AN INVITATION, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13TH

It is with a great deal of anticipation and hope that I begin my journey with you as your new Resident Bishop! These are exciting days filled with new opportunities and challenges for our beloved United Methodist Church, days when we will be called to explore and initiate ministries that will define who we are in the next expression of United Methodism.

As we begin this new journey together, I want to invite you to join me at one of my Days on the Districts in October. (October 13th at Shelburne UMC, use the link in ChurchConnect to register your attendance) The afternoons will be a time when clergy are invited to come and spend a few hours with me in conversation about the Annual Conference and the future direction of the denomination. The evenings will be a time of presentation, reflection, and inquiry for laity to gather and get to know me and, more importantly, for me to know you.

I officially begin my work with you on Oct. 1, and the District Days will be my first journey into the world where you live and work. I am eager to be where you are and to experience life as you know it. I hope that you will take advantage of these opportunities for us to get to know one another as colleagues together.

In addition, I want to invite you to join me at for my official Installation Service on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 1 p.m. at the Sudbury (MA) United Methodist Church. I would love to be able to greet you there as we gather as an Annual Conference to celebrate this “day of new beginnings!”

There is much to learn about one another as we explore together the blessing of this intersection of our life together!

Won’t you join me as we begin this journey? I look forward to seeing you!

The Journey Continues, . . .

Thomas J. Bickerton
Resident Bishop
New Hope Episcopal Area
The New England and New York Annual Conferences