Message from the Bishop and Appointive Cabinet

As the Cal-Pac Annual Conference aligns its work to maximize its resources toward the Five Essential Minitries - Leadership, New Ministries, Justice and Compassion, Resource, and Navigation - parallel changes are taking shape in the Cabinet regarding the organization and mobilization of clergy and congregations for mission and ministry.

First Bishop Mary Ann Swenson and the Cabinet will reduce the number of District Superintendents from eight to seven. When Santa Ana District Superintendent, Mark Ulrickson, leaves the Cabinet at the end of June, 2011, Bishop Swenson will not appoint a replacement. Instead, she has designated Cedrick Bridgeforth to provide administrative oversight for the Santa Ana District beginning July 1, 2011, and he will be assisted in the Mission Areas by Kathey M. Wilborn, Myron Wingfield, and Bau Dang.

There will be no change in District Administrative Assistants or District Offices at this time. The long-term vision is for a secong District Superintendent to come off the Cabinet at the end of June 2012, and a third in June 2013, when the vision of a reconfigured Cabinet will be fully realized.

Second, beginning July 2011, we will see the introduction of strategic Mission Areas. A Mission Area is a geographic grouping of four to ten congregations for the purposes of coordination, encouragement, and mutual support for effective missional impact. The objectives include, but are not limited to: 1) developing cooperative support; 2) raising the churches' awareness of the needs an opportunities within their shared mission field; and 3) collaborating and partnering in mission and ministry. The Bishop and District Superintendents are currently in the process of organizing churches in Mission Areas with the expectation that all clergy and churches will participate in this missional endeavor.

In light of the financial challenges evey congregation is facing, the Bishop and Cabinet are committed to partner with conference leadership to prayerfully seek out creative synergy between insstitutional needs and missional priorities. Utilizing Matthew 6:1-13 as a guide, Bishop Swenson reflected on this time of change and transition as follows: "The opportunity we are presented with is the need for an 'emptying out' that will enable us to be 'filled up' by the Spirit of Christ in creative and effective ways." The assurance we have is that, in our "emptying" and in our "filling", we journey with God and belong to God.

Over the next several months, the District Superintendents will convene and facilitate conversations with clergy and congregational leaders in their respective districts to share the vision and to lead in the transition to Mission Areas.

We invite you to join us in adjusting our sails to the winds of change that are blowing upon the landscape of the California-Pacific Annual Conference.