 Hello, I'm standing in the sanctuary of the St. Andrew United Methodist Church. And we have been invited again graciously by this congregation, its pastors, its staff to come and meet for this year's annual conference. That annual conference begins on Sunday evening, June the 13th, and concludes by Tuesday afternoon on the 15th of June. The things that which we were concerned about later last year, and that is March, is the way in which we began to change not only the date, but the format of annual conference. It turned out we learned a great deal, and we're still in the midst of a pandemic, and we want to cause no harm. So this will be a both and. And by that I mean, there will be a few people who will gather here in the sanctuary. It's St. Andrew, both for the worship services and for the business sessions. But others will be doing this virtually. So it's not going to be an either or, but both and. And why I say that is because we learned a lot last year and it was really helpful to a number of people. So our theme this year is rooted in love. And we're going to explore our Wesleyan roots and those things that really connect us together as a church. Our preacher for Sunday evening is the preacher we had scheduled for last year, but we were unable to have. And that is Bishop Gregory Palmer from the West Ohio annual conference. Bishop Palmer is a good friend of mine, and he's going to bring the word on Sunday evening. Also, our keynote speaker will be Dr. Phillip Amerson, who is the President Emeritus of Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. And he's going to be speaking us about the Wesleyan movement as well. I can't think of anything better on which we can focus at this time than our own rootedness, not only in love, but what it means to United Methodist Christian in today's world. We're going to have a good time together. We're going to gather as an annual conference in person for some of us and virtually for others. But we're going to celebrate who we are. We're going to celebrate also what you have done in the last year. I stay continually amazed at the ministry that has taken place and continues to take place. So it'll be a good celebration, however we do it. And I want you to put those dates on your calendar and know that you may register for annual conference in March. Look and watch for that email. God bless you and continue the good work you're doing.