Eminences, Your Graces, esteemed sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ, I greet you all in the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great joy and privilege to meet with you in person again after nearly four years. Our meeting this time represents a special moment and opportunity in our journey together since we were elected to serve in this capacity in Busan. Many have yearned for a moment to connect with each other, to update each other on developments since 2018, to pray together, to bring pending matters to closure, to express our appreciation for each other, to make decisions on delayed issues, and, even more important, to say goodbye to each other.

We gather at this stage of our pilgrimage together since Busan 2013, after a very heavy dark cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic covered the world with significant casualties that included our beloved colleagues, whom we shall commemorate in a short while. Thus not all with whom we had begun on the pilgrimage of justice and peace had made it to this stop. Some left even before the end of one year.

 I invite each one of us to intentionally be part of creating an enabling ambience for this meeting; to facilitate our lived-out consensus method of decision-making ethos and values as we seek to listen and discern God’s will; to create an environment that makes it possible for us to be known as members who solve problems rather than those who create problems for others to solve. During this meeting, collectively and individually, we will thank God for empowering and calling us to order as we undertake our respective ministries.

My hope and our prayers for an in-person meeting have been answered. As usual, we appeal to you to be attentive, supportive, and active because alone, we cannot realize the meeting’s objectives.

Thank you and a blessed central committee,

Agnes R.M Abuom