Greetings, beloved in Christ. I hope that you are well on this day. It is October, and for me, that means two things. One, it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2018, and this October marks my seventh year of being breast cancer free. Regular mammograms and early detection played a huge role in my diagnosis and treatment, and I am grateful for those who encouraged me to get my mammogram. And I am encouraging those of you, if you think you might be at risk for breast cancer, if you’re over the age of 40, if you have a history of other cancers in your family, not just breast cancer, but a history of ovarian cancer or prostate cancer in your family, get yourself checked out.
The second thing that is important for me is that October is the time of our annual convention as the Episcopal Church in Colorado. This year, we’re gathering in Westminster, and I’m very excited. This past weekend, we had our pre-convention hearings and workshops, and if you weren’t able to attend those, please watch the videos. Some very important and exciting information was shared. At our convention this coming weekend, we are welcoming the Right Reverend Daniel Gutierrez as our opening Eucharist preacher from the Diocese of Pennsylvania. We’re also welcoming the Reverend Gay Jennings, former president of the House of Deputies, who has been our consultant to help us understand our leadership together and discern how God is calling us.
We’re also welcoming Dent Davidson as our music leader. He will lead us in praise and worship as we do the work of convention. Over 350 people are registered for this convention. We have amazing exhibitors in our exhibition hall, and it will be a time for us to discern how far we’ve come in this journey of faith together and where the Holy Spirit might be calling us. We are called to run this race, this call to follow Jesus, to run it with endurance, and we have work that is going to be set before us. So I hope that all in the Episcopal church in Colorado will hold your delegations in prayer, that you will hold our gathering in prayer as we seek to do, to continue to do God’s faithful work in the world. Blessings.