Mountain Sky Outlook
August 30, 2016
Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky
The Turning of the Seasons
 
As I write, following the rhythm of the seasons, amber maple leaves drift through dark fir branches in a forest that is slipping from summer into autumn. Owls swoop silently above the forest floor, in an endless search for sustenance. Voles grub through the duff beneath them, avoiding their watchful eyes. At night, along the lake’s edge, a frog plops into the dark water. Geese honk as they flock up for a southward migration. Stars turn in the night sky, the earth turns, shadows shift angle. 
 
Unfailing Blessings of God
God – creator, redeemer and sustainer – loves and tends each along its way of tilt, migration, swirl, orbit, ebb and flow. Or, as we roam or march, crawl or hurdle down unknown paths through wilderness, led only by the light or cloud, or star breaking through from the heavens.
 
Bishops Move
Bishops, as all itinerant clergy, MOVE. We miss and mourn what we move from and companions on the way; we read and pray and breathe the shifting view, place, moment; and now we turn to meet and greet, observe and embrace the present; falling short of anticipating the unknown that we move toward. Ah, the deep mystery of a life of faith; the surprising and disrupting pilgrimage of call. God guard and guide us on our way!
 
Mountain Sky Mission-Shaped Guiding Team (MSMSGT)
On this threshold, I have one last task to complete. Culminating six years and more of serious conversation, in June the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences both voted by more than 80 percent majority to continue to work and plan for the creation of ONE NEW CONFERENCE where now there are two. In July, the Jurisdictional Conference authorized the creation of one new conference, contingent upon the full discernment and agreement of the two conferences. 
 
In conversation, Bishop Oliveto and I agreed that before my assignment to the Mountain Sky Area ends on August 31, I would appoint the new Mission-Shaped Future Guiding Team (MSFGT) to continue this work. I am appointing those named at the end of this Outlook to lead this work. The Guiding Team will be responsible for continuing to lead dreaming and visioning for the project, but they will not be the only ones involved. They will appoint, convene, oversee and coordinate working teams to address specific tasks and challenges. Many more gifted leaders from both conferences will have roles on these working teams. And groups and individuals with particular concerns or perspectives will have opportunities to give input throughout the process. 
 
The purpose for this project is MISSIONAL: “To renew and expand Wesleyan Christian Values in its Mission Field in order to empower local churches and laity to achieve the Mission of the United Methodist Church. ... to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, according to the instructions Jesus gave his disciples.” * It’s about learning to be like those 70 followers of Jesus in Luke 10, sent to places and people he had not engaged yet, to enter into relationship, to learn their lives, to receive their generosity, and to offer blessings of peace. It’s about asking the missional questions: What is God up to? Who is God animating for ministries of justice, mercy, and forgiveness? How does the Church partner with God in these ministries in new way, through new partnerships? How do we form ourselves, spiritually, for this work? What leaders do we need? How do we organize ONE NEW ANNUAL CONFERENCE to support and empower this new movement of relationship, engagement and experimentation? And, while we are designing a new Conference, how do the existing conferences live together in ways that strengthen ministry and mission NOW, without waiting for two years?    
 
The anticipated timeline will bring some proposals for actions to the 2017 Annual Conference Sessions, with a uniting conference in 2018 to vote on the proposal to create a new conference and legal incorporation to follow in 2019.
 
Gratitude
My heart is full and overflowing with gratitude for the eight years we ministered together in the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Annual Conferences

• for the tenacious Christians who serve Jesus Christ through churches scattered from the “backbone” of the continent, to the great basin in the west and the great plains in the east across prairies, mountains, valleys, deserts, forests. 
• for each of the amazing women and men I have been privileged to commission, license, ordain and appoint to ministry settings, and the equally amazing lay persons who are the first and primary leaders Jesus calls and sends
• for the new ministries we have birthed
• for the ministries we have honored at their closing
• for merciful responses to fire, flood, tornado, earthquake
• for the lives we saved through Imagine No Malaria
• for the powerful, life-affirming partnerships we are developing with descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre
• for the beloved staff and cabinet members I have had the joy of serving with through celebrations and crises
• for songs sung, tears shared, prayers lifted, hugs exchanged, miles driven, lives touched, wonder beheld, love exchanged, grace given.

