 What a welcome, Eric, Brendan, and Rebecca, you have given to each of us who've gathered here this afternoon. What a welcome you have given us into your lives, and we thank you for welcoming us into your lives these many years. Eric, Brendan, and Rebecca, because you are so rooted and grounded in love for one another and for the world and for all of God's children everywhere, you have welcomed us into your lives, and so it has truly been our joy and our privilege to be a part, to this point, in your journey of faith, life, and ministry. Now Eric has served on the conference staff with, I think, a world record number of job titles during those 17 years. Eric began as the contact editor. He then graduated to being the webmaster. Then he became the electronic media specialist. Then, not satisfied with that job description, he became the minister of technology services that then morphed into the minister of communications and technology. And he leaves our staff with a job title that does not fit on a business card unless it is four point font. He is the associate conference minister for proclamation, identity, and communications. So last night in a dream, I had a vision of the day Eric interviewed for this job, his first job, with the Connecticut conference. During the interview, Eric was asked why he had applied for the part-time position of contact editor. In response, Eric reached for his smartphone and scrolled down to the place where it read, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the church. He has sent me to proclaim release to the uninformed, and recovery of data to the technologically challenged, to let the tweets go free, to post, share, and broadcast the year of the Lord's favor. In his 17 years of ministry with the Connecticut conference, Eric has not only kept us all informed, he has schooled us in the whole range of high-tech tools that can help us to spread the news and stay connected, one to another. Before Eric the techie comes Eric the storyteller. With imagination and humor, bad puns, because before Eric the storyteller or Eric the evangelist comes Eric the pastor, with a heart for the gospel and a gift for prayer. Now planners of this service asked us to share our reflections in approximately four minutes. Eric would have asked for a tweet. So here it is, how Eric and his ministry have impacted me in 140 characters thanks to the Ampersand. Eric shares the good news of God's awesome love and grace every way he can. He's told stories, touched hearts, and blessed lives, including mine. He is leaving the building and I am the last one and he says it's all I say I'll see you in the morning. And then on the other days he's the last one in the building and I say okay I'm gone. He is more than a storyteller, he is more, he is my friend and I will miss him. I came to the Connecticut conference ten years ago. I kept seeing this guy running around at every meeting I would invent, constantly taking pictures. At first I admit I found it a bit annoying. Hey, I wanted to say to him, why don't you just stop and experience what is happening around you instead of trying to capture each minute on your camera was before I saw the pictures. And I got to know Eric beyond the camera and the mustache. I had to understand that through his camera Eric was experiencing what was happening. In fact through that camera Eric saw in a way that I did not. Eric saw the holy in each person and tried to take their picture in such a way that they and others could see it too. So as I got to know Eric and I saw beyond the hat and the mustache and the camera I began to see the same thing in him. The spirit of God moving through a life seeking to express that spirit in any way he could. The art of photographs and music and words and tweets and videos. A reading from Psalm 139 verses 9 and 10. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast. So this is Eric's. This one's mine. But you've done theater. You're gonna play me. I want you to get into this. I want you to feel the emotions. As you, that's me with you. Goes off of life. Me, you. Your child and our colleague we thank you that we have walked and we give thanks for the ways in which our lives have intersected. Memories have been created and relationships have been built. In the water our whole life through. We are making a passage that is straight and true. Every heart we are crossing the water our whole life through. The passage that is straight and true. Every heart of love to keep that is straight and true.