L: The Lord be with
you.
P: And also with you.
Friends, pray with me as you will.
Most Holy and Gracious God,
We give You thanks for this time where we can come together
again to seek Your Spirit and discern what it is You are doing within us and
among us as Your people and Your Church. Allow us to be fully present and fully
aware of Your presence in this sacred space and at this sacred time. May our
words, our actions, and our conversations be a testament to the living God who
has called us to life lived differently – a life of peace, a life of justice, and a
life of reconciliation.
We give You thanks for this Annual Conference, our Bishop,
and the leaders and servants of the various ministries we represent each and
every day in our churches and in our communities. We give You thanks for their
diversity in thought, deed and actions and celebrate our unitedness despite our
differences. May we always seek to welcome and affirm one another regardless of
the barriers the world might seek to build– keep us grounded in the
understanding that we all belong to the Body and that we all seek to serve the
One who has called us to this life of ministry together.
As we, this gathered community, seek to serve You, quiet our
own agendas, disrupt our complacency and move us away from the mindset of self-service
into a time of Christian conferencing. Be with those who will lead and preside
over us. Be with those who will report to us the blessings of the ministries of
the Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and strengthen us to do
the work they will put before us.
For all You have done and for all You are going to do, we
give You thanks.
In the name of the One True God who, even in the wilderness,
continues to bless us, strengthen us and sustain us for the work we have been
called to do.
Amen.
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