You are part of me. I do not leave you behind but carry you ever forward, as my pilgrimage of faith unfolds, and I continue to cultivate the Tree of Life – God’s gift at the beginning, and God’s promise at the end of the Bible, and of our lives of faith.
 
Blessing
God bless you and Bishop Oliveto as you learn to walk together. God bless you in the way that you take. May it be a good way.

* Annual Conference Petition adopted by both Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Annual Conference in June 2016 (RMC petition and YAC petition)

MISSION-SHAPED MOUNTAIN SKY GUIDING TEAM (MSMSGT)

Mountain Sky Outlook
From Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky
Sunday, July 17, 2016
 
Late Friday night the Western Jurisdiction elected Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto to be a bishop.  Yesterday nine bishops  – seven from the western jurisdiction, one representing the Council of Bishops of the world-wide United Methodist Church, and one from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America – consecrated her by laying hands upon her head. She is assigned to serve the Mountain Sky Area. That means that, come September, I will no longer be your bishop (more on that at another time), and the Mountain Sky Area will welcome the first “out” gay bishop in our Church.

Many people will say many things about this election.

Some will assume that a secular “gay agenda” has taken root within the church, overwhelming Christian, biblical values.

Some will say it defies church law, which declares homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching,” and prohibits “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from serving as ordained ministers.

Some will say that it undermines the “Way Forward” being led by the Council of Bishops to address the deep theological and ethical divides within our Church – that it will split the church.

Some will say that it’s too little, too late – that the church has betrayed lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer folk for too long and continues to exclude and hurt them day by day.

Some say, I just wish “they” would be discreet and not rub “our” noses in “it.”

Most of those present will describe how God gently led the Church across a threshold into a new and hopeful day.

As you – the laity, clergy and churches of the Mountain Sky Area – receive this historic news and prepare to receive this gifted leader, I want to bear witness to how I experienced the Jurisdictional Conference that elected her.

The Program and Arrangements Committee and local leaders from the host conference, welcomed and led delegates through an orderly, intentional gathering of the church.  Extraordinary hospitality, music, preaching and teaching set the stage for the work before delegates. The pace of the work, accessibility of information, technical support, all came together to create a gracious space for the church to do its important work of electing a new episcopal leader.

The Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee designed a measured and thorough process for delegates to get to know candidates, experience their leadership, and ask probing questions.  Candidates addressed the conference at the beginning of the process, were available for informal “meet-and-greet” interactions, and met with delegations repeatedly and in depth. Delegates interacted with one another with unfailing respect and collegiality.

The words that keep coming to mind to describe the process by which delegates elected this new leader are:  intentional, measured, and deeply faithful.

On the third day of the conference, on the 17th ballot, from an original pool of 9 candidates, 88 of the 100 voting clergy and lay delegates representing their annual conferences voted to elect Bishop Oliveto. The Committee on Episcopacy, comprised of two members from each conference in the jurisdiction, worked through the night and into the early hours of a new day to recommend the assignment of bishops to their areas.

Yesterday we gathered at Paradise Valley United Methodist Church for her consecration in a glorious act of worship. I have faith and every reason to believe that she will lead the people and churches of the Mountain Sky Area ably. As the people of The United Methodist Church that you are, I know that you will welcome her gracefully with the open hearts, open minds and open doors, and go with her into the world to share the transforming love of God in Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace,

Elaine JW Stanovsky

Mountain Sky Outlook Preview
Saturday morning
 
New every morning is your love, Maker of heaven and earth. Give us fresh eyes to see your world anew this day. Give us listening hearts to understand what has happened in your Church. Keep us focused on your gracious mission to a hurting world, as we seek to follow you in paths that heal and transform.

I have prayed mightily overnight. I'm up early, preparing to preside at the last day of the Western Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church, following the historic election of Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto to be a bishop in The United Methodist Church. Today we will adopt a budget, elect officers, hear the assignments of bishops to their areas for the next 4 years, and consecrate Bishop Oliveto. Last night I met with cabinet and staff of the Mountain Sky Area who are here, in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are praying for each person and every faith community in the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conference, knowing that this election is a cause for celebration for some, and deeply disturbing to others.

