The Art of Holy Conferencing in Rochester, NY



       Today, by a river's edge, I had a holy conversation.  The sun was out, a breeze whisped through the air, and we hung out over the water's edge while we conversed about various topics each taking our turn to speak and then listen. It is folks such as these I wish to model my own ministry off.  And it is conversations such as this that remind me of what makes a "holy conversation" indeed, "holy."  This colleague and I wound up speaking through the entire lunch hour, laughing, asking questions of one another, and caring about how the other is doing.  It was holy because we acknowledged the opportunity God had set for us to converse and took it upon ourselves to be civil, attentive, and thoughtful of the other.  Its amazing what can be said, brought up, accomplished, or dealt with when there are feelings of mutual trust and worthiness.  If we do not feel trust from or for the other, or if we do not feel that the other person feels we are worthy of his or her time, the holiness will always be lost.  And in the end, one party leaves feeling disgruntled and possibly not willing to speak up again. 

Holiness is what we make of something.  God presents the opportunity and we decide how to indulge.   

So what of Holy Conferencing?   Can the conversation that takes place within a group of over a thousand people continue to be holy even when there is disagreement?  I believe it can and I saw it today!  Here is what I see and have experienced as necessary to gather and convene in a holy manner, taken from my river's edge conversation today: 

   1.  Listening while another is speaking
   2.  Passionate praying
   3.  Compassion (for hearing the story and their willingness to share it even when we do not agree or are annoyed)
   4.  Gentle speech when addressing the persons we are conferencing with
   5.  Refraining (from what we might have otherwise done or said if we had not done the above passionate praying)

I am in a Holy Conference right now.  And my hope is that what we practice here, we will take back to our local United Methodist churches.  So I hope and pray we practice it well and that in the end all go home feeling worthy, trustful of the others in the room, and filled with God's grace! 

I have chosen this Alison Krauss song to attach to my blog because there were so many amazing moments I witnessed today that we filled with God's grace yet words were not present...it was a mom kissing a baby, a friend praying over another because he or she was at a microphone crying, a person rushing to open the door for another, or the collective sway of a line of people with their arms around another.  Hearts were speaking even when our mouths were not.  That is what I like to call the Holy Spirit. 

And to my riverside conversation colleague:  Thank you, for yet again, another holy conversation.

Shalom,
Pastor Annette