Nov. 6, 2024 – On this morning after a contentious election cycle, GNW Area Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth shares this reminder of the people we are called to be in community.

Hello all. I know for some this morning is hard, and it should be.

For some, there’s opportunities to revel and celebrate the elections in the United States. Our job, our call, our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And in our disciple-making, and in our understanding of what it is to be disciples of Jesus Christ, that has and always will include caring for the immigrant, the stranger, the widow, those who sojourn with us, those we know and those we do not. We lead with love. We extend grace and practice acts of mercy, one with another.

This day is unlike a day that we’ve seen before, but it’s one that calls for us to dig deep in our spirituality, to rely on our Wesleyan heritage and to trust in and care for one another.

I want you to know that as your bishop, I am praying with each and every one of you. Your political persuasion does not matter to me. What matters is your commitment to Christ, your willingness to care for one another, your quest to be well and to follow the words of the text that says to “go and do likewise.”

Those cannot just be words on a page for us in this season and in those to come. We have to make the teachings of Christ center in our lives. We have to care for those who are most vulnerable in our midst. We have to get outside of our church walls and get to know our neighbors and our neighborhoods, speak truth to power, and never let go of this unending love that God extends to us.

May we share that love with one another. May we seek out those who are now very, very afraid. Offer prayer, offer food, offer shelter, support asylum, and continue to call for an end, a ceasefire to all wars in this land and in those around the world.

We’ll continue to be in conversation and in dialogue with one another as we continue to understand discipleship and live as disciples of Jesus Christ in this age so that there is an age to come.

God bless you, and let us continue being disciples of Jesus Christ and making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. This is not the time to rest. And I ask you, do not grow weary in well doing.

Amen.

Bishop Cedrick D. Bridgeforth offers an informative and inspiring message for United Methodists in the Greater Northwest, highlighting several legislative accomplishments of a historic General Conference. His message connects the work of the delegates to the upcoming annual conference season, changes to the episcopacy in the jurisdiction, and our ongoing ministry in the Greater Northwest Area.

My family still resides in and around Decatur, Alabama. If you search Decatur, Alabama, you will learn that before the conflict in Palestine-Israel escalated to all-out war, Steve Perkins, a 39-year-old African-American man, was shot by several Decatur Police officers. Steve’s death on the front lawn of his home invoked outrage across the city and has sparked protests, rallies, memorials, and other calls for justice and peace. I did not know Steve, but I know Steve’s plight. I know what it means to be confronted with violence and live with the threat of death every time I leave my home. With Steve’s death, we add to the litany of unarmed Black men who died at the hands of state-sanctioned violence. I wonder if even being home is as safe as I tell myself it should be.

My heart aches for Steve’s family. It breaks for families in Israel and Gaza already suffering injury and loss. And it will break again for the Palestinians, Israelis and others who will be caught in the crossfire as war rages across the area. With people being held captive by colonialist borders and nationalist policies, there is limited personal and communal agency. With powers from far away dictating strategies and funding war efforts, colonization. 

Our high aspiration for peace must always come through acts of justice and insurance of equity. We cannot expect peace if injustice and inequities are commonplace. Our pursuit of peace must begin before we hear gunfire or see bombed-out buildings. That work starts in our homes, neighborhoods, community gathering spaces, and churches as we call out and work against all manner of injustice and inequity – especially when we are not the ones directly affected. That’s one way we walk in solidarity with those who are unseen, forgotten, mistreated, or dehumanized.

Another way to work for peace in the land is to acknowledge our privilege, dismantle racism, rebut nationalism, and not shy away from calling out discriminatory acts against others. We may feel like the Greater Northwest has its own problems and that those problems are nowhere near as dire as what we are witnessing in Palestine-Israel or Decatur, Alabama, but that is not true.

War anywhere in the world is a sign that everyone has work to do. The only way we bury our heads in the sand is to deny the interconnected nature of life and our globalized economic and war-making alliances. Others may be firing guns and dropping bombs in Palestine-Israel, Ukraine, Sudan, or Alabama. Still, our country’s failure to have difficult conversations, resolve conflict and honor diverse viewpoints keeps us on the brink of war and economic collapse. When we are silent, apathetic, or too busy to bother with it, peace moves farther into the distance. If peace moves away, so does justice and equity.

Amid all that you are facing, holding, and trying to move forward, I pray the weight of these presenting conflicts will not slow or stop you from living as peaceably and boldly as you can. I pray that we will center equity and justice in all the spaces and places of your life to pursue peace constantly, calling attention to the injustice of war-making and anti-peace policies and actions – at home and abroad.

As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” May these words serve as a daily reminder that today’s war on the other side of the globe impacts and is informed by how we live on this side. Let us not grow weary. Instead, let us continue with hope and in pursuit of peace in every place so that we can fall asleep and live lives in peace.

Peace in Palestine-Israel!
Justice for Steve!
Equity for All!
Amen!

Cedrick D. Bridgeforth
Resident Bishop, Greater Northwest Episcopal Area

The Council of Bishop’s released a statement condemning the violence in the Middle East that you can read here.