Bishop Schwerin Calls for Prayer After Plainfield Hate Crime
We hold this Plainfield family, the Muslim community, the Palestinian community, and the Jewish community around the world in our prayers and relief efforts.
Read MoreFrom Your Bishop: Amidst confronting horror, interfaith leaders commit to peace and strong relations
Rabbi Yehiel Poupko of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and Rev. Dr. Javier Viera, president of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, invited the Bishop, his wife Julie, and other faith leaders in the Chicago area to an instructive tour this past summer of the Holocaust sites in Poland. The rising tide of nationalism in Poland and the ongoing polarizations in our own country suggested an opportunity to bear an interfaith witness to peace and strong interfaith relations among leaders in Chicago.
Read MoreFrom Your Bishop: By your Spirit make us one …
This line has stayed with me for some months. It hits me with a force now that I have been consecrated as a bishop. It is worth noting that in the Great Thanksgiving the paragraph that begins, “Pour out your Holy Spirit” is followed in the next paragraph with the implications. “By your Spirit, make us one…” It is only by God’s Spirit that we find the power of a unity in Christ that can confront the world’s prejudices, racism, and fear-based division. My soul has lingered long on this for the past month. I am praying, “Make us one.”
Read MoreWill Wisconsin and Northern Illinois share a bishop?
Wisconsin and Northern Illinois conferences continue to anticipate the possibility they will share a bishop—something like a two-point charge—in the near future. A Bishop-Sharing Task Force in Northern Illinois met on Aug. 28 to plan NIC’s next steps in the exploration.
Read MoreSetting a Table for All: Bishop's State of the Conference Address
Tables are places where relationships are strengthened and healing can take place. In his state of the conference address, Bishop Dan Schwerin shared the hope and concerns he's heard over the past several months, and described plans for building a healthy annual conference.
Read MoreMinistry Takes Wisdom, Courage, Imagination, Bishop Urges Lay and Clergy
Recalling the words of the hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory,” Bishop Dan Schwerin admonished in his sermon at the Celebration of Ministry on June 6 that imagination takes courage, and wisdom should precede courage. “We who are in Christ, have cause for hope,” Bishop Schwerin preached. “But let's be clear: it takes courage to imagine.”
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