Praying Our Way Forward: O God, our help
Posted: February 15, 2017 Filed under: Bishop's Blog 1 CommentA prayer as the Tennessee and Memphis Conferences lead the UMC in prayer this week:
O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, grant to your Church great wisdom for the task that is set before us.
We pray for those who have been set apart for the task of guiding the Church toward a Way Forward, seeking in the midst of great division, a place to stand which allows the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ to be made known in the world.
Grant also that each of us, in this journey fraught with difficulty and challenge, might seek your face. Give patience, wisdom and courage to the members of the Commission, that their work would bring glory and honor to your name. Remind us that the wisdom in all of us that is greater than the wisdom in any one us. Free us from the arrogance to believe that any one of us has all the truth but that by your great grace, together, your truth might be made known to the world through the witness of this challenging and dangerous work. We make this prayer in the strong name of Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
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Please join the prayer vigil as we continue our prayers throughout this week and including Saturday.
Greater Things Are Yet To Be Done 
This week members in the Nashville Area United Methodist Church are praying hourly for A Way Forward as we seek to become one in Christ. During my hour of prayer I focused on Grace Imathiu sermon/writings “Islands and Visions” preached at Edgehill UMC a number of years ago. Revelations 7:9-10. Grace closed her sermon with these words: Yes, John, I am beginning to see the vision! Living in the twenty-first century on this island called planet earth, I am beginning to see your vision. God’s vision. I can see us, all God’s children, embracing and sitting down at the same table and looking each other in the eye in the presence of the one who calls each one of us “Beloved.” Amen and Amen!