General Conference prayer observance to begin Jan. 1

Jan. 1 will mark the beginning of 131 days of continual prayer for the 2016 General Conference of The United Methodist Church (#UMCGC), which meets May 10-20, 2016, in Portland, Oregon.

The 11-day quadrennial legislative event begins on May 10, 131 days after the New Year. By coincidence, there are 131 annual conferences in The United Methodist Church.

The Council of Bishops has invited each annual conference to host a 24-hour prayer vigil or other effort on a specific date to create a groundswell of prayer in the days leading up to the General Conference. Each annual conference will design its own format for the prayer vigil.

“United Methodists from all over the world will come together in the spirit of Christian conferencing in Portland,” said Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett, chairperson of the “Council Life Together” team, which helped initiate the prayer vigil. “We want those attending to know that their United Methodist family is praying for them and with them — that God will lead them in the decisions that they will make for the future of our church and that the event will be a positive Christian witness in how we conference together.”

“We are encouraging people to pray for God to guide delegates and church leaders as they prepare for General Conference,” said Bishop Al Gwinn, who chairs the council’s prayer subcommittee. “We hope they will pray that God would give them an understanding and loving heart; that all will have a spirit of humility and a desire to do God’s will; and that the fruit of the Spirit would be evident in such a way that all who observe would sense that true Christian conferencing will take place.”

The prayer vigil will begin in the Greater New Jersey Conference, which volunteered for the start date of Jan. 1.

Congregations and individuals wanting to participate in the vigil should contact their annual conference office for more information.

Diane Degnan, Office of Public Information, United Methodist Communications