{"id":17140,"date":"2021-07-04T17:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T17:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=17140"},"modified":"2021-07-04T22:30:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T22:30:14","slug":"new-leadership-is-consecrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2021\/new-leadership-is-consecrated\/","title":{"rendered":"New leadership is consecrated, theme for 2022 Annual Conference is announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At the close of this morning\u2019s Annual Conference worship service, new leadership was consecrated with prayer and the laying on of hands. David Sollenberger (kneeling at left) was consecrated to serve as moderator of the 2022 Conference, and Tim McElwee (kneeling at right) was consecrated as moderator-elect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his remarks as the new moderator for the Church of the Brethren, Sollenberger called the church into the adventurous future of this year\u2019s theme, and announced the theme for 2022: \u201cEmbracing One Another as Christ Embraces Us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis adventurous future that God is promising also requires trust,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re at the point of the church\u2019s life, I think, where we now need to trust God and each other a lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent four years deciding to be Jesus in the neighborhood and that\u2019s essential to our life together,\u201d he said, referring to the compelling vision statement that was affirmed by the delegate body during this Conference. \u201cWe can\u2019t lose sight of that. But while we\u2019re doing that it wouldn\u2019t hurt to start being Jesus to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Citing Romans 15:5-6, \u201clive in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,\u201d Sollenberger described the nature of living together in harmony in the church. \u201cHarmony implies variety,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, agreeing that Jesus Christ is Lord, God\u2019s son, and savior of the world. But it also means learning to accept, work with, respect, and rejoice in each other\u2019s gifts and perspectives, being faithful to a Christ who embraces us, who loves us, who desires unity without expecting uniformity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need the different voices in the church. The conservative voices that ground us in the faith and traditions, and the progressive voice that challenges us to think beyond what has always been. It\u2019s the kind of love Paul wrote about in the 15th chapter of Romans when he said accept or welcome each other as Christ accepted or welcomed you. And in that way bring praise to God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a closing prayer, the Conference music team broke into Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Stop\u201d–and with the magic of an online event, Sollenberger was shown rushing out of the General Offices in Elgin, Ill., with guitar in hand, jumping into his car, and reappearing alongside music coordinator Josh Tindall at the piano in Elizabethtown, Pa., to add a guitar riff to the celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rendition of \u201cDon\u2019t Stop\u201d and the consecration service are available to view in the recording of this morning\u2019s Annual Conference worship service at https:\/\/livestream.com\/livingstreamcob\/ac2021\/videos\/223007903.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the close of this morning\u2019s Annual Conference worship service, new leadership was consecrated with prayer and the laying on of hands. David Sollenberger (kneeling at left) was consecrated to serve as moderator of the 2022 Conference, and Tim McElwee (kneeling at right) was consecrated as moderator-elect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1258,1771,3,2143,1399,1712,2126,2142,2128],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-17140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-annual-conference","tag-annual-conference-2021","tag-church-of-the-brethren","tag-consecration","tag-david-sollenberger","tag-moderator","tag-moderator-elect","tag-new-leadership","tag-tim-mcelwee"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17143,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions\/17143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17140"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}