Bishop Carter Issues a Call for Prayers & Peacemaking

Article By: Bishop Ken Carter, Resident Bishop, Western North Carolina, and Florida Conferences

To the people of the United Methodist Church in the Florida and Western North Carolina Conferences:

I write today to call all of us to pray for peace in Ukraine and across Europe. I have written to my colleague, Eduard Khegay, who is the Bishop of United Methodists in Russia and Ukraine, assuring him of our intercessions.  Russians and Ukrainians there were nurtured in the same baptismal waters and are now brought into conflict with each other through an unjust war.  I have had the privilege of teaching in the United Methodist Seminary in Moscow and serving on their board, and know first hand about the courage and faithfulness of Christians in Eastern Europe.  I am also praying for wisdom, strength, and diplomacy among leaders with the power to make decisions that lead to peace.  Our Social Principles remind us that war is “incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ” and we “oppose unilateral first/preemptive strike actions and strategies on the part of any government” (Discipline, 165).
 
I am also praying for the people of our own nation, and our own church.  In the face of the tragic reality of war, we have the opportunity to express faithful, bipartisan citizenship and mature peacemaking rooted in Christian discipleship (Matthew 5. 9). We too have been nurtured in the same baptismal waters.  We too can be people of peace. This can begin with each of us, wherever we are.  Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers. 
 
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
 
+ Ken Carter
Resident Bishop, Florida and Western North Carolina Conferences