We had a spectacular conference this year.  Our theme was Race, Gender, Ethnicity and the Restoration.  When I first heard what the theme would be I was excited!  Each part of the theme reflected my own personal interests and experiences.  My friends all know I am an ardent feminist, and also I have experience with Black and Ethnic ministries.  The composition of the Program Committee reflected our commitment to the theme.  Committee members were: Newell Bringhurst, Darius Gray,  Barbara Walden, Derrick Williams, and Margaret Young. 

Even before the committee became active I began to let my creative juices flow and the first session I knew that I wanted to put together was a reflection on the experiences of women relative to the 25^th anniversary of women's ordination in the Community of Christ.  I was at Graceland Homecoming a year ago when I started recruiting my "dream" panel of ordained women, and each woman I approached agreed to participate.  As I expected, this panel was outstanding.

Each aspect of our theme, Race-Gender-Ethnicity, was addressed in our sessions.  We opened on Thursday evening with a major documentary, Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons, produced by Darius Gray and Margaret Young.  Both Darius and Margaret were with us that evening, and answered audience questions after the showing.  Representative of history-in-the-making was the session presented by Apostle Bunda Chibwe of the Community of Christ.  He told the story of how the CofC was introduced to Africa, and the growth that has taken place in just a few decades.

Our McMurrin Lecturer, Dr. John Glaser, addressed Ethnicity issues in his presentation titled "Reading the Lamanite Narrative as a Visceral Theology: Negating the Identity, Relevancy, and Catholicity of Mestizo Christianity."  Dr. Glaser names himself as a Mestizo, and is the Coordinator of Hispanic Leadership Development for the CofC.  He asked us to look at the Lamanite record through a different prism than the one we have traditionally used.

The Best Book Award was presented to George D. Smith for his book, Nauvoo Polygamy: "…but we called it celestial marriage."  George was with us for the entire conference and was featured in a session on Saturday where a panel addressed his book, and he was also a presenter in a Friday session. We could say that he "earned" his award because of his active participation in the conference.  The Best Article Award went to Bryan Monte for his article "Harvest Hills at Thirty-five: Graying Not Growing" in the 2008 JWHA Journal.  Bryan is currently living in the Netherlands and couldn't attend our conference.  However, he made a research trip to Independence in late October, and received his award then.

Our Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to W.B. "Pat" Spillman, who has served JWHA in so many ways.  His jobs have run from being President to editing our Journal for many years.  It was a well-deserved honor.  Expressions of appreciation were extended to John Hamer and Mike Karpowicz for their years of service as our Executive Directors.  They like to eat, even though you couldn't tell it by looking at them, so we presented them the book 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late.  We also managed to place them in the photo of the Smith boys with Major Bidamon, who was their step-father.  Some of John and Mike's duties are being taken over by Bill and Sherry Morain, and it was a real pleasure to see them so capably taking over.

If we had an award for the category of "traveled the farthest" it would go to Marcello who came from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  In all we had 164 registered attendees this conferenceand we appreciated each person who attended, whether from far or near.

Our conference closed on Sunday morning with an inspiring presentation of the Emma Smith Hymn Festival.  The festival included vignettes of Emma's life, and featured hymns compiled by, or meaningful to Emma.  The festival was created by David Bolton and Sarah Thatcher (2004 Kirtland Temple Music Fellows) for presentation at the Kirtland Temple, and has become an annual event there.  We appreciated their sharing of the festival with us.  It was a fitting tribute to a woman who often held the Restoration movement together.