The Episcopal Address

The episcopal address at General Conference was, in a word, stunning. Delivered by Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, it was integrated into the Communion liturgy for morning worship, interspersed with clips that served as dynamic illustrations of our ministries and churches.
Our own St. Mark's UMC was featured in one of those clips... and I happened to be sitting right in front of Tom Nagle, who was visiting this morning.

We were guided into a seemless flow of worshipful experience as we slipped from the Bishop's words to video clips to songs to the voices of all the Bishop's present reciting pieces of the Great Thanksgiving. Bishop Christopher gave us a riveting sound byte at one point, that I believe will stick with me: "Let's threaten the world with the resurrection."

Later in the morning we were challenged by the story of Peter in John 21 to be led even to places we might not wish to go, as four General Secretaries talked about the 4 Areas of Focus for our church: 1. Beginning New Congregations and Transforming existing ones; 2. Developing Christian Leaders for the church and world; 3. Working to end poverty; 4. Stamping out killer diseases.
During the presentation on stamping out diseases, we were all introduced to a 7-year-old girl who has raised $40,000 for Nothing But Nets. Her goal: every single child in Africa sleeping under a mosquito net!
I have to confess that too often my goals are way too timid.

Other members of the delegation will be sharing more of Thursday's events, so I'll leave them to it.

Thanks for reading, supporting, and praying!
-Jon Moore