2010 World Conference Day 2
 
Good Morning Readers,
 
Saturday evening is the official start of this year’s 2010 Community of Christ World Conference.  So during the day Saturday, many folks are still finishing up their travels.  Booths are being set up in the lower auditorium that showcase much of what is happening around the church world (more on that another day).  The registration lines are filled with people greeting, hugging, shaking hands and renewing friendships, some that have lasted for a lifetime. 
 
The grounds are filled with people moving from the Auditorium to the Temple to the Stone Church and back, continuing to greet, and hug and laugh or cry depending on what has happened in a person’s life since the last greeting.
 
Here in Independence the flowering trees are absolutely beautiful. Tree branches bend with the weight of white, pink and red blossoms, and flowers bloom brightly.  Colors are everywhere and it smells so fresh.
 
The Seventy, the missionary focused Priesthood of the church (and the office your reporter functions in), had a full slate of meetings and worship today.  Along with being obnoxiously outgoing the Seventy are known for their singing – and we did that today.  Led at various times by Africans or Tahitians we sang and clapped and clumsily  danced a little.  It was an invigorating day.
 
Today’s Theme is “We Share…..Unity in Diversity.”  Diversity is all around the earth; from the different trees and flowers, to the mountains and plains, to the deserts and oceans to the colors, sizes, shapes, languages, customs, dress, and costume of her people, diversity is what gives this planet her wonder and majesty.
 
Think of your favorite song or piece of music.  Hear it; sing or hum it.  Do you hear the diversity?  Strings, brass, woodwinds, synthesizers, guitars, keyboards, all different looks and sounds, maybe even playing different notes or syncopation, but for one focus, one song, one piece.  Different, yet the same.  Diverse, yet unified in purpose.  Some notes a little sharp, some flat, but combined the harmony touches the soul.
 
And so it is with God’s people.  All a little different, some sharp, some flat, all with different gifts, abilities, strengths and weaknesses, but with one purpose; to Glorify God and Serve one another.  Unity in Diversity.  All needed, all of worth, all created by the same amazing Creator, and all here.  We are one.
 
Saturday night we gathered in the Auditorium to officially open the Conference.  We watched as the flags of over fifty nations were unfurled from the balcony rail, each representing a nation of the world where the Church has an established presence.  Flags as diverse in color and design and shape as their people.  It is an amazing experience and your reporter looks forward to it each conference.
The Tahitian choir, well over a hundred strong, filled the choir loft at the front of the auditorium chamber.  Drums, guitars and voices, women, men, children, filled the chamber with sometimes soft, sometimes powerful music.  People filled with the Joy of knowing and being children of God.
 
President/Prophet Steve Veazey called the Conference to order and with the smack of the gavel used by Joseph III in 1860 for the same purpose, World Conference 2010 officially began.  It will be a week of movement, listening, discerning, discussion, disagreement, applause, groans, laughter and possibly heartfelt tears as we deliberate and set a course for the future of the Ministry of the Community of Christ.
 
Please support us with your thoughts, good wishes, and prayers as we seek the mind and will of God for us, and for the Communities into which we gather every day; work cubicles, schoolyards, neighborhoods, playgrounds, and lines at the store and in traffic.  Help us affect each community with the Spirit of Christ’s Peace.
 
Until tomorrow this is your reporter signing off.