2.2 Episcopal Address
2.2 Episcopal Address Knowing that “in God we all live, move and exist”, we welcome delegates and guests to the 2016 Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference in Fredrikstad, Norway. We come together as United Methodists across 11 time zones representing a rich diversity of cultures and ministry contexts, bound together in connectional relationship eager to share Christ with the purpose of making disciples, through which the world may be transformed. We particularly welcome bishop John Yambasu from Sierra Leone, who is representing the Council of Bishops. We welcome other bishops from Europe, Rosemarie Wenner from Germany and Patrick Streiff from Central and Southern Europe. We welcome our retired bishops, who have previously served in the Central Conference, Øystein Olsen and Hans Växby, while Rüdiger Minor is unable to be here due to prior commitments. We also welcome ecumenical friends, representatives from the Uniting Church in Sweden, as well as representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway, the Baptist Union in Norway and the Norway Council of Churches. The theme of our conference “In God we all live, move and exist” is a short sentence in a longer speech given to an assembly of philosophers and politicians in Athens. When Paul arrived in the city after a long voyage he walked into a religious, philosophical and political marketplace, where people not unlike many Northern Europeans and Eurasians today were hungry for the next new thing. While Paul was well acquainted with Greek culture and religion, he was not prepared for what he experienced in Athens, and he was, as we can be in our context, deeply distressed by a city flooded with idols.
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