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By Sandy Ferguson

When John Wesley, Methodism?s founder, penned the words 'the world is my parish,' I don?t think he had any idea of their full implication. How could he, 300 years ago, imagine a woman from Baltimore singing the same Methodist hymns with Gypsies in Bulgaria?

The global church is a mystery and a miracle. It represents the best of the connectional system. On a recent trip to Varna, Bulgaria, as a member of the denomination?s Connectional Table, I was again struck by the possibilities and challenges 'going global' represents.

The Connectional Table is a 50-member forum, created by the 2004 General Conference, to set and gbwc_superusere the direction of the denomination?s mission and ministry. It replaces the former General Council on Ministries.

As a member, appointed to represent the Northeastern Jurisdiction, I attended the Connectional Table meeting April 7 through May 1 in Bulgaria. We met with European bishops from Europe and shared thoughts on the church?s future with people from the United States, Africa, Europe and the Philippines.

Early in the conversation, it became clear that United Methodists are not becoming a global community. We are global; the question now is: What place will we have on the world stage? How will we shape a global community built on mutual respect and equity?

While we wrestled with these questions, we were also given the opportunity to visit area churches for worship. I chose to worship with the Gypsy church because I wanted to be with the poorest of the poor.

Arriving Sunday morning, we were greeted with such joy. It was overwhelming. These were people who have few possessions, but their generous spirit of welcome wrapped us in a spirit of hospitality.

I was especially struck by the children. Many of the young adults in that town had moved away and the children were recruited to take their places in the church choir. They were shy, but sang very loud, at the top of their lungs, and made us feel right at home.

For lunch, I later learned that some of the churches Connectional Team members visited had served elaborate banquets. At our church, we were given sandwiches with a small strip of meat inside. The top of the hotdog rolls were decorated with colorful swirls of catsup and mayonnaise.

There was only enough for the guests and the children to eat.

The spirit with which these sandwiches were given made them a meal I shall always remember.

Before we left, leaders from the congregation shared their desire to build a canteen onto the church so that they might serve the poor in the community. The church members didn?t have much themselves, but they wanted to give all that they could in Christ?s name to others.

That crystallized for me one of the approaches to how we might truly be a global church. Learning from that small Gypsy congregation in Bulgaria, we should be sharing all that we have with the stranger in our midst. How quickly, then, strangers become family and the grace of God is multiplied.

During my visit, I was also treated with a small degree of celebrity status because I came from Baltimore. The Methodist Church in Varna houses in its belfry, a 550-pound bell, which was engraved by its donor, a church in Baltimore.

They share the story of the bell with every visitor.

In 1892, the newly built church in Varna was given the bell as a gift from Baltimore. Just a few years before that, Bulgaria had been liberated from 500 years of Islamic domination. The new church was the only stone building in town and the bell was a sign of friendship and brotherhood with Methodists on the other side of the world ? something absolutely unknown to this tormented people, explained the Rev. Bedros Altujan, the church?s pastor.

When the communist regime came to power, the church was confiscated and turned into a puppet theater. The belfry was torn down, but three young people secreted the bell away and buried it.

In the 1990s when communism fell, the church was given permission to build again. They dug up the bell, which had been buried for more than 40 years. People from around the world contributed money to help them build their church.

Today, the bell sounds and each toll, the pastor said, 'resonates in our hearts and testifies to the faithfulness of God.'

When church members heard I was from Baltimore, they expressed their gratitude. Listening to the bell, I could hear the power and potential of the global church each time it tolled.

I don?t know how our church, or our world, will appear 300 years from now. But I do stand with John Wesley and say, 'the world is our parish,' and we are richer for it.

Sandy Ferguson is an associate council director in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Make the Connection

Plans are underway in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to gather funds and put together a Volunteers in Mission team to build a canteen for the Gypsy church in Bulgaria. For more information, contact