I had the privilege of attending a United Methodist Jurisdictional Conference for the first time.  The conference was held at the Lloyd Center Double Tree center in Portland.  This was the closest the conference has been to my house that I can remember.  As United Methodists we have five jurisdictions and as you can imagine our jurisdictional conference--the Western Jurisdiction--encompasses the largest geographic area.  All the states beginning with Colorado and heading west belong to this jurisdiction.  Now on top of that when you figure in that the jurisdiction only meets every 4 years to conference as a group, the possibility of that conference being in the neighborhood is rare.  Portland is so much closer than Denver, Phoenix, L A, San Francisco, etc.  

While there I spoke with a few of the folks that we all know.  Steve Schroeder, our district superintendent from Seven Rivers District (who was also nominated as a candidate for bishop) told me how gracious the people were at this particular conference.  That was wonderful to hear from one who was very closely involved with the inside workings of conferencing.  Steve, as well as other candidates for bishop, were able to meet with delegates from the entire jurisdiction to answer questions and share concerns about the calling of God, mission and ministry of the church, as well as gain a perception of each person called to serve.  I thought Steve’s words spoke volumes about the love and grace involved in this greater church ministry.  

And now a word about the setting at the Double Tree.  Yes, it was a wonderful location and expensive.  More than a few people commented about how expensive breakfast-$25, dinner $50-was.  But as it was pointed out, the Double Tree Hotel pays a living wage to all its employees.  And we as United Methodists believe that we should support living wages.  That belief, that value is all part of our social doctrine and creed as United Methodists.  

I was there for the reading of the first couple of ballots for the election of two new bishops.  It took twenty-five ballots to elect the two new bishops.  Grant Hagiya, a district superintendent from Los Angeles for the past eight years, was elected on ballot sixteen.  And Elaine Stanovsky, our Seattle district superintendent, was elected on ballot twenty-five at 12:41 AM.  Grant, a Japanese-American, will be our new bishop in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference.  And Elaine will be the new bishop in Denver.  

I was unable to attend the consecration service of these two new bishops.  They were being consecrated as we were celebrating the life of June Hughes on Saturday.  Ron apologized for not being present at the service but sent his love and sympathy to June’s daughters.  

All in all the conference was quite an event.  It is wonderful to see the greater church in action and to observe the will of God being carried forward in our time.  This is a blessed time to be a United Methodist!!

In Christ, Larry