Before I rest this evening (Saturday), I will send you a Mountain Sky Outlook, reflecting on the events of the past day. Please check you emails before you go to bed, to keep in the conference communication loop.

My prayers are with you,

Elaine JW Stanovsky

From Bishop Elaine Stanovsky
Mountain Sky Outlook: If We Remain Silent, the Stones Will Cry Out
July 8, 2016

The view isn’t very pleasant from the Mountain Sky this week. Or this month, for that matter. The terrible news comes too fast to respond: police shoot and kill Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, police shoot and kill Philando Castile during a routine traffic stop outside Minneapolis, a sniper hunts and shoots down police in Dallas, Texas.

These headlines claim attention against a backdrop of recent terrorist attacks in Orlando, Istanbul, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, political hate speech, betrayal of public trust, aching chronic poverty, poisoned water, persecution of gay people, explosive train derailments, the Zika virus. And, beneath the public agony, our private hearts beat with their very deep and personal sorrows and fears. Nobody knows the trouble we’re seeing but Jesus.

I find myself praying: God, you promise fullness of life. We are living the valley of the shadow of death. Shall we fear no evil? Are you protecting us with your rod and staff? We could use your comfort!

God is quick to answer my prayer with a call to action: “Hey, church, listen up. Give me some help here! I’ve prepared you for this.” Love your neighbors! Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute! Judge not! Cry out for justice! Be my peace-makers!

When I am buffeted by the news, I turn to scripture in prayer, because I am absolutely certain that God is working through people of faith to build a better future.

God wants all people to live in peace and unafraid. Black people and other people of color in America should not be stopped by police, arrested by police, shot by police, die in police custody, given longer sentences, imprisoned or executed at a higher rate than White people. Injustice in the criminal “justice” system in the United States is undeniable, and no follower of Jesus should sit by quietly as long as these are realities in our nation.

In the social contract between law enforcement and the public, we ask police officers to put their lives on the line for public safety, and we entrust them to use lethal force to “protect and serve.” We have a responsibility to ensure that they have what they need – the training, the equipment and the support systems – to do the job. As a society we need to prepare them, expect them, and hold them accountable for interacting with all kinds of people in all kinds of situations in ways that de-escalate tensions and to use the power entrusted to them with restraint and fairly.

The interests of Black Americans and police should not be seen as in competition with one another. Systemic injustice makes it appear that the support for police comes at the expense of fair treatment of African Americans. Systemic injustice causes cries for just treatment of African Americans to be heard as criticism of police.

Christians have the responsibility to love and care for our neighbors and strangers as dearly as we love ourselves, to speak out when we see injustice, and to hold systems of authority responsible when we see patterns of unfair treatment.

What would Jesus do? It’s hard to know for certain. But we have some pretty good clues: He wouldn’t protect himself against the dangers of the world. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t buy a gun or carry a gun. He stood up against the powers and principalities of his day with the power of his un-defended person. He never armed himself, rather he berated his followers who drew the sword. He wouldn’t blame or banish immigrants or people of specific racial or religious groups. Time and again, Jesus reached across social barriers to embrace tax collectors, foreigners and the physically and mentally ill. He wouldn’t stigmatize divorced people, or gay, lesbian and transgender people. The gospels teach that his closest followers and religious authorities criticized him for hanging out with un-desirable people of all kinds, though he would call them to live in relationships of integrity and to keep covenant. He wouldn’t stay at home and watch the news on TV and follow Twitter on his smartphone. He was always on the move, always interacting with townspeople, always moving among the crowds, and, except when he intentionally withdrew for prayer, he was always touching the lives of people. He moved into situations of need and conflict, to engage those most affected. He traveled to Jerusalem, just as things were heating up, and the danger was greatest.

We say that the Church is the living body of Christ. So, what are we going to do? How will we work to end unjustified police killings of Black people? How will we temper the presidential campaign? How will we create community with persons who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender? How will we build community with Muslim Americans? How will we support officers of the law to live fully, also, as officers of the peace?

It’s time to ACT our FAITH. In the days ahead, I hope that every church will open its doors to its community to gather to share common concerns and grief in prayer. Pray that God’s kingdom will come. Build healing relationships. Bear witness to truth. Advocate for justice.

