On the Way to Calgary
Devotions and prayers for the 2026 Leadership Gathering
Bishop Lanette L. Plambeck
Secretary, Council of Bishops; Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area, U.S.
Sunday, September 6, 2026 · First of seven devotions
Seven bishops from across the connection are offering a devotion and a prayer on each of the seven Sundays leading to the Council of Bishops Leadership Gathering in Calgary, Alberta, October 20 to 24, 2026. You are invited to read, to pray, and to share these with your congregation.
Scripture
“For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Ephesians 2:10, NIV
Reflection
As we near our time in Calgary, I find myself thinking about an artist's canvas.
Not the finished painting, but a canvas still being painted.
Colors emerging. Shapes taking form. Some portions clear and recognizable. Others unfinished, unexpected, still becoming. Familiar shades meet colors we have not yet learned to name. Different hands, different stories, different ways of seeing are becoming part of the work.
I wonder if that is an image for the Church in this season of new beginnings.
And perhaps that is why I keep returning to the beginning.
Before there was a canvas we could recognize, before creation had shape or form, Genesis tells us that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. The Hebrew word ruach can mean spirit, wind, or breath. God's own breath moving over the deep.
And then, creation.
Light and darkness. Sea and sky. Earth bursting with living things. Humanity bearing the image of God. Six days of holy, creative labor, followed by the sacred gift of rest.
Before creation took shape, the Spirit was present, hovering over what was still becoming.
Can we imagine that same Spirit hovering over us, breathing within us, moving among us as we gather in Calgary and across the connection?
Paul reminds the Ephesians that we are what God has made us. The Greek word is poiēma. We are God's workmanship, God's handiwork, God's creative work. There is artistry in the word.
And as God's poiēma, there is something important for us to remember:
We are not simply standing before God's canvas with brushes in our hands, invited to participate in God's creative work. We are also part of the canvas.
God is creating something in us even as God works through us.
We are being shaped even as we are sent. We are being transformed even as we seek the transformation of the world.
So we do not arrive as master painters carrying finished sketches and asking God to bless them. We arrive as apprentices, still being formed by grace, watching the Master Artist, learning the Artist's ways, attentive to the breath and movement of the Spirit.
Perhaps our apprenticeship asks us to practice some of the habits of artists.
- Artists see. They practice holy attentiveness, noticing what others may overlook.
- Artists imagine. They see possibility where others may see only an empty canvas.
- Artists experiment. They mix colors, try techniques, learn, adapt, risk, sometimes fail faithfully, and try again. They learn when something they love must be changed or released so something new can emerge.
- Artists collaborate. They create alongside other artists, certainly, but they also attend to and work with their tools and materials: brush and pigment, water and canvas, light and texture. They respond to what emerges, sometimes discovering something that could not have been fully anticipated.
And perhaps this is one of the gifts of being a worldwide Church: we need one another to see, imagine, experiment, and collaborate more fully.
From where each of us stands, we glimpse only part of the canvas. Our cultures, languages, histories, and contexts shape what we notice and how we understand what is taking form. We bring different wisdom. We ask different questions. We recognize different movements of the Spirit.
When we come together, the canvas becomes larger, richer, and more textured than any of us could perceive alone.
Perhaps this, too, is part of the Spirit's artistry: teaching us to see through one another's eyes.
What another sees may reveal something I have missed. What another brings to the canvas may be essential to what is taking shape. A brushstroke I do not understand may reveal something of God my own experience could never have shown me.
And I trust that whatever God is creating among us will bear the likeness of Christ.
Our discernment, then, is not simply about what is new or possible. We look for what bears the character of Jesus: love that crosses boundaries, grace that restores, justice that liberates, mercy that heals, humility that serves.
And the canvas is larger than the Church.
The Spirit who hovered over the waters is still breathing, still moving, still bringing forth life beyond the boundaries of our gathering. Our calling is not simply to determine what God might do through The United Methodist Church, but to notice where God is already at work throughout the world and join in.
So perhaps the question we carry to Calgary is not simply, What will we paint?
Perhaps it is:
What is the Master Artist already creating? Where is the Spirit breathing life? And how are we being invited to participate?
May we come with creativity, humility, and expectancy.
May we bring the gifts entrusted to us and receive the gifts entrusted to others.
May we have the courage to add what is ours to add, the humility to leave room for what God will create through someone else, and the holy attentiveness to feel the movement of the Spirit among us.
The canvas belongs to God.
The vision belongs to God.
We are God's poiēma, still being created in Christ Jesus for the good works God has prepared for us.
And by grace, the Master Artist is still creating, still breathing life, still inviting us into the work.
Prayer
Creating God,
Master Artist of all that is and all that is becoming,
you hovered over the waters of creation,
breathing life into what was still becoming.
Hover over us now.
Holy Spirit, breathe within and among us,
across the miles and the many places from which we gather.
Draw near to those gathering in Calgary
and to your people throughout our worldwide Church
who will pray, listen, and participate from afar.
Give us eyes to see what you are creating,
imagination for what might yet be,
courage for the next faithful stroke,
and humility to receive the gifts and wisdom of one another.
Where we arrive with finished sketches, loosen our grip.
Where another's brushstroke is unfamiliar, make us curious.
Where you are creating something new, make us attentive.
Remind us that we are your poiēma,
your handiwork, still being created.
Take what we bring.
Shape what is unfinished.
Create among us what none of us could create alone.
Hover over us, Holy Spirit.
Breathe within us.
Move among and beyond us.
Form Christ in us.
And lead us together into the good work
you have already prepared for us.
Amen.
Read the whole series: On the Way to Calgary.
Next: Bishop Knut Refsdal, Sunday, September 13, 2026.