Opening Worship

We were ushered into opening worship tonight by the "mingled tongues" of beautiful traditional choirs accompanied by orchestra and jazz-infused gospel music accompanied by African drumming. The Processional shifted from the "Zimbabwe Halleluya" to "God of Grace and God of Glory" (with some alternate lyrics), then back to the "Halleluya." As the Bishops processed in, I could feel the deep shift as the vertical realm of relationship with the Spirit expanded to fully include the horizontal realm of our connected fellowship.

Other than at my ordination, I have never so powerfully felt the means of grace of our connection.

Bishop Janice Huie, President of the Council of Bishops, preached a sermon that shared its title with the theme of the conference, "A Future with Hope." It was based on Jeremiah 29:10-14 and Romans 8:18-28. During the sermon she "called out" the special interest groups that "think they've cornered the market on righteousness" with Paul's answer to the special interest groups of his time: "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." She shifted away from church politics by talking about the mission of the 11.4 million United Methodists found in 50 countries on 5 continents. Hope, Bishop Huie said, is what 21st century Christians must be known by, as she led us through a series of biblical images of hope.

The 6,400 people in attendance concluded the opening worship session by celebrating Communion.

The Opening Business Session after the worship service contained the sorts of matters one might expect from an opening session... but one element really stood out for me.

Exactly 40 years ago, on April 23rd, 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church united to form the United Methodist Church.

We watched video from that event, 40 years ago tonight. Some of the "veteran" General Conference delegates have shared with me they sense a greater spirit of unity this year than in the past few Conferences. Perhaps beginning with the shared remembrance of the unity achieved 40 years ago for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will lead us to experience a similar coming together in 2008.

Pray that it will be so.

-Jon Moore

Oh... they warned me these business sessions last until 11 pm, but they were wrong.

Tonight we got out at 10:57 pm.