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.