November 2022
Elections are taking place across the land, in school districts, library boards, city councils, county courts, state legislatures, governorships, in the house of representatives and the senate, and in the United Methodist Church. In our denomination it is bishops who are elected to serve in leadership in the regional bodies known as annual conferences. RHUMC is part of the California-Pacific Annual Conference, which includes southern California and Hawaii. In the Western Jurisdiction we are one of five annual conferences that reach from the Rockies to the Pacific. As a result of the pandemic, elections of new bishops were postponed a couple of times. But with the number of retirements increasing among their ranks we simply had to move forward.
So clergy and laity from all five Western Jurisdiction conferences are gathered this week in Salt Lake City, and will elect three persons to serve in this role. As of this writing we do not know who they will be. But one of them is likely to become our new bishop. Our current episcopal leader, the Rev. Dr. Grant Hagiya, will retire at the end of the year. Whether it is a new bishop, or one currently serving elsewhere, I look forward to introducing them to you – and vice versa.
I want them to be able to see what I see whenever I think of you – a genuine community of faith. Together we are finding our way through this life, seeking to be faithful, seeking to be generous and hopeful, seeking to honor the spirit of Christ in our midst, and following where he leads. We have lived and worked and prayed and grown together. We have lived out Paul’s encouragement to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” We have worked to strengthen our mission with children and families, and welcomed new persons among us. We have come through the worst of a global pandemic, and now look with hope to what lies ahead.
In a way, I think election day is actually pretty well every day. Each time that the sun rises upon us we have the opportunity to choose what we will do with it. How will we make the best use of the day we have been given? How will we employ the resources with which God has blessed us – our best wisdom, our energy and spirit, our courage and hopefulness, to help build a better future for our world, our community, our neighbors, our families?
Our United Methodist Church is electing new bishops. Americans are electing new public servants. But we are all invited to take our part in the work of God’s kingdom on earth. That’s not something we want to hand over to others, for it belongs to us all. May the spirit of Christ guide us as we go.
Peace,
