2019 Speakers

Bishop Karen P. Oliveto
Mountain Sky Episcopal Area

Bishop Karen P. Oliveto serves as the leader of the Mountain Sky Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church, which includes the Mountain Sky Conference. She was elected to the episcopacy in 2016. Oliveto is the co-author of Talking About Homosexuality: A Congregational Resource (Pilgrim Press: 2004), and the author of Our Strangely Warmed Hearts: Coming Out into God's Call (Abingdon, 2018) and the newly released Together at the Table: Diversity without Division in The United Methodist Church (Westminster John Knox: 2018).

 

 

 

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer
Ohio West Episcopal Area

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer serves as the episcopal leader of the Ohio West Area of The United Methodist Church. He was assigned there in 2012 and elected to the episcopacy in 2000. Palmer served on the Commission on a Way Forward. Currently, he is a member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters and chair of the Comprehensive Africa Plan. He also is a board member of several organizations, including The United Methodist Publishing House, Methodist Theological School in Ohio, United Theological Seminary and OhioHealth, a family of nonprofit hospitals and health care facilities.

 

 

Junius Dotson
General Secretary, Discipleship Ministries

A nationally recognized leader, speaker, and author on evangelism and church revitalization, the Rev. Junius B. Dotson is the General Secretary (chief executive officer) of Discipleship Ministries, an international agency of The United Methodist Church with a staff of 135. Dotson launched “See All The People” – the highly successful church-wide initiative that helps church leaders concentrate on intentional discipleship, while learning new behaviors around engaging their surrounding community.

 

 

 

 

J.J. Warren
Upper New York Conference

J.J. Warren is currently a certified candidate for ministry in the Upper New York Conference of The United Methodist Church. He has worked as the Director of Children's Ministries at Ardsley United Methodist Church in New York, and as the Spiritual Life Coordinator at Casowasco UMC Camp & Retreat Center. Warren just graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied Religion and Creative Writing; he also founded and led the campus ministry, Rise. He will lead a preaching tour this summer.

 

 

Yevette Christy
Mountain Sky Conference

Pastor Yevette Marie Christy currently serves Community United Methodist Church in Westcliffe, Colorado. She received her undergraduate degree from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas, and her Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. She anticipates being ordained at the 2019 Annual Conference Session.

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan Canaday
Mountain Sky Conference

The Rev. Ryan Canaday serves as a co-pastor at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. He is active in the recovery community and co-author of Whiteboarding Your Why: An Interactive Approach To Living A Better Story. Canaday experiences the most joy when helping people find God and beauty in the midst of mess and brokenness. He and his wife, Tami, are the founders of FREE, a spiritual community for addicts, loved ones of addicts, and spiritual refugees.

 

 

 

 

Calvin Hill
Mountain Sky Conference

The Rev. Calvin Yashie Hill, a full-blood Navajo from Tsalina Valley, Arizona, has served The United Methodist Church since 1996. In 2014, he answered the call to his first full-time Native American appointment: Blackfeet United Methodist Parish in Browning, Montana. Hill and his wife Sheri, an Ojibwe from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, have developed loving relationships with Blackfeet and Anglo, helping form bonds of fellowship not experienced in that country ever before. He earned a Master of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and is currently enrolled as a doctoral student at Claremont School of Theology to earn his D.Min.