Grace and Peace to you all in the name of Jesus our Christ!
Just a few days ago our annual Church Conference was held here at Elm Park. The leadership and clergy of ten of our churches gathered here to report on our ministries to our District Superintendent, the Rev. Judy Walker. The gathering accomplished the business required as well as giving us the opportunity to share our United Methodist connection within the Scranton / W-B Cluster and beyond. It is always great to see our brothers and sisters gathered together.
Now with that Church Conference behind us, we have a very busy few weeks ahead.
You will see what we have in store as you page through this newsletter so I don’t need to expound upon that in this article.
As we approach this Election Day, I want to encourage you all to pray for our nation, our voting process and for peace as the results are made known. The division that has been stoked up in the past year and promises of “a blood bath” should one of the candidates lose, is a real cause for concern.
You may have already received a “Do Unto Others” button over the past few weeks at church. I have been asking you to wear the button to remind you, and those who see our buttons, to live by the words of Jesus. I hope to have many more buttons to distribute this Sunday. While we may differ on our decisions of who to vote for, I believe we can all agree that Jesus demands that his followers live by his teaching to love each other as he has loved us.
Keep the buttons ready because they will also play a role in our upcoming Consecration Sunday celebration to be held on November 24! We will gather together in one worship service at 10:00am that day, re-commit our lives to Christ and celebrate by sharing a catered meal immediately following worship. Don’t miss this great day!
Thanksgiving Eve Worship service follows later in that same week. And, in a blink of an eye, we will enter the Advent Season as we prepare to welcome Christ into our world and into our lives again!
Be sure to be watching my emails for updates along the way. Not receiving my weekly emails on Fridays of each week? Please let me know via email and I will be sure to add you to our list.
Until next time…
Rev. Mike Bealla