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Bishop Webb hosts time of Prayer and Witness

October 10, 2016 / By Kathleen Christiansen

Editor's Note: The three Evenings of Prayer and Witness offered encouragement to many. There is now a video available of the Evening of Prayer and Witness that took place at Liverpool UMC. Click here to view it.

Upper New York Area Resident Bishop Mark J. Webb held an evening of Prayer and Witness from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Liverpool United Methodist Church, which was also livestreamed. The event utilized the Exodus narrative throughout the evening to help guide participants as they prayed for both The United Methodist Church and the Upper New York Conference as well as shared witness of how God is at work in their lives.

Bishop Webb began by explaining the process for the evening:

Read the scripture,

Read the reflection and question,

Invite a brief period for silent reflection,

Invite small groups to share their reflections,

 Invite someone from the group to give witness to what emerged within the group,

Invite small groups into prayer for the focus question.

He acknowledged Nancy Dibelius, a lay woman in the Albany District, who designed the liturgy of the event.

“Pray that we will trust God’s presence to lead the Upper New York Conference of The United Methodist Church and to lead The United Methodist denomination into the future just as God led the people of Israel,” Bishop Webb said.

The Rev. Tim Middleton, pastor at the Newark Valley UMC, read the first reading, which came from Exodus 14:19-22. It tells the story of how Moses led the Israelites from Egypt.

Following the reading, Rev. Middleton said, “God knows that we too, at times, need protection from all that troubles and distresses us.  God offers us safe passage; a way when there seems to be none.”

He then posed the question, “As you experience God’s presence and protection, is God showing you a way forward where there seemed to be none?”

Participants were given a few minutes to pray and discuss in small groups.

The Rev. Bill-Gottschalk-Fielding, Assistant to the Bishop and Director of Connectional Ministries, brought the first discussion to a close, saying, “It’s really good to hear the chatter and the voices.”

“Sometimes when I sit with my own anxieties and my fears and my what if’s and my oh my God’s, it can get overwhelming, but when I begin to talk with other people, when I begin to talk with God, all of sudden the cloud begins to lift and the sun begins to shine even just a little bit, and I begin to see a way when I thought there was no way.”

He asked if anyone would like to share witness of how God has helped them deal with their stresses and anxiety.

One woman shared how she and her husband went through a difficult time, losing their farm and her husband unable to find work, until they came across a U.S. Airforce ad in the paper. It was then she and her husband realized, “God’s in charge; God’s got my back.”

Erin Norris, a lay woman from the Northern Flow District and a member of the Conference Leadership Team, shared how God led her from the darkness.

“I was on the road to dying because of choices I was making,” she said.

Then, one night, Norris heard a knock on her door. People from a Phoenix church were holding a Bible study and asked if she wanted to come. She went, and it “reset her course.”

“God yanked me out of the darkness that I had dove head first back into,” Norris said. “His light came blasting through, and He yanked me out of what would have been my destruction.”

Small groups were invited to pray that God will protect the Conference and The Church from the fears and anxieties that trouble them and ask for a vision of God’s way forward.

Norris read the second narrative, from Exodus 16:3, 11-15 – which tells the story of Israelites grumbling against Moses and Aaron in the desert.

“These people are anxious and continue to live in fear; they do not yet trust the God, who has brought them safe thus far,” she said. “Yet God understands. God provides for their immediate needs; food for the journey.”

Norris asked the group, “What ‘food’ has God provided for your journey?”

Following a brief small group discussion, Crossroads District Superintendent the Rev. Nola Anderson invited people to share their experience of God providing food for their journeys.

One woman shared a humorous example of how “God provided a rusty sprinkler to let loose a flood” in a church basement that was badly in need of a makeover. The insurance money helped fund new walls and carpets, making the basement more aesthetically pleasing.

A final prayerful reflection asked small groups to confess their attitudes of independence from God and ask that God give them a spirit of utter dependence for all things, including the future of the UNY Conference and The Church.

The evening ended with communion.

“All that we have done tonight points to the promise the communion table represents,” Bishop Webb said. “God is enough. The gift of Jesus offers us hope; it offers us life. It’s Jesus who we desire to share with the world because Jesus is the one who can give the world what the world is looking for. It is Jesus who will bring hope and life, that’s why our work together is vitally important.”

There will be two additional evenings of Prayer and Witness, one from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Saratoga Springs UMC – which will also be livestreamed online – and another from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Rush UMC. Click here for more information.