Serving Jesus' promise that all might enjoy abundant life,
Elaine JW Stanovsky

Attached is a letter from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, encouraging faith communities to gather to pray for justice, reconciliation and peace.

A spiritual resource for people experiencing distress: “Seven Suggestions for Healing in the Midst of Stress and Anxiety,” by Flora S. Wuellner.

From Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
Mountain Sky Outlook: Why Should We Change
March 1, 2016


America’s Changing Religious Landscape
Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow
The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men.

SOME GOOD NEWS: there are vital ministries in the Mountain Sky Area!
There are amazing, vital, congregations in the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences, where people encounter the empowering love of Jesus Christ, grow in their personal lives and reach out to engage and serve their communities. They come in all sizes, in large and small communities, on the plains, in cities, in the mountains. Some are more than 100 years old, some just began. Some vital congregations are growing, some are not. They can be found gathering in old buildings, new buildings, shared buildings, a pub, a coffee shop, on a piece of vacant land or in a City Park.
 
SOME NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS: fewer people are growing in faith through our ministries.
Vitality, by any measure, is not the trend among United Methodist churches in most communities across a four-state region. Our churches have been in decline for decades and there is no change in sight. We aren’t alone in this trend. We are in good company. It’s not like someone else is doing it right, and we aren’t. But it does call for those of us in leadership to sit up straight, pay attention and to try to lead into a new season of vital ministry. That’s our job.
 
SOME CHALLENGING NEWS: vital ministry for the future requires deep change now.
What we are learning, when we sit up straight, is that these trends are so big and so deeply rooted in what’s happening in the lives of people that they aren’t going to change by a new sign, a fresh coat of paint, or a better preacher. As a Church we are called into “adaptive change.” It’s the kind of change that is necessary when familiar patterns of life are no longer suited to the environment in which we live.  It’s like when our toddler rolled his bouncy chair down the basement stairs. We had to install one of those removable gates at the top of the stairs to keep him safe. Our habit of keeping the door open and sprinting up and down the stairs unimpeded did not support the survival of our son. Or, it’s like when my dad fell on another set of basement stairs and blew his knee joint all to pieces. His body was no longer suited to an environment of stairs. He had to adapt to survive. He had to move to a home without stairs.
 
What we are learning is that the forms of religious life we know how to offer are no longer attracting the people in our communities. They are no longer engaging the spiritual longings of the people. The pattern of Sunday morning worship and Sunday School structured for a nuclear family with one working parent who live within a 15 minute drive of the church building, has been on a steady decline since the 1970s, when women re-entered the work force. Church as an institution that defines and promotes social norms of behavior is no longer in high demand. Church where people sit in pews and look to the pastor to dispense pastoral wisdom and comfort does not connect with urgent yearnings of people. Alan Roxborough, of the Missional Leader Network, says the place for mission is at the intersection of the biblical story and the stories of our lives. That intersection is more and more likely to happen outside the walls of our churches or in the weekly order of worship.
 
More and more people are describing themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious.” They seem to know themselves as spiritual beings, seeking to grow in frank, intimate, spiritual community, but don’t look for it or find it in the traditional forms of church.
 
SOME REALLY HARD NEWS: change involves loss.
We can’t fix the decline by improving. It’s not about the pastor or the preaching, or the bible study, or the coffee. It’s not about the street appeal or the parking, or the hymnal. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about these things. We should. And we should always strive to improve. BUT, improvement is not adaptation. Adaptation requires that we let go of what we were raised on and learn how to behave in new ways. Adaptation requires that we quit doing what we know how to do that isn’t working, and try new things.
 
It is not easy to adapt. Nobody wants to let go of what we love. It’s like a camel fitting through the eye of a needle. It’s like entering your mother’s womb a second time to be born again. It might even be like death and resurrection. We’ve gotten used to things the way they are. It’s less disturbing to hold on to the forms we know, even as they decline, than it is to step out of those forms into a formless and uncertain future. Suffering loss is only worth it if your life depends on it.
 
So, Dad, you really need to move out of this house. We want you well and safe. You might not survive another fall like that.
 
