Bishop's Ecumenical Award announced

The Rev. Sarah Ewing Ernst, Pastoral Assistant at the Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church, received the 2011 Bishop's Ecumenical Award during the recent United Methodist Kentucky Annual Conference held in Covington, KY.

This Louisville leader writes that "Receiving the Bishop's Ecumenism Award was a high point of the Kentucky Annual Conference for me this year.  It has been both a joy and a privilege for members of Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church to be involved in ministry with our Tri-Covenant partners The Cathedral of the Assumption (Roman Catholic) and Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) over the past seven years.  In receiving the award I felt I was truly "the face of Fourth Avenue." Through the years our churches have partnered in Epiphany and Lenten services, Easter Vigils, and celebrations of the Blessing of Animals.  Pulpit exchanges have been an awesome experience for both pastors and congregations.  We have joined together in "repair affairs", yard sales for the community ministry, Vacation Bible Schools, and learned to appreciate each others' doctrinal and social justice perspectives through ... dialogues. For Fourth Avenue, our ministry together has been ecumenism at its heart as we've gotten to know, appreciate and love each other - and be church together as God's people in Christ Jesus!"          

The Kentucky Council of Churches celebrates this testimonial and lifts up the example of giving ecumenical awards as a way to call even more believers into this work.