The emotions of what she was about to embark on hit Jessie Cummins a whole 24 hours before she was commissioned as a provisional elder of the Oregon-Idaho Conference.

On Wednesday night, she was sitting in the sanctuary at Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise with Bishop Elaine Stanovsky, rehearsing the words she would utter the next night that would set her on this journey in ministry. Just an hour before this, she witnessed 17 candles being lit to honor the memory of 17 good and faithful servants in the Conference.

“I said to the Bishop, ‘I feel very overwhelmed,’” Cummins recalls. “She said, ‘Good. You should. Because at the end of your life, someone is going to light a candle honoring you.’”

Barber, who is a member of the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area Innovation and Vitality team, said there is more to the Good Samaritan story than simply helping someone out who is in need.

Being a good neighbor means getting outside one’s comfort zone. Jesus, Barber said, is calling us to disrupt the privilege.

“Jesus takes a familiar setting and he flips the story. He disrupts the order,” Barber said. “It’s like he didn’t read the Book of Discipline."

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Before having a heart at peace, it’s important to understand what it means to have a heart at war – so began Rev. Dr. Brian Brown’s three-part workshop and discussion on “Anatomy of Peace.”

Brown’s first session Thursday morning focused on behavior and mindset. Changing a person’s mindset helps to change behavior.

The two mindsets up for discussion were an inward (inside the box) and outward (outside the box) mindset. How do we turn from an inward mindset – a heart at war – to an outward mindset – a heart at peace, Brown asked?

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On Thursday afternoon, laity were able to attend a plethora of workshops at Annual Conference to help them discern new and fruitful ways in which to support ministries in their local churches.

Folks had the chance to learn about how to make their churches more disaster resilient, incorporate more social media into their church life, build a community garden, making disciples and ways in which churches can be partnering with their local communities.

Paige Lowery is excited to be at the table this year – both literally and figuratively – as she joins her mom Eilidh Lowery and grandma Jane Shaffer as a voting member of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference.

“When I was little I always had to sit in the back,” said the 13-year-old.

It’s a little surreal for Shaffer, a retired clergy now who has been attending Annual Conference for 38 years, to share a table with her granddaughter and daughter.

“Here’s this tradition of church family continuing,” she said.

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