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By Laura Easto

The United Methodist Church is the church of my childhood and the choice of my adulthood and vocation. I don't always agree with where we are but I hold fast to a belief that we are moving with the Spirit of God.

It is such an honor to represent this annual conference at both the General and Jurisdictional Conferences this year that I wanted to share with you my hope for our future.

There are precious moments that invade our spirits with hope. I experienced many such moments over the course of General Conference. It was a long two weeks, filled with many hours of work, long and tedious motions from the floor, debates that at times seemed to be going nowhere.

I don't think we got it all right but we got more right than we have in the past. I was more hope filled than I have ever been about this beloved denomination of mine.

When I looked around at delegations from all around the globe, it was clear that our delegation radiated with diversity.

We were different hues, both genders, theologically dissimilar and yet there we were, holding one another by heart and hand through it all. It was hope.

In worship, all the worship, we were transported by God's Word into our souls and back into the world. The music was embracing and challenging, the liturgy was breath taking and the preachers were inspired. It was hope.

We built relationships across annual conference lines with folks we had never met before but are now our siblings in Christ, never to be forgotten. It was hope.

We raised money for Nothing But Nets, $13,000 in an impromptu

offering and then more, much more in pledges. It was hope.

We agreed that the doors of the United Methodist Church are open to all people. And that gave me the greatest hope of all.

The Rev. Laura Easto, pastor of Westminster UMC, co-chaired the Baltimore-Washington Conference delegation to General Conference.