Annual Conference Moderator Calls for Special Day of Prayer and Fasting on Pentecost


Andy Murray, moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, is planning Pentecost Sunday, May 15, as a special day of prayer and fasting in preparation for the annual meeting of the denomination. The 2016 Annual Conference will take place June 29-July 3 in Greensboro, N.C.

Murray has sent the following letter to the pastor(s) of each congregation in the Church of the Brethren, issuing an invitation for churches and members across the denomination to join in this special effort:


Dear Pastor,

Pentecost Sunday, May 15, is celebrated by many Christians as the “birthday” of the Church. We take time that day to make a special remembrance of the Holy Spirit coming to those faithful apostles that were gathered, after the ascension of our Lord, in prayer and expectation.

It was the power of that Spirit that transformed a small, discouraged, and disorganized group of followers into a courageous movement of disciples that took the Gospel, in a few decades, to nearly all of the known world. More than 2,000 years later, we remember the exhilaration and might of that moment as part of our own “birth” story.

I plan to make May 15 a special day of prayer and fasting in preparation and expectation for the gathering of the Brethren in Greensboro this summer. I ask that you join me and that you take Pentecost Sunday as an opportunity to remember Annual Conference in the prayers of your church.

Pray that we might be open to, and guided by, the Spirit in our worship, our study, and our deliberations. Pray that we will be given the grace to treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ in the best tradition of the Church of the Brethren. Pray for safe travels for those that give of their time and talent by serving the church at Annual Conference. Pray that each person that gathers in Greensboro, in the name of the church, will experience a renewed anointing of the Spirit that will give energy and courage in abundance for moving Christ’s church into a confident future.

Thank you for taking a few moments to share these thoughts with me and for your consideration of this request. Thank you most graciously for all you do on behalf of our Lord and his Church.

Grace and peace be with you,

Andy Murray
Moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference

— For more about Annual Conference and the plans for the 2016 annual meeting in Greensboro this summer, go to www.brethren.org/ac .

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