Greetings from the Staunton District Office, where I began my role as the District Superintendent of this additional district on July 1. I was recently asked by a District Lay Leader from another part of the Conference how laity and lay leadership could help make this new arrangement work. My thoughts are below.

 This new arrangement will rise and fall on patience, grace, and cooperation between clergy, laity, lay leadership and district superintendents. I have been in the Staunton office since Sunday and I am already noticing how my meeting scheduling has changed. What used to be "Can you meet at the end of the week?" or "Can you meet early next week?" has become "Can you meet two weeks from tomorrow?" This is simply because of my physical location at any given time. Of course, Zoom meetings help meetings happen sooner, but for those who wish for meetings in person, the process will naturally take longer than before.