On walking the good path in our meetings

The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining.
(1 Peter 4: 7-9, NRSV)

Greetings to you all my family and relatives in Christ.

Meetings are frequent in leadership, and one often needs to discipline oneself to be in the right frame of heart and mind when attending. Once one has given a mental check mark to these elements, one is able to give one’s best and be attentive to the necessity of the gathering.

Soon we will be gathering for our General Synod/Assembly 2023; we as servants of the church will come together from diverse corners of the land, we will come to be the prayerful voice of our peoples and to be witnesses of faith. In preparation, prayers have been called for, and prayers will continue through and following General Synod. Remembering and keeping foremost in our minds that we—as Christians first and Anglicans and Lutherans second—need to stay in prayer and discipline ourselves to stay focused on our calling and ministry in this important gathering.

As in all moments of coming together, we need to attend prepared and focused, remembering that we gather not to diminish the other, just because they might be at a different place in their journey and not walk as we do, but to prayerfully and lovingly lift each other up to the glory of God, and walk together to seek the will of God for God’s church.

I believe that we can do this if we are prayerfully serious and stay disciplined, controlling ourselves in our emotions and ideals, walking and speaking in humility, respecting each other, honouring each other. We need to acknowledge also that we each are made in the image of God, and that we have been called together in all our diversity to and for the glory of God, and at the table of grace in the family of faith.

We will be known and remembered by what we say and do with all our family in faith. May God Almighty our Creator bless us all as we walk the good path together in all our meetings and shared spaces. Amen