry team chairs and CCOM staff members. Walker said the meeting will be an open-microphone session during which conference leaders will be "vulnerable, authentic and honest" with leaders of the local church.

"It will be just like Bill Clinton does inside high school auditoriums in Peoria, Ill.," he said.

Walker said he expects delegates to bring "candid questions" that will be "substantive, wide-ranging and incisive." He also said the panel will welcome controversy and criticism.

"I’m going to be unhappy if people don’t raise some substantive issues," he said.

While Walker said he hopes clergy and laity will feel free to speak up and to speak their minds, he said the panelists from church and society, discipleship, events, missions, ethnic local church concerns, youth and communications ministries are coming to the meeting prepared to honestly listen to what is said.

"We want to be good listeners, so we can clearly hear the needs of the local church and find ways to be of welcome help to them," Walker said.

The panel will "respond on the fly" to the delegates’ questions, he said. "If we don’t know the answer to something, we’ll say ‘we don’t know.’ "

Walker said the CCOM executive committee decided to hold the town hall meeting because there are not many forums for honest dialogue within the church. He said he hopes this will be the first of many ways the CCOM listens to local churches.

LAKELAND — Newly elected Cuban Methodist Conference Bishop Ricardo Pereira will update delegates to the Dare to Share Jesus 1999 Florida Annual Conference Event on the impact the Florida/Cuba Covenant is having in his homeland and on the church in Cuba.

Pereira will fly in from Cuba May 29 and preach at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in West Palm Beach May 30. His message to the conference delegates will be at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, June 3.

Since Pereira doesn’t speak English, his 45-minute presentation will be translated. During the rest of the conference, the Cuban bishop will observe the Florida Conference event and meet and talk with people from the conference. He will also attend the Hispanic Community Dinner Wednesday night.