Announcements

Even before “COVID-19” and “global pandemic” became part of our everyday conversation, my family’s 2020 was disrupted. In January, my 12-year-old son broke both bones in his right arm while playing goalkeeper during a soccer scrimmage. The breaks required surgery during which titanium rods were inserted into his arm to stabilize the bones. The healing process would take several months, including regular physical therapy to help him regain strength.

Sometimes bones are so broken, they require surgery and intervention from a skilled physician to help them strengthen and heal. When I read Isaiah’s promise that the Lord “will make your bones strong,” I wonder where my own bones are so broken that they need the intervention of a skilled healer. I also wonder what regular work needs to be done in order for those broken places to heal and gain strength over time.

One of those places for which I have recently needed the help of a skilled healer is related to my personal understanding and engagement with racial justice. Many of the events of this past year have helped me become more aware of my own shortcomings and how I contribute to the systemic racism present in our communities. Friends and colleagues have graciously journeyed with me, challenging me on my blind spots and inviting me to begin with a change in myself while also examining the systems in which we take part. I have engaged with the IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory) process, and have appreciated the help of an IDI facilitator who offered regular tools and exercises designed to help strengthen my intercultural competence over time.

There are other times in my life when I have needed help. Sometimes that help has been from professionals trained in practices of healing. Other times that help has come from my spouse, my children, or trusted friends who have journeyed with me. In most cases, the healing process has taken time and has been most successful when accompanied by regular and intentional practices that lead to strength.

I wonder if there are places in your life, right now, that are broken and in need of healing? Who are those skilled healers in your life whom you trust to journey with you? How are you allowing God to heal you and lead you into practices which will help to “make your bones strong”?

Rev. Tim Catlett is the Executive Director of New Faith Communities

Bishop Ward shares with us the details of General Conference and the Clergy Day Apart on Thursday, March 18 at 10 am.

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I give thanks for you every day as I pray to God. I echo the prayer of the apostle Paul in the New Testament as I greet you this day. 

We have heard from the Commission on the General Conference. They have released to the entire Church their discernment relative to the possibilities of the General and Jurisdictional Conferences gathering in the year 2020-2021. The 2020 General Conference has been further delayed as a result of the global pandemic. Virtual gatherings however are being configured so that we can care for essential business and advance our life together.

I look forward to meeting with clergy of our Annual Conference on Thursday, March 18 at 10 am so that we might have conversation together, pray for one another, worship together and commit ourselves anew to our shared work. Let us remember that the Annual Conference is the basic unit of The United Methodist Church according to our Discipline, that the local church, according to our Discipline, is our mission station. We are connected in profound ways, community by community across eastern North Carolina and with all United Methodists in every place at this time.

Thank you for your prayers for all our life together and for the connection of United Methodist people as we move forward step-by-step into the future God is giving. 

Reading Isaiah 58:11 reminds me of the nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silverbells and cockle shells
All in a row.

I grew up in rural Maxton, North Carolina, during the 1980s. We did not see families like ours on television, and I felt our family must be inferior to the “normal” families portrayed on TV. But now, looking back, I chuckle when I realize how wrong I was! Ours was a beautiful and eclectic childhood filled with life, love, and flowers!

My mother was a homemaker and a master gardener. She owned and operated a plant and flower nursery called “Roxie’s Flowers.” We grew azaleas, boxwoods, red tips, roses, and any other stick she could get to root. We grew silverbells, too. The seashells were used to raise the soil’s pH level, making it less acidic and more beneficial for the roots. The bluebells were never planted in a row! They needed the shade of the gum trees momma incorporated into her garden’s design. Her garden adapted to the natural contour of the land so the flowers could thrive!

The exiled people were instructed to build gardens on the land they were placed. God told them to plant, grow, and harvest in foreign fields. This new way of living required them to adapt new gardening practices to the old farm practices they remembered from home. These are new gardening practices they could have never imagined using in Israel. You and I are called by the “God of the harvest” to plant in the land we have settled.

What makes your garden grow?

Rev. Mattheue Locklear is the pastor at Sandy Plains UMC and First UMC in Pembroke

In January of 2015, I slipped on black ice and broke the tibia and fibula in my right leg. Apparently, my tibia had been shattered, and I required a lot of hardware. When I returned to the doctor in the first few months, he said that I was healing nicely. It was hard to be non-weight-bearing and then partial weight-bearing in those first several months. I wanted to heal quickly because I had just started at a new appointment in October of 2014. I felt that I was a burden to my congregation since they had to find someone to lead worship in my absence. Instead, they were extremely gracious and brought me and my family food each week especially for the first several months. I was a slow healer. The doctor finally told me I didn’t have to return after a year and a month after the accident.

In the year-long journey, I was grateful for the love of my family, especially my mother, who stayed with me for months to care for me and my family. I was also grateful for the love of my congregation who extended to me the gifts of grace, patience and, food. I know what strengthened my bones: it was love. Love is healing. Love comes from God. Love never fails.

Rev. Sung Moy is the pastor of Westover UMC in Raleigh

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward announces a new configuration of responsibilities within the Cabinet and new Cabinet appointments, effective July 1, 2021, for the 2021-2022 Conference year.

Rev. David Blackman, pastor of Hay Street UMC in Fayetteville (GA), will become Superintendent of the Beacon District.

Rev. Chris Brady, pastor of Wilson Temple UMC in Raleigh (CA), will become Superintendent of the Capital District.

Rev. Gray Southern, Capital District Superintendent, will become Assistant to the Bishop.

Rev. Beth Hood will continue to lead Ministerial Relations with the new title Assistant to the Bishop for Clergy Life.

As Assistant to the Bishop, Gray Southern will lead in the transition for the conference and the Bishop assigned later this year. He will support the Bishop in this particular time of constraint and challenge while serving as leader of conference staff and ministries aligned with the Office of the Bishop.

As Assistant to the Bishop for Clergy Life, Beth Hood will lead the conference in all matters related to clergy, including calling, discernment, education, spiritual preparation, support, credentialing, ordination, conference relationships, retirement, and post-retirement.

These two leadership positions are a part of a wider configuration of ministry responsibility and will not impact the approved budget of the conference. Resources garnered from earlier and ongoing changes in conference staff leadership are more than sufficient to strengthen our conference in this way as we anticipate the virtual called sessions of the General Conference and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2021 and the continued postponement of the 2020 General Conference.

Thank you for your prayers for these clergy, their families, the churches and ministries they now lead, and our expansive conference family as these transitions unfold.