Friends,
Last Sunday, Marion Larson preached a sermon that reminded us that "It's Friday — but Sunday's coming." You can listen here!

That theme of defiant hope was strong at last week's Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota—a gathering of clergy and lay leaders from the 100-ish congregations of the diocese for prayer and learning and worship and governance.

[ Read reflections from Linda, Tom, and Sarah, and see photos! ]

Here's a taste of what we heard from Bishop Loya:
These days, as we are “being a diocese in an exilic, remnant key,” the congregations of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota are going to need to:
1. Be weird. "Authentic Christianity will appear strange because Jesus invites us to live inside a very different story than the zero-sum battle of winners and losers that pervades our culture."
2. Keep digging the deep, interconnected roots that build resilience: apprenticing our lives to Jesus together.
3. Embrace our limits. "We often still try to sustain the local congregation as a full service program center for all types and peoples and interests – as if we could paddle the boat at the same speed that it used to be blown by strong cultural tailwinds. We are going to have to set down things that are not part of our core work of making disciples and practicing God’s way of love, and that will always disappoint someone."
4. Live with a bold and contagious hope that Love has already won. "As followers of Jesus, we face fear and hardship and death from the place of hope that is in us. God and the world don’t need us to be large, or wealthy, or influential. What God asks, and what the world needs, is for us to look like the cross of Jesus Christ, meeting the forces that assault God’s children with God’s fierce and gentle love, joining the Spirit, gathering all of it to God’s perfect embrace.”

You might hear more about some of that at our Annual Meeting on January 25!

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, convention, Hope