{"id":340,"date":"2012-04-24T16:28:13","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T23:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=340"},"modified":"2012-04-24T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T23:28:13","slug":"and-so-it-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/and-so-it-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"And so it begins….."},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishops, including Bishop Grant Hagiya, sit around the sides of the plenary hall during the opening worship of the 2012 United Methodist General Conference held in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by Kathleen Barry.<\/em><\/p>\n

General Conference 2012 is here.<\/p>\n

God help us.<\/p>\n

No, really! God help us, God be with us, God be within us, God’s presence be felt in our midst during this time.<\/p>\n

No matter what happens at GC2012, it’s going to shape what it means to be a United Methodist for the next four years and possibly (read: probably) beyond. Even it it seems as far away as the Himalayan icecaps, the repercussions of the decisions made at GC2012 will impact every single local church on the face of the planet.<\/p>\n

So what’s a lay person in our corner of the world to do?<\/p>\n

Pray. Pray hard.<\/p>\n

Pray for those at GC2012. Pray that they have patience and stamina to make it through the long days. Pray that they make new and lasting connections and friendships, and that they find themselves renewed by the powerful work that our church is doing. Pray that the work done is reflective of Christ’s call to make disciples, care for the poor and disenfranchised, be good stewards of our earth.<\/p>\n

Pray for us here in the PNW\u2014that we have the faith and courage to respond to the changes that result from CG2012. Pray that we will find meaning in the renewed call of the general church and see that we are all part of the body of Christ. Pray that we continue to reach out to our own communities and share the love of Jesus Christ. Pray that as we debate and struggle and converse about the legislation, politics, and ideology surrounding GC2012, that we remember to pray.<\/p>\n

Pray that in all we do, in the decisions we as a global church make, in the ways each local church continues to live Jesus’ mission, that we remember ‘Thy will be done.’ This isn’t our church\u2014its God’s. We are the body of Christ and God is the head. Whatever we as a church do, it isn’t for our own selves; it’s for the glory of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Pray for the church this GC2012, the global church, your own local church, and every person who makes it the beautiful body of Christ that it is.<\/p>\n

Slainte<\/p>\n

Megan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishops, including Bishop Grant Hagiya, sit around the sides of the plenary hall during the opening worship of the 2012 United Methodist General Conference held in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by Kathleen Barry. General Conference 2012 is here. God help us. No, really! God help us, God be with us, God be within us, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/bishops-opening.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-5u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}