Call to Prayer for 2008 General Conference

Western North Carolina Conference United Methodist Women.....

The Western North Carolina Annual Conference concluded Sunday at Lake Junaluska....after four days of worship and inspiration, celebration of conference ministries, fellowship, debate and discussion, and lots of voting to elect our conference delegations to the 2008 General Conference and the 2008 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference.

For complete information about Annual Conference, including PDF copies of the daily newspaper...The Digest, visit the conference website at: http://www.wnccumc.org/

Below is an recent article about a call to prayer for the upcoming 2008 General Conference, which will take place next spring in Fort Worth, Texas. Begin to pray daily for the General Conference, our own Western North Carolina delegations, and other delegates that are being elected across the country and around the world.

The persons elected to represent Western North Carolina at the General and Jurisdictional conferences are as follows:

Laity Delegates - General Conference: Betty Jo Hardy, John Howard, Jack Young, Jim Windham, Sarah McKinney, Amy Johnson, Teila Hand, Kim Daniels, Sandy Hieronymus, Sarah Kim, John Ammons, William Greene, Joetta Rinehart

Clergy Delegates - General Conference: Thomas (Andy) Langford III, Sally O. Langford, Arnetta E. Beverly, Angela A. Pleasants, Kenneth H. Carter, Jr., Kimberly T. Ingram, Charles Denny White, Jr., James C. Howell, Julianne (Jan) Brittain, Nancy Burgin Rankin, Ashley Crowder Stanley, Resonald (Alan) Rice, Jr., Patricia A. Lewis

Note: All General Conference delegates are also delegates to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference.

Laity Delegates - Jurisdictional Conference: Lynne Gilbert, Jennifer Davis, Jennifer Burton, Tonya Lanier, Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Mildred Carter, Lazelle Free, Etta Marcellus, Ann Aldridge, Sara Williams, Bob Shepherd, Daphine Strickland, Kathy FitzJeffries

Clergy Delegates - Jurisdictional Conference: Abraham Kim, Frank (Duke) Ison, William C. Wyman, Jr., Mark J. Key, Elizabeth O. Coppedge-Henley, Shelly F. Webb, Percival (Percy) Reeves, George Thompson, Andy Lambert, M. Kenneth Lyon, Charles Kyker, Earl Wilson, Jr., David Christy

Laity Alternates: Neffie Connie Locklear, Katie Fralic, Michael Carle, Tom Wilson, Dick Strachan, Charlie Taylor, Charles Eurey, Stephen Noblitt

Clergy Alternates: L. Gregory Jones, Lillie M. Jones, Joseph Seymour, Lowell McNaney, Katherine Clontz Sherrill, Talbot Davis, H. Donnell FitzJeffries, Amy Coles

General Conference Host Committee Issues Call to Prayer

United Methodists around the world are asked to pray for God's guidance for the church in the time leading up to and during the denomination's 2008 legislative assembly.
The Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference host committee, which is preparing for the assembly next spring in Fort Worth, has issued a "A Call to Prayer for General Conference 2008."

"Just as prayer is as essential to the Christian life as breath, so prayer is essential to our shared life together as we prepare for General Conference 2008," the committee said in its call.

"We on the General Conference Hosting Committee Prayer Ministries Team invite you to pray daily for General Conference 2008 and for all the preparations and deliberations leading up to it so that in all that we do we are 'rooted and grounded in love,'" the committee said.
Nearly 1,000 delegates from around the world will meet April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth to revise The United Methodist Church's Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions, approve a budget for general ministries, speak to issues of the day, worship and celebrate the church's work. General Conference meets every four years.

"We feel that the prayers of all United Methodists are crucial as we approach General Conference," said Judy Tutt, co-chairperson of the Prayer and Discernment Ministries Team. "If we are to discern God's will for our denomination, it is important for every member to be informed about and to pray about the issues that will come before the conference. That's why we are trying to disseminate the Call to Prayer to as many United Methodist publications and Web sites worldwide as we possibly can."

Tutt's co-chairperson, Len Delony, wrote the prayer contained within the committee's call to prayer statement.

"People might pray this particular prayer or they might be led to pray for General Conference in another way," Tutt said. "They might be led to Ephesians 3:14-21, or other portions of Scripture may speak to them more clearly. Our hope is that more and more United Methodists will lift up General Conference during all of their regular prayer time and Bible study in the coming months."

"We encourage everyone in their prayer time to be silently open and available to God," Delony said. "There are so many competing agendas in this fast-paced world of ours, we must be more intentional about taking a second breath and letting go of our agenda. Only when we do that are we able to hear the depth of God's call in the moment," he said.

The committee is planning several types of prayer spaces at General Conference, including "Second Breath" prayer tents near the convention floor, Delony said. The prayer spaces are designed to help the church experience General Conference as a time of "holy conferencing," he said.

"Prayer reminds us of our connectedness to God and to one another," Tutt said. "In the midst of conflicting viewpoints and different understandings of God's will and purpose for us, we all stand humbly before God as brothers and sister when we pray. If we let prayer shape all of our plans for General Conference, our time together to plan for The United Methodist Church will be shaped not merely by our human capabilities and perspectives, which are always limited, but also by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, which knows no limits."

The complete text of the call to prayer follows:

A CALL TO PRAYER FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE 2008 FROM THE CENTRAL TEXAS HOST COMMITTEE

"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just as prayer is as essential to the Christian life as breath, so prayer is essential to our shared life together as we prepare for General Conference 2008.

We on the General Conference Hosting Committee Prayer Ministries Team invite you to pray daily for General Conference 2008 and for all the preparations and deliberations leading up to it so that in all that we do we are "rooted and grounded in love."

We as a church need the cleansing, healing and guiding breath of prayer
as we tend to all of the details in preparation for General Conference 2008,
as we elect General and Jurisdictional Conference delegates,
as the delegates prepare, deliberate and discern,
and for every other large and small thing that goes into General Conference.
Please join us. We pray that our work before and during General Conference 2008 may itself be an act of prayer and that we will be attentive through it all to God's Presence in the Holy Spirit. We pray that through it all, we may follow the lead of the Good Shepherd, Jesus the Christ, and that we are able to let go as we offer and entrust all things to the Holy One.

O Holy One, Be Thou our Vision, For the church….

For all the United Methodist Conferences….

We pray for Your guidance and Your strength.
Be Thou our Vision for the world…

We pray for Your justice and Your peace.

Through Your amazing grace…

Help us to see what we need to see…

Help us to be who You call us to be…

O Holy One, let our breathing lead us into a place of ever deepening faith. Let us be awake to the Divine Indwelling where you promise, "I shall live in them and I shall walk the corridors of their heart."

Let this be a time of…

Holy Listening…Holy Conversations…and Holy Conferencing.