Dear HUM friends,
Holy Conferencing!
The 2008 East Ohio Annual Conference officially opened this year with a Monday morning Service of Holy Communion and Remembrance of clergy and spouses who have died since our last annual conference … and concluded on Thursday afternoon with a Service of Covenant Renewal and Sending Forth.
Sandwiched between these two very moving worship services were an indescribable series of events that make the United Methodist Annual Conference meetings a unique experience in all of Christendom.
We worshiped together every morning, shaken up by powerful preaching and witness. We renewed friendships with colleagues and friends across the conference. We debated and voted on resolutions and issues that unite and divide us. We ordained our newest brothers and sisters in ministry. We received our appointments for this next year. We participated in a Day Apart, in which Rev. Adam Hamilton inspired and motivated us to reach the unchurched for Christ with passion and commitment. Rev. Hamilton is senior pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in our country – The Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas, with some 16,000 members, worshiping some 8,000 people each week.
John Wesley called it Holy Conferencing. It began with the Christmas Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, December 24, 1784. Conferencing is a critical part of who we are as United Methodists.
I am proud to be a part of the UMC, where we strive to live with open minds, open hearts, and open doors. We praise God for the gift of intelligence, that we may grow in faith even as we learn more and more about how God’s great world works. We thank God for the gift of compassionate hearts, open to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit and responsive to the suffering of our neighbor near and far. We thank God that we follow Jesus in extending “open” doors, through which we welcome every child of God who seeks to know the unwavering forgiveness, lavish love, and amazing grace of Jesus, who taught his disciples to go into the world and offer these gifts to everyone.
An underlying theme of our annual conference was John Wesley’s General Rules for Methodist Christians, put in the language of the 21st century by Bishop Reuben Job:
“Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.”
We would do well to start each day by saying these rules to ourselves, as we meet the challenges that face us each day.
Our lay delegate Bob Bucklin and I will give a more full account of the 2008 East Ohio Conference in July. I believe we at HUM are ready to begin another year of growth, with unity in God’s Spirit, even as we are divided in some of our opinions on social issues.
Holy Conferencing!
May God strengthen us for the challenge!
Pastor Ron
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Howland United Methodist Church