2006 KO Annual Meeting Call Letter and Message from Julia
Alongside this message, you are also receiving the official Call Letter for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ. We are in the thick of finalizing our schedule and agendas. Registration is already open, though, and you can register and get your hotel booking information at here.
Preparing for this Annual Meeting has brought back a lot of memories! I attended my first KO Annual Meeting back in 2015. I don’t think I was a delegate for Plymouth Congregational UCC in Lawrence. I drove over to Johnson County, Kansas, as a guest, and heard the keynote address from Rev. John Dorhauer, who had recently been elected as General Minister and President for the UCC nationally. So much has happened since then. We have had changes in our conference staff as well as our GMP. I was a lay member back in 2015, but now, I am in the final stages of my ordination process. COVID sits right in the middle of all of this along with the entirety of my seminary education and service on the national board of the United Church of Christ. Yet, one thing remains the same: I am very excited for our KO Annual Meeting!
Yes - I am a church nerd, but likely, if you are reading this, you, too, are at least a bit of a church nerd. We are nerds about church for all sorts of reasons. For me, it starts and centers around my decision to follow Jesus and answer the Divine’s call on my life, but it also rests in my deep belief that community is a gift that God gives us to create and steward, which in turn nourishes and challenges us individually and as a community. I don’t need to tell you how rough the world is right now - you are a click away from heavy news ‘out there,’ and likely are carrying some of it internally, too. Friends - we are meant to carry these things together, with God.
I had the privilege of worshipping with Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City on their recent Sign-Up Sunday. Mayflower’s Church Council Moderator, Anna Eldredge offered these words while encouraging Mayflower’s membership to get involved: “belonging is not the reward we receive after we have figured everything out. Belonging is part of how we figure things out.” This is such a beautiful truth, which resonates with our Annual Meeting theme - Holy & Whole: Practicing Just Communities Here and Now. Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund will be offering our Keynote Address, speaking about wellbeing holistically. Rev. Dr. Eric Gill will be leading a bus tour of Greenwood. We will sing and worship together and do our business, and maybe, along the way, we will also figure a few things out together. You belong in KO and we belong together, doing the work that God has given us to do. So, please, whether you are an authorized minister or a delegate, a visitor or a guest, join us in Tulsa for our 2026 KO Annual Meeting where we can remind one another that we all belong to God and this beloved community.