Methodist leaders meet in Belize for annual conference

This week, Belize City is hosting more than a hundred regional religious leaders in an annual conference organised by the local Methodist community. News Five’s Jacqueline Woods explains.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The one hundred and forty fifth annual district meeting includes representation of the seven Methodist circuits of Belize and the north coast of Honduras.

Rev. C. David Goff, Methodist District President
?We meet under the theme this year of stewardship, looking at our Christian stewardship. Our theme is: Take My Silver and My Gold; Not a Mite Would I Withhold. And really that is an attempt to remind ourselves, remind our Methodist family that our financial resources must be managed properly and that everything we have and everything we are or ever hope to be belong to God, so we should really give ourselves fully and wholeheartedly to the work. I would hasten to say too that is because?it is timely too as a church we are going through some serious challenges and we want to encourage our entire membership to rise to the challenge and recognise our Christian stewardship as a direct result of our relationship with God.?

Jacqueline Woods
?What are some of the challenges??

Rev. C. David Goff
?Well as a church, the church can?t exist without money. Even though I have often heard persons say, the church shouldn?t be concerned about money, money is the root of all evil. I would hasten to correct those persons; money is not the root to all evil, the love of money is the root to all evil. The church needs financial resources to carry out its mission and we want to be able to respond as a Methodist Church in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the peoples of the Caribbean and the Americas. And it takes financial resources in order to do that, and so we want to encourage our members to come onboard fully.?

While in Belize, the group is also at looking at how the Methodist Church can better respond to society?s social ills.

Rev. C. David Goff
?Some of the social issues that face us as a church and as a community and as a nation and region, not the least of which of course is the spread of HIV/AIDS and the threat it poses to our region and our peoples. So these are some of the issues, along with other social ills such as gambling and sexual promiscuity; the violence, especially the gang violence, which we know in Belize we continue to experience and in the Republic of Honduras as well, and also the breakdown in home and family life.?

Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

The official conference service for the Methodist leaders will take place on Sunday, January twenty-second at five p.m. at Wesley Church in Belize City.