THE REALLY GOOD NEWS: God has prepared us for difficult change.
Who better than the Christian community of faith to look up, see a pillar of fire, gird up our loins and march into the wilderness? This is what we are made for. This is what years of bible study, and prayer have prepared us for. John Cobb named us people of “self-transcending selfhood.” We are spiritually capable of being more than we are or have ever imagined ourselves to be capable of. And God leads the way. “Behold, I make all things new.” “Behold, I am doing a new thing, can you not perceive it?” “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”
 
If I were you, reading this, right about now I’d be thinking, “I see the need for change, but what’s to say that THIS CHANGE will lead us into a new season of vitality?” If you aren’t ready to let go of the Rocky Mountain Conference and the Yellowstone Conference to create a new conference, what are you willing to give up to open the possibility of new creation?   
 
Stay tuned. Join the conversation with your comments. There’s more to come ...

Elaine J. W. Stanovsky

From Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
Mountain Sky Outlook: To-Gether or To-Part? A Lenten Journey Toward a Mission-Shaped Future
February 8, 2016

This week Christians begin the annual 6-week Lenten journey with Jesus to Holy Week and Easter. It starts on Ash Wednesday when some of us will receive ashes on our foreheads as a sign that we aren't as great as we think we are and a reminder that life is short. And we might take on "practices" that help us reflect and put us back into right relationship with God.

In June the lay and clergy members of the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Annual Conferences will decide whether to ask for permission to create one Mountain Sky Annual Conference. My Lenten discipline will be to prepare you to make this decision with the best information available, and in a spirit of wisdom and courage. It is spiritual work because I will prayerfully listen to God's leading, remember the many steps that brought us to this decision point, peer into the future to imagine what possibilities and pitfalls might lie ahead, and then try to put it into words that will invite you into your own discernment and a holy conversation.

TO-GETHER or TO-PART?  
Years ago one of our young sons coined the term: TO - PART. It is the obvious alternative to to-gether. He would ask: To-gether? Or to-part?  Like, are the toy train cars to-gether or to-part? Or, will we drive to-gether in one car, or to-part in two cars?

Will the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Annual Conferences seek a future to-gether as one conference, or to-part, remaining separate? This question raises a lot of other questions about distances, staff, offices, liabilities, clergy salaries and benefits, representation in the general church. I'll try to respond to these in the weeks ahead.

I believe that the two conferences should become one Mountain Sky Annual Conference, to-gether. But it's not my decision. The two annual conferences, along with the Western Jurisdictional Conference will make the decision. My role is not to convince anyone of anything, but as your bishop to show you what I see as one who knows and watches over both conferences in love. I'll do all this through a series of Mountain Sky Outlooks that will be posted on my website along with other voices and perspectives.

I am at least the third bishop, following bishops Swenson and Brown, to encourage the two conferences to consider becoming one. Along with much of The United Methodist Church in the U.S.A., the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Annual Conferences have experienced steady decline in key vital signs for many years. In both conferences, each year fewer people give more money to support the ministries of the church locally and globally. These trends are not sustainable.

Bishop Brown’s 2001 reflections on the Yellowstone Conference

• There is some real concern for the life/health/future for the Yellowstone Conference. It comes up like fear and foreboding.
• I’m seeing a number of churches that don’t know if they’re going to be here next year.   
• Yellowstone has 135 churches. Of those, 85 are 100 or less in membership.  
• We’re at the bottom of the clergy pay scale in the US.

Rocky Mountain 2013 Statistician’s Report, by Rev. Dennis Shaw
The number of people who worship in the Rocky Mountain Conference has been on a steady decline. During 2013 worship attendance fell by over 800, which was the 2nd largest annual loss in a decade. Over that time more than 4,000 have left our pews. Much of the decline has flowed from a few of our larger churches. In 2013, twelve churches lost 600 worshippers.

Leaders of the Conferences have looked for strategies to turn things around. Both conferences have experimented with shifting staff configurations, changing district boundaries, new program initiatives. So far, we have not found our way out of decline.

I believe that God is still at work through the United Methodist Churches of the Mountain Sky Area. As disciple-leaders we are charged with noticing what God is up to, and doing the work. That’s what the conversation should be about:  joining God at a time when many people are finding their way to faith outside our churches. 

