Day 9 of 365 - sharing Bishop Ough's sermon/story
As we get ready for church tomorrow morning, I’ve been wondering how many of our churches, how many people in our churches, know that the Council of Bishops met in Dallas this past week? They had important meetings this week, discussing the latest work from the Commission on a Way Forward and making decisions about how to direct the Commission in their work going forward. There’s a lot that could be said about the various sketches/models they are looking at, and we’ll certainly spend some time looking at them in the coming weeks, but for now I’d like to draw your attention to one thing… Bishop Ough’s opening sermon. It was titled On Changing Our Minds. If you’ve not had a chance to read it, I highly recommend that you do, here is a link to it… On Changing Our Minds - Bishop Bruce Ough
Here is one quote, of several, that struck me…
"I urge us to practice the Lenten discipline of unbinding – unbinding ourselves from theologies of limitation that impoverish the radical grace, inclusion and freedom of the Gospel.”
Wow… talk about changing our minds, this sounds more like an extraordinary opening up of our hearts, minds and whole way of being church - to embrace what abundant radical grace, inclusion and true freedom of the Gospel might look like among us. I could be happy (and challenged!) in a church like that - how about you?
Action: Here are some ways you could consider to help make sure the people in your church know about the Council of Bishops meeting and Bishop Ough’s sermon - choose one, or more, that seem possible to you.
If your church has an announcement time during the service, get up and mention it then.
Write a short note to your pastor, mentioning the meeting and Bishop Ough’s sermon, and ask them to read it out during the announcement time.
Ask your pastor to include a link to Bishop Ough’s sermon in your church newsletter, or weekly email.
Tell your Sunday School about it - maybe offer to send them the link.
And of course - don’t forget to wear your rainbow pin/button/ribbon 😃🌈
Goals of this daily blog project - are we on track?
My goal/hope is to hit at least one or more of these areas with every post, so I am adding some built-in accountability for myself. I’m going to be asking… does what I have written today help and encourage us, to...
use our agency and voice? ✅
work in our circles of influence? ✅
tell or share stories that help change hearts and minds? ✅
get brave and speak out? ✅
When I've figured out how to do it I might include a little poll at the end of the posts - so you can tell me whether I've hit the mark or not.