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BY DAVID E. BOHNERT
UMConnection Correspondent

A spirit of playfulness and fellowship were high on the agenda when the 222nd session of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, opened May 25. A play therapist taught games and a Gospel plea went out for United Methodists to 'live expansively.'

The first item on the agenda, after the conference was gaveled into order, was a presentation by play therapist Frank Aycox, of Temple University in Philadelphia.

'We need to play more as Christians. We are much too serious,' Bishop John R. Schol told the more than 2,000 people gathered in the Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Marriott Hotel in Baltimore.

Aycox led members in Afro-rhythm games, which tested not coordination nor cooperation but the ability to laugh about ourselves. He encouraged people to reclaim the spirit of their childhood ? the spirit that was always willing to jump into games and to embrace the joy of play for its own sake.

'Play is the only activity of human beings that is 100 percent positive,' he said. 'That?s why we play, to enhance faith and hope.'

Following Aycox?s presentation, the conference gathered for worship, celebrating the theme 'Connecting Through Christ.'

In his welcoming comments, Bishop Schol introduced Bishops Joseph H. Yeakel, retired; Forrest C. Stith; retired; and Sang Young Kwak, of the Nam-Bu South Annual Conference of the Korean Methodist Church.

Bishop Susan Morrison, bishop of the Albany Area, preached on 'Starting on Top,' based on the poem 'A Manual for Climbers,' in which a person wrestles with God, tries to ascend the ladder 'to conquer the fire,' and works with diligence only to find after decades of climbing he is still on the ground floor. The climber eventually realizes he had it all wrong. With God, 'you start at the top.'

The bishop shared how, as a student at Drew University, she and fellow students were talking about how they could 'get people saved.'

In the middle of the discussion, the campus minister broke in and challenged them. 'What arrogance,' he said. 'What Pharisees. Who do you think you are judging others as ?in? or ?out?? Folks,' he told them, 'everyone is in. No one is beyond God?s love and grace. The issue is, do they know that? Do they live as if they are connected with Christ?'

These words stayed with Morrison. 'Too often, the problem rests with us,' she said. 'We want to establish hurdles that we and others must jump through before we grant value. But the good news is that each person?s value has already been established by Christ?s death and resurrection. Folks, we all start on top!'

Problems arise, however, the bishop said, when people don?t live as if they know they?re on top, when they don?t realize that 'the greatest accomplishment for us is to be our best selves, just as we are.'

If people did more than just hear the Good News, if they incorporated it into their lives, the bishop said, they would better understand Paul?s words in 2 Corinthians: 'Your lives aren?t small, but you are living them in a small way. I?m speaking as plainly as I can with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!'

Before the members shared in Holy Communion, Bishop Morrison asked them to discover the joy of Christ?s love. Even the Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards understood this, she said.

'In proposing signs to show how one could separate true religious experience from its counterfeits, he recommended we ?look for joy.?'

'Let us have that joy,' Bishop Morrison said.

Throughout the three-day annual conference session, Jan Powers, praise and worship music leader and the house band, up a tree, provided a fresh musical experience for worshipers by playing new songs and old in a variety of genres.

The band included Powers, Jordan Miller, her son, Jason Bachman and Scott Broody.

In addition, young liturgists Brianna Brooks, of Sharp Street Memorial UMC in Baltimore, and Matthew Munk of St. John UMC in Lutherville, represented children of the conference as they led responsive readings and read Scriptures during the opening worship.