Online Archives

By Melissa Lauber & Erik Alsgaard
UMConnection Staff

---

This fall, in six distinct worship services, the people of the Baltimore-Washington Conference officially welcomed district superintendents to their new ministries, creating the most diverse Cabinet to ever serve this conference.

The new superintendents’ appointments began July 1. However, they were officially installed during these services, which were held in their home districts over three weekends.

Th e Rev. JW Park is serving the Central Maryland District; the Rev Edgardo Rivera leads the Frederick District. Th e Rev. Joseph Daniels is superintendent of the Greater Washington District and pastor of Emory Fellowship UMC; and the Rev. Rebecca Iannicelli will serve the Washington East District. The Rev. Laura Easto leads the Baltimore Suburban District and the Rev. Cynthia Moore-Koikoi is superintendent of the Baltimore Metropolitan District.

When choosing the people who would serve as superintendents, Bishop Marcus Matthews said a number of factors guided his discernment.

They must love God, the bishop said, and live out that love in daily ways. They must be connectional and understand and uphold the polity of The United Methodist Church; they must understand what it means to be part of a team. And, said Bishop Matthews, “they must have integrity. Th ey must be someone with whom I can trust my life.”

“I see those qualities and characteristics in all the superintendents,” Matthews said. “God has called these people and set them aside for this office.”

Edgardo Rivera – Frederick District

At the first installation service Sept. 14 at Trinity UMC in Frederick, Rivera shared stories from his homeland of Vieques, Puerto Rico, where he took his first steps in the Lord. He also confessed his initial reservations about being a superintendent and how God liberated him from fear with the realization that “the bishop and Jesus didn’t call me to be somebody else. Jesus called me to be myself. Jesus called Edgardo.”

Rivera encouraged all the people of the Frederick District to realize that God is calling them to be exactly who they are. “Risk,” he said. “Put out into then deep. Dare to dream. What an awesome opportunity we have to share the dream of God in our lives.”

The service closed with the congregation rising to dance throughout the sanctuary as Rivera’s  son, Eduardo, sang “God’s Dance Floor.”

JW Park – Central Maryland District

At Park’s installation service Sept. 15 at Montgomery UMC in Damascus, a Korean liturgical dancer performed. Park, who also serves as Dean of the Cabinet, is the first Asian-American superintendent appointed within the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Park shared stories about his life growing up in an affluent family in South Korea and how it contrasted with the difficult circumstances that surrounded his call to ministry in Oklahoma.

God used this time of testing to shape him into the person God needed him to be as a pastor, said Park, who from those days, still claims Psalm 146 as an inspiration and foundation for his life. That passage says to trust in God, and help the orphans, widows, weak, hungry and powerless.

Park has taken these words to heart, and passed them along to the people of his district. “I want you to feel freedom, flexibility and creativity. You are good enough as you are. Do what you feel God has called you for,” he said. “I will listen to you. I can promise, I will walk with you.”

Joe Daniels – Greater Washington

Daniels’ installation service on Sept. 21 was held at Brightwood Education Campus in Washington, D.C., two blocks from the church he also serves, Emory UMC. As if to solidify the importance of being in ministry with schools, an opening prayer was offered by Dr. Kaya Henderson, Chancellor for the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. Henderson said that Daniels often meets in her office with her and others on her staff for Bible study.

In his sermon, Daniels urged his audience to “claim your ZIP code for Christ.”

One way to do this, he said, is to preach. He implored clergy and laity to preach at all times, because, he said, “My Bible says faith comes through hearing. How can they hear without someone preaching?”

Daniels shared a story from his childhood about how, in a third-grade play, he was too modest to have a speaking part. Instead, he opted to be “the curtain-puller.” When his parents found out, they went to the principal of the school and said, “No.” In the end, Daniels ended up having the lead.

“God had something greater for me – and for you!” he said. “Rise up, take your mat and walk. Claim your ZIP code for Christ.”

Rebecca Iannicelli – Washington East District

Seventeen years to the day that she first set foot in a United Methodist Church, Sept. 22, 1996, Iannicelli was installed as superintendent of the Washington East District at La Plata UMC. Iannicelli gave credit to her then four-year-old son, Aaron, who asked on Sept. 21, 1996, why they couldn’t go to a church they drove by that day – Oxon Hill UMC. They did the next day.

Three days later, “something happened,” she said, “my life changed forever.” Three words came to her in that experience: “Go and tell.”

Reminding the congregation that there are people not yet in our pews, Iannicelli said, “Our God is a saving God. God saved me.”

She said that there is a fundamental “sent-ness” of God’s people, and added that that meant all Christians are on a mission.

“I have some news for us. We don’t have to travel overseas to go on a mission trip,” she said. “All we have to do is wake up” in the morning.

Iannicelli said that, for her, the Christian life, the “sent-ness” life, is best summed up in one phrase: “Hear and do, then look for a clue.”

Laura Easto - Baltimore Suburban District

“The Journey” was the theme of the welcome service for the Rev. Laura Easto, held Sept. 28 at Milford Mill UMC in Pikesville. Standing in a pulpit where she preached as pastor 17 years ago, Easto reflected on how, with God, “you don’t ever know where the path is going to lead you.”

There were joys and challenges, Easto said, as the voice of Christ in her life pushed her to be more truthful, loyal and loving, and compelled her to stand up when she would rather have sat down. However, looking back on the entire journey, she found herself quoting a song the first clergywomen of the Baltimore-Washington Conference used to sing, “I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now.”

Along the journey, Easto shared with her people that it is essential that we love one another as God loves us and respond to Christ’s admonition to Peter to “feed my sheep,” by reaching beyond ourselves and out into the whole world with a spirit of transforming love.

Love, she said, is the call, the hope and the expectation.

Cynthia Moore-KoiKoi – Baltimore Metropolitan District

In an emotional worship service, the Rev. Cynthia Moore-Koikoi was welcomed as the new superintendent for the Baltimore Metropolitan District after serving last year as superintendent of the Greater Washington District. The service was held Sept. 29 at Sharp Street Memorial UMC, a historic site for black Methodists. Moore-Koikoi’s great-grandmother sang in the choir there.

Founded by former slaves, the church is a living witness to people who refused “to believe the lie,” and instead focused on the truth that with God all things are possible. The service drew together the district’s cultural diversity and focused on the prophet Jeremiah’s call for God’s people to make themselves at home and create a sense of peace, wholeness and salvation in a strange land.

We are blessed, she told the people of her district, outlining the many cultural, economic, artistic and educational resources within their bounds. To build on this blessing and further build the church’s roots in the community, Moore-Koikoi invited anyone who wants to join her on a prayer walk around the different sections of the city every Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. “Our district will become a mobile prayer station,” she said.

She also invited each person to form a relationship with somebody within seven blocks of their worshipping communities, saying, “It is likely in the sharing they’re going to see the light of Christ in you.”

Photos of the six installation services are on the conference’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BWCUMC.