Friday June 19, 2015
An eNote from Rodney
Dear Trinity Church Family,
It’s early on Friday morning and I am getting ready to go back out to Lake Junaluska for the day. The first two days of conference have been busy, quiet and hot. There are almost two thousand people in the auditorium when everyone is in attendance. There is air conditioning but barely. I have noticed something this year that I haven’t paid attention to in the past. The people I have known across my career are getting older. It’s showing in our faces. The other thing I have noticed this year is that there are some young and sharp looking clergymen and women on the grounds. I am glad to see that.
The last two days have been business as usual, reports from conference agencies and the election of delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conference. (I will talk more about that over the next several weeks, the voting has not been completed as of this morning).
There were some of emotional moments when the Bishop addressed the shooting of the nine black Methodists by the white gunman in Charleston. Our Bishop, Larry Goodpaster, is from Mississippi and a survivor of the civil rights turmoil that took place in the south in the sixties. He was visibly shaken as he spoke about the shooting. The African Methodist Episcopal Church began in 1816 in Philadelphia when some black Methodists got tired of being discriminated against in white churches and started their own. They are Wesleyan and they are our ecclesiastical brothers and sisters. Then there is the fact that sacred space was violated, and while people studied the bible murder was committed. I was grateful for our Bishop’s shepherding as he spoke. I have copied below the statement released by the Methodist Bishops of the Southeastern Jurisdiction.
SEJ College of Bishops
June 18, 2015
In response to the murders of the pastor and eight others during a prayer meeting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015, the Southeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops of the United Methodist Church offers the following response:
The College of Bishops of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church stands with our Methodist family at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, with our brother Bishop Richard Franklin Morris of the Seventh Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and with our colleague Bishop Jonathan Holston, of the South Carolina Conference. We condemn this act of violence in the house of the Lord. We commit ourselves anew to the work of reconciliation in the midst of hatred. And we lift high the cross of Jesus Christ, as God’s witness to the violence and division that is our human condition. Please join us in acts of prayer, compassion and justice on behalf of our PanMethodist sisters and brothers.
Here is a note from Andrew: Trinity is helping to feed the children from Emma Elementary that live at the Brownwood Trailer Park every Monday and Wednesday all summer. We only need a couple of volunteers each day, though more are always welcome. The first week we fed almost 50 kids, so please consider giving your time to this important ministry. We leave from the church parking lot at 10:30 and return by 12:30. Feel free to check our Google Drive [control and right click on this] and go to the Summer Feeding tab to sign up, or call the church office. Please check your calendars right away because we need at least one more volunteer this coming Monday (June 22).
One last Annual Conference item. The memorial service for pastors who have passed away in the last year will be held on Saturday morning in Stuart Auditorium, on the grounds of Lake Junaluska at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday (tomorrow). Our former pastor and member, the Reverend Bill Clodfelter will be remembered at this service. Jennie Lynn Krichbaum has written a lovely memoir of Bill that is in the service program.
I am ushering today and it’s time to head for the Lake; I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday morning for worship.
Sincerely,
Rodney
rodhagans@gmail.com