God give us the courage to follow where you lead.

We can’t go on like this.  Both Conferences are on an unsustainable path of decline. Young people are not institutionally oriented the way their parents’ and grandparents’ were. They are spiritually alive and curious, but they do not expect to find the social diversity, the culture of grace and the spiritual engagement they seek in our churches. What we know how to do will not raise up a new generation of disciples of Jesus Christ to change the world.  

IS THERE NO HOPE? Never! But we must face the cold hard facts before we can begin to have the vision and courage we will need to follow Jesus where he is leading us.  

Stay tuned.
Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky

From Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
Mountain Sky Outlook: Toward a Mission-Shaped Future: Creating a New Annual Conference
November 13, 2015

Friends in Christ,

I believe that God is at work in the world through the churches of the Mountain Sky Area, but that God is also at work in ways and places far beyond the walls and reach of our churches. I am convinced that United Methodist ministry in this region could reach more people, impact more lives, and change the world if we let go of some of our cherished ways of doing things, and let Jesus send us to places we’ve never been before, to meet people who will never step inside our churches.

Leaders of the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences have been in conversation for many years about how, together, we might be able to strengthen the presence of Wesleyan Christianity in our area. Both Annual Conferences received the report of the Shared Futures Committee in June 2015. Following the committee’s recommendation, I have named two “Mission-Shaped Future” groups to lead the next chapter of this on-going conversation (rosters attached).

• Mission-Shaped Future – ONE (MSF-1) will develop a proposal to form a new annual conference comprising the whole territory of the Mountain Sky Area, both the present Yellowstone and the present Rocky Mountain Conferences. We anticipate this proposal coming for a vote at both annual conference sessions and the Western Jurisdictional Conference in 2016.
• Mission-Shaped Future – TWO (MSF-2) will lead a process of envisioning what a new season of Vital Wesleyan ministry in the Mountain Sky Area might look like. It will answer questions like, how do we best use our resources (people, buildings, congregations and funds) to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? The work of this group will take longer and be on-going. It will work to envision what ministry will look like that is not necessarily rooted in what we have known as “congregations.”  

Both groups are dedicated to cultivating vital ministry across the region, but are open to the possibility that it may emerge in forms we’ve never seen before, or in the renewal of forms we haven’t experienced for a very long time. We anticipate strengthening ministry on at least three fronts:

1. We need to cultivate and support vital ministry where it already exists.  
2. We need to focus on starting new local churches.
3. We need to lead the church back into the community to re-engage people who would never step into one of our existing churches in new, authentic and experimental ways.

It’s important that you know what’s happening, and that you have a chance to ask your questions and share your concerns and contributions. There will be two seasons of engagement. The first will be during January 2016, when members of these groups and others will meet with local church leaders at a variety of sites around the conferences, and remotely, to hear the preliminary proposal for a new annual conference, to answer your questions, and listen to your hopes and fears, as well as your brilliant ideas! The second will be during May 2016, when the revised and refined proposal will be presented, again, at locations around the area, and on-line in preparation for votes at both annual conferences in June and the Western Jurisdictional Conference in July.

This is a moment of tremendous possibility for us. But, we all know that change creates uncertainty and anxiety. Times like these deserve to be bathed in prayer. No one wants to take the church where God isn’t leading it. But, if God is leading us in directions we’ve never gone before, who among us will refuse to go? Prayer will help us discern together where God is leading. And through prayer, the Holy Spirit will give us the courage to go follow where God is leading.

It’s tremendously exciting to think of being people on the move, again, carrying the great good news of Jesus and his love into a world that hungers and thirsts for what it cannot even ask or imagine.

Watch for ways to contribute to this work. Pray for a future with hope.

God is at work. Jesus lives. The Holy Spirit is stirring things up.

Alive in Christ,
Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky

From Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
Mountain Sky Outlook: Call for Prayers for Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church
June 19, 2015

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
I write you from Helena, Montana, where the Yellowstone Annual Conference is in session. Yesterday we heard the devastating reports of the murders of Christian brothers and sisters gathered in prayer at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It is apparent that these murders were motivated by racial hatred of a kind that has no place in our nation, and certainly not within the Christian Church.
 
