Daytona Beach Pilgrimage

Sunday night I drove over to Daytona Beach for a pilgrimage to celebrate Dr. Howard Thurman's birthday. Thurman, who was born in West Palm Beach in 1899, grew up in Daytona Beach at his grandmother's home. As a teenager, he moved to Jacksonville to attend one of only three high schools in the country for African Americans at the time. He would go on to be a pastor, professor, theologian, author, poet and prophet. 

There is a group that is restoring his childhood home (New Birth Foundation) and together with two FLUMC conference groups (Shade and Fresh Water and our Anti-Racism Team) we celebrated on Monday with tours and then a worship service at Stuart Memorial UMC.

Road Trippin'

Monday I road tripped solo to Charlotte NC for twelve days as a reserve delegate to our UMC General Conference gathering. I'll be here until May 4th. 

I'm staying just outside the beltway in an Airbnb with a couple other clergywomen from Florida. Its a beautiful historic neighborhood (Wesley Heights). 

And then I stretched my legs by taking a nice long walk around the neighborhood. You can see the skyline and the Panthers stadium not all that far away.

Clergy Connection

Tuesday Daryl and I got to spend time in Lakeland with 280 of our clergy from around the conference for the "Bishop's Clergy Day Apart." I had the great privilege of planning this event for the last couple of months and the experience exceeded my expectations. The spirit of joy and hope was palpable! 

With my candidacy mentor, Rev. Sharon Dey. She's retired now, but when I was in college she was serving Hillsborough UMC in Tampa. 

My friend Rev. Emily Denmark McGee - we served on the camp leadership team in 1997 and we were in the same small group of the Generative Leadership Academy a few years back. 

With our friend Rev. Lisa Degrenia - she traveled with Daryl and I to England years ago. She wrote a beautiful original litany for the Clergy Gathering. 

My Beloveds Covenant Group - so grateful for all of their support. 

Daryl with two of our good friends and his clergy covenant buddies. 

 

Cabinet Retreat in Tampa

 The FLUMC Cabinet generally meets at the Gasparilla Inn on Boca Grande for a couple of days in December for a little down time after a fall season of charge conferences. But this year Boca Grande is still not ready for tourists after the Hurricane. So we met in Tampa instead. Things got started on Sunday afternoon at Hyde Park UMC for the farewell celebration for Bishop Ken and Rev Pam Carter, celebrating their ten years of service to our conference. 

On Monday we went to lunch at the Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg and then walked to the Dali museum to explore. It had been 20 years plus since Daryl and I had last been there and it was so cool to explore again.  

They had a cool dreams exhibit where you typed in a phrase on a screen and the AI generated a surrealist style rendition and then stitched it together with the other participants dreams (6 people at a time). My phrase was flying high above the beach. 

On our way back Daryl drove me past my childhood home on Wallace Circle (just south of Gandy Blvd on Manhattan and then past the Catholic church we attended (and where I went to preschool) - St. Patrick's. 

We had planned to walk the labyrinth at the Dali museum but they've torn it out and are renovating it. So we visited the labyrinth in the chapel at the University of Tampa. 

Our evening concluded with dinner at the original Columbia Restaurant in Ybor. 

Tuesday morning we met early for breakfast at the Portico, the Hyde Park campus located downtown in Tampa that ministers to the homeless community. After that we met in their prayer chapel for a time of contemplative prayer and worship. It was Bishop Carter's last service with us and Daryl got a picture of the two of us - I'm so grateful to him for seeing these gifts in me and giving me the opportunity to serve the church and the kingdom in this way as a superintendent.