April 25, 2008
Dear Friends in Christ,
Greetings from General Conference in Fort Worth!
With our opening worship and with the Episcopal address, I have to tell you that I am proud to be a United Methodist Christian. Although our theme, "A Future With Hope" has been our focus, the line that has stuck with me is "let us confront the world with resurrection."
Today I am participating in my legislative committee work. There has been little business up to this point.
Our worship celebrations are beyond words of description. I must tell you, God is present in mighty ways. Being a worldwide church, participating with sisters and brothers from all over the world, praying and singing in different languages, all have led me to moments of confession and refreshment. I wish there was a way to bring it back to all of you.
The days are long and the discussions are healthy. God is doing a new thing in our United Methodist Church. God is working His transforming love. I am so grateful to be a part of the church at this point and time in history. Thank you for the opportunity to represent you.
Every morning at 7:45 a.m. your General Conference delegation gathers to pray, to encourage one another, to listen to one another, before we begin the days work. I want to tell you how wonderful it is to be with these children of God. I have been so blessed to have the privilege to be counted among their number.
I want to share several things that have been meaningful to me.
Most loving God, without you no words or works of ours have meaning. Accept the gifts of our hands as symbols of our devotion. Grant us your blessing, as we have consecrated these gifts to your glory, that they may be an enduring witness of love and justice before all your people, and that our lives may be consecrated in your service through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The lands in longing call out your name
The tongues are different, the prayer the same
With humble spirits can we believe
That God is bigger than we conceive.
The day is coming, the Lord will move
With the hand of justice and heart of love
The will of heaven on this earth be done,
The day is coming, oh let it come.
With willing spirit, Lord let us dare
To kneel with strangers and join in prayer
Grant in your mercy the hope that heals
The law of love Your Word reveals.
A barren wasteland we must reclaim
With hearts of bering each other's pain
Grant us the courage to make a place
To plant tomorrow's seed of peace.
The day is coming, the Lord will move
With the hand of justice and heart of love
The will of heaven on this earth be done,
The day is coming, oh let it come.
Lord Jesus, give us your peace. Keep us from anger and hurt feelings. In your name, may we know peace that passes all understanding and by peace, maintain ourselves. Set peace as a guard over our hearts that we will not let our opinions separate us from the love of God. Amen
Our hope is intentional, active, and grounded in a deep and dynamic relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ. John Wesley described how hope-filled people lived through his General Rules: Doing no harm. Doing good. By attending upon the ordinances of God. Bishop Rueben Job in his book Three Simple Rules says it this way: Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.
It is my prayer that we will look to our future with hope as we pitch our tents in the land of hope.
Members of the IGRC delegation join hands for morning prayer prior to heading into Friday's plenary session at General Conference. Delegates will be participating in legislative committee work through Sunday as the 13 committees begin plowing through the more than 1,500 pages of legislation filed by individuals, churches, conference and general agencies. Plenary sessions, which will consider committee recommendations on legislation, will begin on Monday.
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40th BIRTHDAY OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
The United Methodist Church was formed on April 23, 1968, with the union of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church.
The Evangelical United Brethren Church, established in 1946, represented the union of two United States born denominations: the Evangelical Church and the Church of the Brethren in Christ. These churches originated among German-speaking people during the great spiritual awakening in the late 18th-century colonies.
The two fellowships and the Methodist Church were similar, particularly in terms of church polity and evangelistic zeal.
Jacob Albright of Eastern Pennsylvania was a lay preacher who gathered followers in the early 1800's. These "Albright people" formed the Evangelical Association, later to become the Evangelical Church.
The Reverend Philip Otterbein, ordained by the German Reformed Church, started the United Brethren Movement in the late 1700's.
Meanwhile, the Methodist movement had begun in England in the early 1700's under Anglican clergyman John Wesley and his followers. Wesley did not officially organize a new church but sparked a renewal movement within the Church of England. Nonetheless, Methodism spread from England to Ireland and the colonies in America.
Methodist classes and congregations met in America from the 1760s. Around Christmas 1784, 60 ministers gathered in Baltimore and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, with the word "Episcopal" referring to the church's administration by bishops. The denomination grew rapidly and was known for its circuit rider ministers on the advancing United States frontiers.
With such growth, philosophical differences and division were inevitable. In 1830, a group, largely moved by an insistence on lay representation, separated and became the Methodist Protestant Church.
In the late 18th century, racism in the church caused some groups of African-American Methodist s to leave and form their own denominations, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In 1870, another division in the parent church led to the creation of a third black Methodist denomination, know today as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1844, the Methodist Episcopal Church split again over the issue of slavery. The offspring denomination was the Methodist Episcopal Church, south. The north and south churches reunited in 1939, compromising on the race issue by creating a segregated system. The Methodist Protestant Church was part of the merger. Alongside the five geographic jurisdictions, an overlapping Central Jurisdiction was formed for African Americans. It was dissolved in 1968 with the merger of the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.
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