In many ways we have “dumbed down” the importance and power of Christian Baptism. We have, all too often, turned it into a cultural rite of passage. Something to get done. A box to be checked. In so doing we may have diluted the radicality of what baptism is and does. If the baptism of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a lens through which we are to understand our own baptisms and therefore our mission, we need to look again at his baptism to see with fresh clarity the claim of God upon our lives individually and corporately.
The homily this Sunday on which we pay attention to the Baptism of the Lord will look at two readings from the Revised Lectionary – Acts 10:34-43 and Matthew 3:13-17. These texts firmly fix our eyes on Jesus and see what baptism did for and in him. The baptism of Jesus confirmed belovedness and launched a radical mission to transform people and create community. The question that all of us must answer with our lives is the SO WHAT of our baptism.
Hyde Park Community United Methodist welcomes Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer of the West Ohio Annual Conference to our pulpit on January 8.
Bishop Palmer received his undergraduate degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the Master of Divinity degree from Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. Numerous colleges and universities have awarded him honorary degrees.
Bishop Palmer was ordained a deacon and elected a probationary member in the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference in 1977. In 1981, he was elected into full membership and ordained an elder in the East Ohio Annual Conference.
His pastoral career includes student pastorates in North Carolina and post-seminary appointments in the East Ohio Conference in Cleveland, Canton and Berea. Palmer also served as superintendent of the Youngstown District of the East Ohio Conference.
Elected to the episcopacy by the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in 2000, Palmer served the Iowa Area, the Illinois Area in 2008 before moving to West Ohio on September 1, 2012. Palmer served as president of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry from 2004 to 2008 and president of the Council of Bishops from April 2008 to May 2010.
Married for 46 years to his wife Cynthia, they are the parents of two adult children.