In this week’s Connections, Bishop Ward reflects on her visit to Winstead UMC in Wilson, NC, and the upcoming forum on education.
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Recently, Mike and I had the joyful opportunity to worship at Winstead United Methodist Church in Wilson. We celebrated together 13 years of partnership of this wonderful congregation with Vick Elementary School nearby.
Winstead is on the verge of acquiring a vacant lot for a community garden, across from the school, as well as a house to be converted into space for ministry in this community.
We give thanks for the partnerships across our Annual Conference, as congregations link with public schools, engaging children and their families and with those who teach and administer the schools where they spend their days.
We give thanks for the ministry of our church as we commit ourselves over and over again to be engaged with all God’s children.
Right after Annual Conference, on Monday, June 16, I hope that you will attend the Critical Issues seminar of the North Carolina Council of Churches. It will be held in Chapel Hill.
It will be my privilege to bring the morning sermon, and my husband Mike will be bringing a keynote address out of his experience in public education. We will be thinking together about education from Pre-K all the way through higher education.
We have a remarkable group of seminar leaders who will help us engage in the issues before us, the challenges that we face together as a community, in caring for all our children, and practical helps for churches who would like to become community partners with a public school nearby.
This will be a great day of learning and engaging together, and I hope that you will put it on your calendar.
As we begin this summer together, let us give thanks to God for the great privilege of learning and leading together. Through Congregations for Children, we are reaching out in powerful ways in our communities, so that this whole world might be claimed and drawn back to God.