WJ Bishops release video to launch “Where Love Lives” Campaign

In this video launching the new “Where Love Lives” campaign, the Bishops of the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church remind us who God calls the Church to be: a faithful, inviting, open, safe and loving home for all people. 

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Video Script

As the Bishops of the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church, we are remembering who God calls us to be: a faithful, inviting, open, safe and loving home for all people. 

Your home – our home – remains open.

This month, we begin the “Where Love Lives” campaign.

We are reclaiming the faith values that have undergirded the jurisdiction’s long-term commitment to a scripturally based and fully inclusive ministry.

Each month though August 2021, we will focus conversations on topics related to our United Methodist beliefs as well as the jurisdiction’s commitment to inclusion, scriptural faithfulness, and the theological teachings of John Wesley. 

We will engage our clergy and laity through inspiring messages, community prayers, short videos, calls to action, social media posts and more creative ways of outreach.

These themes build on the progress made across our jurisdiction over the past several decades.

“Where Love Lives” is a place where the stranger is welcomed.  

“Where Love Lives” is a place where human diversity is celebrated as a sign of God’s divinity. 

“Where Love Lives” is a place where we honor the sacredness of creation. 

“Where Love Lives” is a place where our wide-ranging opinions enrich us rather than divide us. 

We aren’t perfect here in the West. But we seek to be the place “where love lives.” Jesus calls us to be nothing less.

The United Methodist Church is and will be safe, open, and built on faith in God, trust in one another, and with love for all in all we do.

Here is our prayer for you from the prayer of St. Francis: 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.