LAKELAND — The next gathering of the Florida Conference’s Conference Table is Nov. 12, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Ocala. The focus of the conversation is using cooperative parishes among conference churches.

The Rev. Dr. Anne Burkholder, the conference’s director of connectional ministries, said cooperative parishes are a strategy for encouraging cooperation in ministry among churches, enhanced stewardship of resources and stronger outreach to the communities churches are called to serve.

“Cooperative parishes are not circuits where one pastors serves several churches,” she said. “They are, instead, an official relationship between churches…designed to enhance the potential for ministry and growth, especially in smaller and medium-sized churches.”

The Conference Table was approved at the 2002 Florida Annual Conference Event as a forum at which conference laity and clergy can discuss and discern how the Florida Conference can best fulfill its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information visit http://www.flumc.org/conftable/.

ST. PETERSBURG — Allendale United Methodist Church here has been recognized by the national Igniting Ministry office as a Certified Welcoming Congregation.

The certification means the church has cultivated hospitality skills to both attract visitors and help them become active members of the church family.

The church is the 13th in the conference to be awarded the status.

Other churches recognized as Welcoming Congregations include Avondale United Methodist Church, Jacksonville; First United Methodist Church, Cape Coral; Cason United Methodist Church, Delray Beach; Cutler Ridge United Methodist Church, Miami; Edgewater United Methodist Church, Port Charlotte; First United Methodist Church, Okeechobee; First United Methodist Church, Tavares; First United Methodist Church, Titusville; Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Tampa; St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, Brandon; St. James United Methodist Church, Tampa; and St. Paul United Methodist Church, Jacksonville.

Igniting Ministry is the denomination’s four-year media campaign, now in its third year. It provides tools for churches to improve their visibility in their communities and strengthen their hospitality and disciple-making ministries. Television spots featuring The United Methodist Church air each year of the campaign.

LAKELAND — A series of major storms has taxed the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s (UMCOR) funds, virtually depleting its resources for responding to future disasters in the United States.

To help replenish the funds donations can be made to UMCOR, designated “Churchwide Appeal for USA Domestic Disasters,” Advance No. 901670, and placed in church offering plates or sent to 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donors can call 800-554-8583; online donations can be made at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/.