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The Annual Confrence choir peforms "We Are One" during Saturday's worship service.
Weather: Brilliant sunshine, low humidity, and high in the low 90s.
Key Events: Registration begins, exhibits open, Cross-Cultural Dinner, International Welcome Dinner, Association of Brethren Caregivers Recognition Dinner; meetings of General Board, Standing Committee, and Council of District Executives; opening worship service; forums and Bible studies; outdoor ice cream social; initial youth and young adult/single adult activities.
Quote of the Day: "THAT is a benediction!" — moderator-elect Christopher Bowman, the Saturday evening worship leader, after the congregation joined in an upbeat, rhythmic rendition of "Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying."
Annual Confrence Moderator Harriet Finney preaches her sermon "In Perfect Harmony" during Saturday's worship service.
Opening Worship: Participants filled the Pavilion arena for the Saturday evening service, with the theme "Together in Jesus' Name." Moderator Harriet Finney of North Manchester, Ind., delivered the sermon, and moderator-elect Christopher Bowman served as worship leader. Music coordinator Shawn Kirchner brought global rhythms into the gathering music and several songs during the service, and pieces by the "Inspire" trio and the Conference choir added to a powerful music experience. When Bowman began the offertory introduction by saying, "God has been so good to us!" and got no response, he jokingly tapped the microphone as if it weren't working, and then repeated the phrase to a chorus of "Amen!'s." In her message, Finney related her experiences traveling around the denomination and to Brazil and elsewhere as she described the difference between harmony and dissonance. She used the example of the movie "Chocolat," where residents lived under a false veneer of harmony, to characterize the current state of the Church of the Brethren. "There is something out of order, and we can no longer pretend it is not so." Prayer, she suggested, will be the key to dealing with the many issues before the church, and Jesus Christ must be the focus of life together. Following the sermon, she invited people to huddle in twos and threes to pray together.
Flemmie Stoltz, of Roanoke, Va., registers Saturday afternoon on the second floor of the Student Union.
Other Highlights: This is the first time Annual Conference has been held on a university campus since 1984, when it was in Carbondale, Ill. . . . An outdoor food tent has been set up on the Boise State University campus to serve up barbequed dishes as a dining alternative. . . . Saturday night's offering totaled $6,607.02. . . . . Perfect weather has been abundant all week, with more expected in the coming days. . . . Rafting and tubing on the Boise River, immediately adjacent to the campus, has proven to be a popular recreation option, along with running, walking, or rollerblading on the riverside Greenbelt path. . . . Standing Committee earlier in the week elected Jeff Carter as World Council of Churches representative; Cheryl Brumbaugh Cayford, Jennie Ramirez, and David Whitten as National Council of Churches representatives; and Nathan Polzin, Tim Button Harrison, Lee-Lani Wright, and Karen Walters to the Nominating Committee of Standing Committee. . . . The Council of District Executives at its meeting adopted a "Statement of Concern" over the fragmentation in the denomination and called for a consultation on ecclesiology in the near future. . . . Several articles on Annual Conference and the Church of the Brethren have already appeared in Boise-area newspapers, and a TV station filmed a segment on the Conference set-up.