A couple weeks worth of work

Quick updates:

Two new sermons are up, this week’s and last week’s, at my sermon archive. They may not bring down the house, but they’re not bad.

My dear friend Megan, with whom I graduated from Seminary, went up before the Board of Ordained Ministry Friday, and was approved for Ordination. There is in fact much hope for the United Methodist Church. And there is much rejoicing.

Last Sunday, I had an ecumenical Lenten service at my church and I made it a healing service. I got a lot of good comments about it, and people seemed very moved.

The biggest thing underfoot is the impending merger of our Annual Conference with neighboring Annual Conferences. I am on a team that is in dialogue about what will happen to the churches in Vermont and the clergy who serve (or in the future wish to serve) in Vermont. We had a meeting last week with a group of people from New England Annual Conference, and I have to say I feel better about the prospect of Vermont merging with NE than I have before. Their conference seems to have done a lot of work and healing since their own merger and doesn’t seem interested in assimilating others but in maintaining regional character. They were honest that merger would mean the closure of some churches, but that will be true no matter what, heartbreaking as it is.

I am devastated by the idea that my conference may split in half, one portion merging with the rest of upstate New York and one portion with the rest of New England. There’s not a time I speak about it that I don’t end up with some tears. But I feel like whatever happens, there’s some hope for the church and for my ministry in it. I think it’s going to be okay. Different and hard, but okay. Anyway.