Pastor Kelly Addy led prayer this morning:
 
Dear Lord,
We come to you as your children, seeking your wisdom and patience in the midst of our bewilderment. You have made humankind so magnificently and so powerfully, but we lose our way before we can arrive at the kind of love with which you made us. We know it is there because we are the work of your hands and we ask your gentle hand to guide us to it and place it at the center of all things and nations, and races and peoples.
 
We gathered to learn of the riches of your abundant love, which overcomes all the violence the world, can muster. And then shots rang out across this great land of hope and freedom, infecting people with fear and suspicion.
 
We turn to you and to you alone, as we cry out once again that we are love because you are love and we are from you. How can anyone hope to love anyone if they do not love everyone? How can anyone seek to overcome darkness with darkness? How can anyone hate anyone without hating everyone?
 
Turn our hearts to neither the left nor the right, but only to you. We read your Word and hear your love in it even when people in Egypt and Syria and South Carolina die for it.
 
We lift up:
Our brother, Honorable, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, pastor and state senator
Our sister, Cynthia Hurd, 54
       sister, Ethel Lance, 70
Our brother, Rev DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49
       sister, Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45
Our brother, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., 74
       sister, Myra Thompson, 59
       sister, Susie Jackson, 87
       brother Tywanza Sanders, 26
And our brother, the suspected shooter, Dylann Roof, 21.
 
We pray for peace. We lift up those who suffer violence anywhere in the world and we do not look down on them, but up to you.
 
Give us your peace. Give us your love. Give us your will, abundantly as we trudge onward and upward and homeward together to you.
 
And when we go back into the world from this place may our light so shine that other would see the Christ in us and be led in the Way, by the Truth, to the Life Everlasting. Amen.
 
This Sunday, June 21, 2015 please pray and lead your churches to pray for peace among the peoples of our nation and of the whole world, for the family and church family of those whose lives were taken, and for our sister denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has worked for God's vision of racial harmony and justice for 200 years.
 
Serving Jesus' promise that all might enjoy abundant life,
Elaine J. W. Stanovsky

How does a Christian turn love into hate?  Mercy into punishment?  Life into death?

We are both infinitely capable of evil and we can “be made perfect in love in this life.”  We live somewhere between utter depravity and holiness.  We all choose blessing or curse; life or death every day.  And our choices are frighteningly powerful to heal or hurt.  An occasional lost sheep who opens fire on unsuspecting innocents reminds us how powerful evil can be if we allow it to overtake us.  Our choices either establish the Kingdom of God on earth, or they undermine it.

The reason we read our bibles, pray, worship, and sing the songs of faith, is so that we will grow in the knowledge and love of God in Jesus Christ, so that we can help God change the world to be a little more like heaven – for everybody.

The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that no matter how many people choose death over life, ALMIGHTY, EVERLASTING GOD won’t let the power of evil overcome the power of life.   In the household of God’s grace, LOVE WINS.  We live in this hope, cultivating in one another the virtues, sensitivities, and habits of the heart that will bless the people around us and the whole creation.

Thank you, Jesus, for your gift of love so strong it never holds back. 

Thank you, church, for providing an environment where life-affirming love can grow.

Thank you, disciples of Christ, for putting yourselves in the path of the Holy Spirit to be washed and smoothed and shaped and sent by grace.

Christ will rise again and anew this Easter Sunday.  And his glory will shine on those lives taken by hate this week, as God’s grace embraces all who struggle and die in vain.

Alleluia.

The Native American mask was a gift made by United Methodist artist, author and storyteller, Ray Buckley, whose heritage is Lakota/Tlingit/Scot.   It is a depiction of Jesus as a Native American, wearing a crown of thorns.  Soil from Wounded Knee and Sand Creek are worked into the clay. Photo by EJWStanovsky. 

January 12, 2014

Come walk with me on a Journey of Healing.

At the beginning of each new year people look for hope, prosperity and healing during the year ahead.  The TREE OF LIFE symbolizes God’s promise that the whole creation and all God’s children and creatures will one day live full and fulfilled lives.  This year the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Annual Conferences of the UMC will focus on healing relationships within God’s TREE OF ABUNDANT LIFE. 

