A Message from our
District Superintendent
Covenant. Connection. Itinerancy.
These words are among the by-words of our lives as United Methodists,
both United Methodist laity and pastors. And they are words that we
need to regularly affirm and explain. Covenant. Connection.
Itinerancy.
The Conference year begins anew on July 1, 2008. Prior and after that
date we clergy will be embracing a re-appointment to our present
position as elder, deacon and/or in an extension ministry. Others of
our clergy colleagues will be transitioning to a different appointment,
and numerous places of ministry within our connection will receive
another pastoral servant.
In any event, the last Sunday in June and the first Sunday in July
represent occasions when the concepts noted in the words – Covenant,
Connection, Itinerancy – may be lifted up and occasions when our
congregates may say farewell to a departing pastor and welcome new
pastors.
Printed below are copies of two Orders of Service from the Book of
Worship, one a farewell and the other a greeting. Please
give this material consideration for inclusion in worship on those
Sundays, and please consider using the “Order for the Celebration of an
Appointment” in any case on Sunday, July 6 – or a Sunday soon
subsequent. These observances obviously may be adapted to each
situation, but by all means allow these brief services to frame the
appointment of our pastors for the pending year of our appointment.
This observance will go a long way toward helping all of us within the
United Methodist family to reconsider these important concepts of our
Wesleyan faith expression and to affirm our mutual ministry.
Covenant, Connection, Itinerancy.
On a more personal note: I am deeply grateful to all of you for your
supportiveness and your prayers during these two years of my appointment
as superintendent. The work is challenging and demanding, but the
greatest joy I have is being able to walk the journey with the dedicated
clergy and committed laity within the various congregations and agencies
of the Pittsburgh.
Thanks for
your continued partnership.
Love,
Don