Bishop's Day in the Puget Sound District

Pastor David, Bob Wallin, Jerry, and I traveled to Kingston, WA for an early morning breakfast meeting with our new Bishop, Cedric D. Bridgeforth.  Puget Sound District churches were divided into two group meetings, Kingston in the morning and Bothell in the afternoon. Nearly all of the 17 churches listed in the morning group were in attendance:

Anacortes
Bainbridge Island: Seabold
Bremerton
Brownsville
Colby
Coupeville
Gig Harbor
Kingston: Redeemer
Langley
Oak Harbor
Port Angeles
Port Hadlock
Port Orchard
Port Townsend
Sequim
Tracyton
Vashon

Gathering in this way gave Bishop Cedric the opportunity to get acquainted with the people and activities of each of the churches as they gave brief reports about their current status and missional activities.  Almost every church acknowledged that because of the pandemic and other issues confronting churches today they have been and still are going through hard times and experiencing membership and attendance declines.  Sadly, one small church lost 20 members to COVID!

But District Superintendent Mark Galang reminded us there is also so much to celebrate.  He asked us to remember that we are all one church, just in different locations and that we’re better together, reminding us there is love in the world and we are all part of it.  He urged us to work to disrupt the negativity.

Here are some of the mission projects being offered in various churches:

• Ministering to and helping the homeless with shelter, food, clothing, camping supplies 
• Food banks
• Gifting quilts with prayer blessings
• Weekly soup kitchens
• Green teams (climate change)
• Adult daycare (respite care)
• Renting/leasing or selling unused facilities and property
• Offering facilities for use by local city governments
• Combining with youth groups from other churches
• Housing the homeless in extreme weather conditions
• Setting up a tiny home village on church property

Jerry and I found Bishop Cedric to be very warm, humble and easy to talk to.  Being newly transplanted from California, he said he’s still learning his way around and is enjoying meeting people and seeing new areas.

If you would like to read more details plus view photos, please use the link below:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nljvHZeAAsmyoMiAZDzdD2xgZJKStD-3KD_8IKAs9ABwvpfh1LAbo9yb3C6ckFMLALRva-rc

Submitted by Susan Schopf, Lay Leader