Other resolutions passed by the annual conference:

called for churches to implement energy use/demand efficiency programs;

encouraged the use of chlorine-free paper to address rising dioxin levels in the environment;

expressed the conference’s disapproval of the General Board of Church and Society collecting funds at the request of the Cuban or National Council of Churches;

called for all general agencies to make clear, especially in politically or socially controversial matters, that they act and speak only for themselves;

asked the conference to work with the government to enforce a moral code on the entertainment industry;

supported a lawsuit against the United States Department of the Interior seeking to block land grants to Indian tribes that clear the way for the tribes to build more casinos;

asked the conference’s Church and Society Ministry Team to develop a plan enabling local churches to respond to hate groups; and

allowed churches to separate World Service and Conference Benevolences in their apportionments.

One resolution reforming the election procedure for General Conference delegates was ruled unconstitutional because it gave districts authority that the Book of Discipline reserves for annual conferences. A resolution calling for the conference Self-insurance Committee to provide liability coverage to all church employees accredited for counseling was referred to the Self-insurance Committee for further study.

In other business, the Florida Annual Conference:

approved the implementation of the National Plan for Hispanic Ministries, including a request for a $125,000 apportionment to support the implementation;

approved spending $200,000 to bring the Life Enrichment Center and Warren W. Willis Camp sewage systems up to code;

approved a motion to have the conference’s Council on Finance and Administration investigate statements about the profitability and/or loss of the conference print shop;

licensed 14 local pastors, commissioned 15 probationary members and two probationary deacons, consecrated one diaconal minister, ordained four deacons in full connection and 14 elders, and recognized the orders of two local pastors;

elected Terrell Sessums, a member of First United Methodist Church, Tampa, conference lay leader;

voted to hold the 2001 Florida Annual Conference Event in Lakeland and ask the program committee to consider changing the location for the 2002-4 events, with a recommendation that Bethune-Cookman College be considered for 2002;

voted to close North Jacksonville, Leisure City Hispanic and York Memorial United Methodist churches; and

celebrated the 175th anniversary of First United Methodist Church, St. Augustine.

Delegates participated in the missional focus of the conference by collecting:

more than $58,000 for the Council of Bishops’ Initiative on Children and Poverty and Hope for the Children of Africa;

more than $6,000 for the Ministerial Education Fund; and

supplies for more than 500 Flood Buckets and more than 400 School Kits.

Delegates heard reports on:

a $665,000 grant from the General Board of Global Ministries for the implementation of the City Ministry Plan in the Miami District;

the 10 new congregations started during the past year;

Tampa District Superintendent David Brazelton’s bid for the episcopacy as the conference’s nominee;

the accomplishments of the delegation to the 2000 General Conference.

Worship services during the conference featured sermons by:

Henderson, who told the conference to have hope in hard times;

Mississippi Bishop Marshall L. Meadors, who described what it means to truly follow Jesus;

Dr. James T. Laney, president emeritus of Emory University, who encouraged the newly ordained pastors to live for something beyond themselves; and

Ricardo Pereira, bishop of the Methodist Church of Cuba, on the power of the Holy Spirit.