The Reverend Dr. William H. Willimon presided at our All Saints Celebration on November 5. 

We, in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church are blessed to have this most distinguished cleric of our denomination serving in his inaugural assignment as a Bishop of the church.

Dr. Willimon, a graduate of Wofford College (B.A., 1968), Yale Divinity School (M.Div., 1971) and Emory University (S.T.D., 1973), most recently served 15 years as Dean of the Duke Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University.  In those positions he has made a name for himself as a preacher, lecturer and author.  A Baylor University international survey named him one of the Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English-speaking world, and in 2005, the Pulpit and Pew Research Center found that he is the second most widely read author by mainline Protestant pastors.  So, though the thought would horrify him, Bishop Willimon is a big deal, and a visit by him to our Sunday services was a big deal.  We were honored to have him with us.

By the way, he was not a guest.  The Bishop is an extension of the pastoral leadership for the congregation and the area in which he serves. Whatever the occasion for the visit, the Bishop is there to strengthen the ministry of the local congregation and to affirm and enhance the connectional outreach and mission of The United Methodist Church.  During his visit, he is a servant leader.  In our processional at the beginning of the service, he was last in the line of ministers and first in the line during the recessional.  I have been told that he is one of the most approachable of the leaders of our denomination, and that he covets feedback from pastors and laity on the topics he puts forth in sermons, books, blogs and other venues.

The Bishop was very kind in his remarks about Trinity and its pastor, Rev. Alan Head.  He says that our emphasis on reaching out to serve the college community and young people is an example for other churches in the conference and that he will see to it that Alan shares his vision and techniques.  

We got to hear a fine example of Bishop Willimon's preaching prowess when he spoke about Heaven, that little preached about topic in Methodism because of our satisfaction with our "well-offness" that most of us enjoy in the here and now.  I told you before his visit to be prepared to be stimulated and provoked to cogitate when the Bishop is in the pulpit.  We really appreciated the visit by our Bishop.