Opening Worship - WOW!

This evening was the opening worship at Conference. It was wonderful!! Everything from an orchestra and choir from a big church in Southlake to an African Drummer ensemble from Fort Worth. In some ways, the worship was very simple and traditional, focusing on what brings together our diversity. The wonderful words of the communion service were the same we use once a month. However, the service opened with an African laywoman praying in French, had a Korean Methodist singing in Korean (at least I think it was Korean!), and a European Bishop praying in German. So cool.

We sang old favorites like "Let Us Break Bread Together" and "O For a Thousand Tongues" and "In the Garden" and new favorites like "O-so-so" and "Zimbabwe Halleluya." We had dancers and video and all the bishops in their robes and stoles.

It was an awesome experience to worship with 6500 other United Methodists and feel the Holy Spirit moving among us. The theme of the General Conference is "A Future With Hope" and worship always gives me hope. This is truly the best part of conference.

Next came the opening session where they set the bar of the conference, tested the electronic voting, set the rules of the conference, etc. Not terribly exciting, but very necessary for the smooth operation of the conference. There was some weirdness having to do with the standing rules and whether or not we should have Parlimentarians that I did not really understand. It is clear to me that a number of the things that came up tonight have a history behind them that I do not know. However, they still got through the initial business very smoothly and much quicker than I had thought they would. Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of the Arkansas Conference not only preached an inspiring message, but she is very good at running a meeting. I hope all the Bishops who take a turn at chairing the Conference are as good.

It has been a long day, but tonight was an amazing beginning. I felt blessed to be United Methodist. And one more thing - this opening day just happens to be exactly 40 years after the service that merged the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church into the United Methodist Church.

The conference has a lot of work to do and so do I! So for now it is time for bed and resting up for tomorrow, when I actually start my recorder job.

In Christ's Spirit,
Martha