Three generations enjoy voting - and coloring - together at Annual Conference

Paige Lowery is excited to be at the table this year – both literally and figuratively – as she joins her mom Eilidh Lowery and grandma Jane Shaffer as a voting member of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference.

“When I was little I always had to sit in the back,” said the 13-year-old.

It’s a little surreal for Shaffer, a retired clergy now who has been attending Annual Conference for 38 years, to share a table with her granddaughter and daughter.

“Here’s this tradition of church family continuing,” she said.

Rev. Eilidh Lowery serves the Sellwood New Faith Community and Trinity United Methodist Church in Portland. She remembers coming to Annual Conference when she was 16 years old for a few years, then started attending again in 2006.

“I’m of the sandwich generation,” she said. “It’s fun to hear their take on things.”

Lowery jokes about the fact she carries water bottles for her mom and coloring books for page – or maybe it’s the other way around. Both options help the women focus in on the important issues.

Paige said she was proud she got to vote to return a piece of land from Wallowa Lake Camp to the Nez Perce Tribe on Thursday morning.

“It felt really good,” she said.