Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for all the gifts you have provided for us, and especially in sending your Son, Jesus Christ, with His gifts of unconditional love, inclusion, forgiveness, compassion, and grace. Help us to be more Christ-like and to discover those qualities within ourselves and then to share them with others throughout our world. Be with our Bishop Ough as he strides to find the unifying grace that binds us together in Methodism. Bless our leaders and give them the wisdom to live better lives through you. Amen.

Prayer by a member of the Dakotas Conference.

But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Ruth 1:16-18