The 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre falls in 2014.  On November 29, 1864 Methodist leaders, committed to living in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, wielding government and military power, planned and led the slaughter of nearly 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho people peacefully encamped where they were promised they would be safe.  Many of the victims were women, children and the elderly.  For some descendants of the massacre the word “Methodist” means only massacre of innocents.  This year we have an opportunity to change that and to enter into a relationship of honor and respect with people who know us only as the source of their scars.

This is a history of atrocity; a history that has been hotly debated for 150 years, despite definitive findings by congressional and military investigations; a history that has been largely untaught in our schools, lost from the consciousness of the church, and distorted in its telling.  It is a history in which respected Christian leaders failed utterly to uphold God’s love for creation and Jesus’ promise of abundant life.  It is a history that casts a long shadow of doubt that people who bear the name “Christian” or “Methodist” can be trusted to cherish and protect life at all. 

So where’s the hope?

Hope resides in the possibility of forming new relationships between United Methodists and the descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre.  As your bishop, I’m convinced that God has set me on my own Sand Creek journey of healing that began in 2009 and has led me along a way of awakening, listening, acknowledging, repenting and honoring.  During 2014 I invite you to join me on this Journey of Healing.  We begin in earnest with this letter and the blog that will follow, where I will

• share an account of my personal journey of healing
  
• suggest ways for you to begin your own journey of healing
  
• explain the context for this journey in the history of the Christian Church and of our nation, and
  
• offer ways you and your church can make this important healing work your own.
  

Each time I post a new entry on the blog, you will receive a link to the post.  There will also be opportunity for you to post comments and questions.

The journey will intensify in June 2014 when both Annual Conferences will commemorate the anniversary of the Massacre.  In the Rocky Mountain Conference on Friday, June 20 members, guests and friends will take a spiritual pilgrimage to the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site near Eads Colorado in the company of Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants.  I hope you will prepare yourself for this sacred journey to holy ground by learning about the history so that you are ready to hear the voices of descendants.  I am committed to ensuring that the Methodists who travel to this site in 2014 will bring a healing presence.

The 150th anniversary is November 29, 2014.  During the week prior I invite you to join me at the 16th annual Spiritual Healing Run from the Massacre Site to the Colorado State Capitol.  Plan now to dedicate your Thanksgiving week to this powerful part of the journey.  You don’t have to run to promote healing during this event. More details will follow.

I know in the core of my being that God is inviting us to participate in this healing work, to develop new relationships with descendants of the Massacre, and to cultivate abundant life where it was cut down.

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.
-Deuteronomy 30: 19b

Working for Healing,
Elaine JWS 

Click here to view Bishop Elaine's 2013 Advent letter to the Mountain Sky Area.

People of the Mountain Sky Area of The United Methodist Church,

The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, representing the church in North America, Europe, Africa and the Philippines, adopted a statement yesterday regarding Bishop Talbert's recent action. The Council engaged in deep, frank and respectful conversation and prayer in coming to this statement, but the statement does not represent a consensus of all bishops.

I know that the faithful discernment of many in the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Annual Conferences leads to a very different position from that of the Council, and that many will experience this statement as a failure of the bishops to recognize the variety and breadth of the way God's love expresses itself in human relationships.

Please pray with me for Bishops Wallace Padgett and Bishop Talbert, for Bobby Prince and Joe Openshaw, two United Methodists whose marriage Bishop Talbert celebrated, and for all people and the whole church as we continue to grow in our love and knowledge of God in Jesus Christ.

With faith in Christ,

Elaine J.W. Stanovsky

Click here to read the statement from the Council of Bishops

The Council of Bishops is meeting at Lake Junaluska this week. In the midst of deep conversation among the bishops about the division within the church, we received this letter. I thought you would want to see it.

Elaine

Click here to read the letter

Click here to download Bishop Elaine's September 18, 2013 Mountain Sky Outlook letter about the Colorado Floods.

Click here to view Bishop Elaine's Mountain Sky Outlook newsletter for September 2013.

Click here to download Bishop Elaine's Holy Week 2013 letter. Happy Easter!