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BY MELISSA LAUBER

As all the tribes of The United Methodist Church gathered in Fort Worth for General Conference, they did their best to conjure hope by creating a liturgy that could transform the business of the session.

Even the dry, analytical finance report took on spirit when Bishop Mary Ann Swenson proclaimed: "Observe the cup. What we give, we receive. What we receive we give. We not only lift the cup. We are the cup. Let us be the cup overflowing in a thirsty world."

There was singing and symbolism, psalms and celebration. But among my favorite moments were when the bishops preached.

Bishop Minerva Carcaño of the Desert Southwest Conference questioned her firm conviction that United Methodists could faithfully achieve their vision of overcoming poverty in community with the poor.

"I'm not sure we're smart enough, disciplined enough or compassionate enough. But I don't lose hope, because there is hope beyond ourselves," she said. "That hope beyond ourselves is Christ Jesus."

Bishop Ernest Lyght of the West Virginia Area, preached: "Wake up, church! Get up, church! When men, women and children knock on the doors of the church, they are looking for fresh bread. They want to encounter a vibrant faith. They want to embrace hope for tomorrow. They want to experience extravagant love that includes them."

Bishop Violet Fisher of the New York West area continued to build on this theme of hope with her challenge: "What does it mean to open our hearts for the transformation of God's world and be the Gospel?"

Her question was answered in a sermon by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung of the Chicago Area, who lifted up both the liberal and conservative-minded of the church -- those who seek hospitality and those who value holiness.

"When we concern ourselves only with holiness, we become rigid and inward-looking. We make an idol of our purity," Jung said. "When we concern ourselves only with hospitality, however, we lose our sense of who we are. Our identity is blurred and we lose the language of our own faith."

Jung invited United Methodists to live in the tension of those two theologies, but cautioned, "Christianity is not about being theologically correct. "It's about following Jesus."

And then Bishop Gregory Palmer, the new president of the Council of Bishops, from the Iowa Area, closed the 2008 General Conference with the words, It is "incumbent on you and me as people of Christian faith that we not become stingy with the blessings -stingy with what we have received from God."

Then the people left Fort Worth, returning to their ranks among the 11.4 million United Methodists in their 48,000 churches around the world. They became a living

benediction. And hope was released.