Board of Higher Education Ministries

Purpose

The Board of Higher Education Ministries of the Virginia Annual Conference has the following general functions:

To provide the connectional relationship between the General Church and conference, district and local church organizations;
To provide counsel, guidance and assistance to institutions in their relationships with the state;
To interact with public education as it reflects on the wholeness of persons and the meaning of life;
To guard property and endowments entrusted to the institutions;
To relate functionally with the personnel — deploying units of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry including those related to missionaries, deaconesses, voluntary service and emergency relief.

The Board has the following planning and fiscal functions:

To evaluate higher education and professional campus ministries with concern for the quality of their performance and the integrity of their mission;
To present to the Council on Ministries of the Annual Conference the financial needs for adequate support of the schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, campus Christian movements, and campus ministries related to the conference for allocation of apportionments to the churches within the conference;
To determine the distribution of the funds received from undesignated gifts, returns from special days, and receipts from missionary offerings in the church school;
To work with the Annual Conference Council on Ministries to promote special days and funds: Black College Fund, United Methodist Student Day, and Student Recognition Day, ordered by the General Conference; to maintain adequate fiduciary and legal relationships with institutions and campus ministries; and to assist Annual Conferences with other judicatories in their responsibilities in these matters.

Service to Local Church

The local church representative of Christian Higher Education and Campus Ministry serves in the following ways:

Assimilates and distributes pertinent information pertaining to our United Methodist Colleges and campus ministry program at state institutions;
Interprets and distributes information related to scholarship and loans for United Methodist students emphasizing the observance of Student Day;
Interprets the program of the Board of Higher Education Ministries of our United Methodist Church to our local churches.

Contact

District Directors of Higher Education and Campus Ministry; or Raymond H. Edmonds Jr., Conference Connectional Ministries Staff, P.O. Box 1719, Glen Allen, VA 23060, phone: 804-521-1100, 1-800-768-6040, ext. 136, FAX: 804-521-1179, E-mail: rayedmonds@vaumc.org. President, Board of Higher Education Ministries: Theresa Carroll, 924 Courthouse Rd., Palmyra, VA 22963.