Message from the Bishop
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God's love made known through Christ is the basis of our life together.
Reading Ephesians yet again, I am strengthened by Christ who shows us how wide and deep, long and high—beyond description—God's love and mercy are. We are created as a gift of this love. We are surrounded by this love now and forever. We are swimming in the midst of a stream that nourishes us. When we are cold, remote and isolated, this love warms us. When we are hot with anger, frustration and/or pain this love cools and soothes us. When hope and focus are near dead, this stream takes us to the center of hope. We catch a glimmer of what might be and we are able to hope and act again. When our strength and energy are ebbing away, this stream enables us to float, to be carried to the heart of love where renewal happens.
When we are unaware of the possibilities for justice and mercy to grow within us or in the world, we are nudged into God's heart, where the possibilities are made into choices—options for how we choose to live.
When we are focused only on self, this stream moves us toward community and reminds us we are interdependent. We grow aware, as St. Augustine wrote, "God loves each of us as if there were none other in all the world to love and loves all as God loves each."
We are awakened by this stream of life-changing love to what love might bring. Nurtured by this kind of love, we find ourselves capable of loving and caring about the other, those who live both near and far, in Nebraska and places such as Nigeria. We can love because God first loved us and gave God's own self for us. We grow more and more able to give love and self as God in Christ gives to us. By God's grace the miracle of this over-flowing stream of love grows in us. We grow as new creations, persons who can be transforming agents of God's love in the community and in the world. "Amazing love, how can it be...my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee," says the Wesleyan hymn.
These life-altering streams of love, made known to us through Christ, nudge us to jump in, and receive the gift as the waters of love flow over us and in us.
As we swim in this water, we want others to join us and take the plunge into this stream. Because others start to matter to us, as they matter to God, we want to share the gift of this amazing love. Radical love and hospitality flow from this stream.
Motivated by this love, won't you invite a neighbor or family member or a coworker to plunge into the stream, to worship with you, to study scripture and pray with you, to experience God's transforming love made known through Christ?
Amazing love is worth sharing.
Ann
Ann Brookshire Sherer-Simpson,
Nebraska Area Resident Bishop,
Nebraska United Methodist Conference
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With the decision of the General Conference in 2008 and the Council of Bishops in 2009, the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West Annual Conferences are beginning to collaborate to discover what kind of future God has instore for us in the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area. The task force that will represent us in this conversation is:
Rev. Charlotte Abram
Tri-Community United Methodist Church
6001 Fontenelle Blvd.
Omaha, NE 68111
Office: 402-455-6379
cabram@umcneb.org
Rev. Wayne Alloway, Jr.
St. Mark's United Methodist Church
8550 Pioneers Blvd.
Lincoln, NE 68520
Office: 402-489-8885
walloway@umcneb.org
Rev. Matthew E. Fowler
Grand Island Faith United Methodist Church
724 W. 12th
Grand Island, NE 68801
Office: 308-382-3219
Mfowler02@umcneb.org
Rev. Brian Kottas
Great West District Superintendent
2 N. Spruce, PO Box 56
Ogallala, NE 69153
Office: 308-284-8922
bkottas@umcneb.org
Rev. Debra McKnight
Omaha First United Methodist Church
7020 Cass St.
Omaha, NE 68132
Office: 402-556-6262
dmcknight@umcneb.org
Tom Watson
3 Sycamore Place
Kearney, NE 68847
308-234-1918
Nhjwlaw_twatson@msn.com
Sheran Cramer
5128 N. 145th St.
Omaha, NE 68116
402-963-0575
scramer@unomaha.edu
Ann Brookshire Sherer-Simpson
3333 Landmark Cir.
Lincoln, NE 68504
402-466-4955
bishop@umcneb.org
You will see an interesting article from the Minutes of the First Session of the Kansas and Nebraska Annual Conference of Methodist Episcopal Church published in 1856. One hundred fifty-three years later we cooperate in ministry and seek God's guidance to be faithful in our mission of making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The first meeting of the Episcopal Area Task Group from all three conferences will be Nov. 22, 2009, in Topeka, Kan. The next meeting will be Feb. 12-13, 2010, in Lincoln, Neb.
I have been to each of the districts and sought to listen to your hopes, dreams and concerns for this new Episcopal Area, which will take effect on Aug. 31, 2012. Please continue to send your thoughts to me and/or to the members of the task group.
Thank you for all of your participation,
Ann
Ann Brookshire Sherer-Simpson,
Nebraska Area Resident Bishop,
Nebraska United Methodist Conference