PEORIA – When Martin Luther was asked about the truest form of worship, he looked to the Parable of the Ten Lepers in Luke 17 as the best example.

 

“It has both an inward and outward focus,” recalled Dr. Karen Westerfield Tucker. “Inward in that it expressed love for the One who first loved use and makes us open to receive what God has for us. It is outward in that the extent of human love for God must well up in speech and song.”

 

Tucker spoke at the annual conference memorial service June 2 which opened the 2010 Annual Conference in Peoria.

 

“A passionate attitude of gratitude then produces passionate worship,” Tucker said. “And the expression is made evident in the sacraments of communion and baptism. The sacrament of communion is a tangible, visible and tastable remembrance. The remembrance of our baptism connects us to Christ’s generosity with those that have gone before us.”

 

The service opened with the Charles Wesley hymn, And Are We Yet Alive?, which has been a traditional song opening for annual conference and other Methodist gatherings for the past 300 years.

 

Tucker noted that the song had great meaning for “it could not be assured that dear friends would be present at such gatherings.” “We are keenly aware of those no longer standing beside us and blending their voices with ours.”

 

During the service, 35 clergy and clergy spouses along with four laypersons who have died since the 2009 annual conference were remembered. View the Memorial gallery