THE EPISCOPAL OFFICE
THE DENVER AREA
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

It is with great joy that I greet you once again as your Bishop. Minnie and I are delighted to be reassigned as the Resident Bishop for the Denver Area for the next four years.

We can't begin to tell you how wonderful it feels to be returning to our friends here in Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Colorado and Salmon County in Idaho. It really feels like "coming home."

I want to compliment those who made up the delegations to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. They represented you well and provide marvelous leadership to the entire Church.

Let me also extend my heartiest greetings to all members of the United Methodist Women on the occasion of their 135th birthday. "Well done, good and faithful servants!"

As we prepare to begin a new quadrennium let us unite our prayers and our efforts in building up each of our faith communities so that life-changing ministry touches the places where we live.

With this electronic communication I am inaugurating a periodic communication to be shared with the churches and pastors in The Denver Episcopal Area. I hope it can become a helpful tool in keeping you abreast of my schedule and my dreams for our Area.

Let me tell you what wonderful experiences our two Annual Conferences sessions were. Our "holy conferencing," dynamic preaching, renewing fellowship and celebrations of mission and ministry were an inspiration to us all. Also, I want to thank all of you who worked to plan and implement, as well as attend, these inspiring events.

Throughout the General and Jurisdictional Conferences we heard much about the amazing ministries being carried out in the name of Christ through our Church. We also have heard much about the price tags of such ministries. We have been reminded at every turn that the payment of apportionments is critical to under-girding the ministry and mission of our denomination. Therefore, I challenge every church in our Area to pay your apportionments in full. Apportionments are not some "tax" placed on you by some faceless hierarchy. I think of apportionments as a portion of God's generosity meant for others. They are the heart and soul of caring ministries of love expressed in the name of Christ. Today, there are some issues before us that some see as reason for division, but nothing unites us more than reaching out to those whose needs are greater than our own. I am counting on every pastor to be a leader in working toward 100% payment of these expressions of Christian love.

Lastly, Let me also urge each of you to stretch yourselves in another way. I want to invite you to get physically involved in some Volunteers in Mission project. There is an unbelievable list of opportunities available through our Conferences' VIM Coordinators or access the information at www.umvim.info.

I offer to all of you my prayers for your well being and that God will challenge us all into new ways of ministry and mission.

Grace and Peace,

Warner H. Brown, Jr.

This document is available in MS Word Format.