Western Jurisdiction Conference July 16-19, 2008

Day 1:  From Skip Strickland, Director of Mission and Ministry

"Puddle-Jumping in Portland"

The Western Jurisdictional Conference has begun.  Ben Roe and I are here to report to you what is taking place in Portland.  Each day delegates from the Rocky Mountain Conference will also share their reflections.  Everything is moving very fast but we will attempt to keep you up to date.

Yesterday, the conference started well as we dealt with various opening procedures.  A Nominating Referendum was held and Youngsook Kang and Carolyn Waters joined Janet Forbes as episcopal candidates.  At a dinner held last evening our delegation worked to meet the episcopal candidates from the other conferences.  We have had two delegate meetings in which we discussed the candidates and reflected upon who might serve us well. But there many options on the table at the moment about who might be our next Bishop and how the process might work to make that determination.

Bishop Paup addressed the conference this morning.  He spoke about the work of the Annual Conferences and set a vision for the work of the Jurisdiction and the Conferences within it over the next four years.  Then Bishop Swenson recognized the service of Bishop Paup and Carol in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference.  She recognized that Bishop Paup will be sent into "missions" around the world and to help us live out our "mission" in the world. Bishop  Paup now rejoins us as an elder in the Rocky Mountain Conference and will be appointed to serve as the General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries.

The delegates are off to candidate forums and the first ballot will take place later this afternoon.

Stay tuned for more "Puddle Jumping from Portland" reports.

Skip Strickland
Director Mission and Ministry

Skip Strickland and Ben Roe,
Rocky Mountain Conference Communications Team at WJ Conference

Day 1: From Wendy Moffatt, Lay Delegate, Glenwood Springs

Hi to all in the Rocky Mountain Conference!  This is my brief "letter home" to let you know what's happened in this first day at Jurisdictional Conference.

It was great to all meet together as a delegation before anything official began, like a little family reunion.  After meeting together as a group since Annual Conference of 2007, we have truly gotten to know each other, learned to work as a team and share concerns like a family.

Next, at the first session we were able to place names in nomination to be added to the pool of Episcopal candidates already nominated from their respective conferences.  You all should be quite proud that we have not 1 but 3 candidates from the Rocky Mountain Conference as part of the total pool of 15.  So now in addition to Janet Forbes, nominated from the Jurisdictional body were Youngsook Kang and Carolyn Waters.

We learned more about each candidate as they presented a 5 minute speech.  They are a very diverse group.  After an inspiring church service we ate dinner and then had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with each candidate.

It is exciting and daunting to be a part of the process of listening, asking questions and discerning who God has best equipped for the ministry of Bishop.  Stay tuned . . . more to come!

Wendy Moffatt