Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey to Louisiana: "We will continue to focus on transforming entire communities through our love of God and neighbor"

Yesterday the Commission on the General Conference announced the further postponement of the 2020 General Conference. You can read their full statement here.

While this decision to postpone yet again is difficult, it should not change ministry in the Louisiana Conference. Let us be reminded that our mission, ministry, and witness of the United Methodist Church are not dependent on a General Conference. 

We will continue to be spirit-filled, resilient, connected, missional, faithful, diverse, deeply rooted, committed, disciple-making, Jesus-seeking, generous, justice-seeking, world-changing people of God called The United Methodist Church.

We will continue to focus on transforming entire communities through our love of God and neighbor.

We will continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ, reaching out to those in greatest need through our strong missional engagement, especially through our disaster response and relief efforts. 

I know many of you feel anger, fear, dismay, disappointment. I, too, find myself feeling these feelings. These are natural feelings, yet thanks to our faith, we can bear these feelings and have the courage to be in ministry together and do so with grace. 

The Council of Bishops will meet on March 8. I hope to have more to share and be better positioned to respond to more specific questions about disaffiliation, pathways for new expressions of Methodism to form, and whether or not Jurisdictional Conferences might be held this year.

If pathways to new expressions of Methodism are developed, I will work graciously with those seeking to move in that direction following the prescribed procedures in the Book of Discipline.

In the meantime, regardless of where you stand on the theological spectrum, know that you are deeply loved by God and by me. 

And may I remind you that we are The United Methodist Church, founded on a Wesleyan theology of grace, anchored in Scripture, and based in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the continuing movement of the Holy Spirit.

I give thanks for you and all you continue to do in the name of Jesus Christ.  

Grace and Peace,
Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey