"Bless the Lord, oh my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name," rang the words from the podium at the front of the sprawling auditorium of the First Episcopal District Headquarters at 3801 Market Street in Philadelphia.

Bishop Philip Robert Cousin, opening his final Philadelphia Annual Conference, and closing out his final Annual Conference series as Presiding Prelate as the First Episcopal District, said this was the Scripture verse that was on his heart and mind as he began the Annual Conference that encompasses and embodies everything that is at the heart of African Methodism.

You could sense that Bishop Cousin was suspended in a wave of mixed emotions as he read through this ode, that urges us to thank the Lord for all He has done for us.

Bishop Cousin expanded on the Psalm, making clear its applications and implications in regards to the Annual Conference he was just about to open.

"Woe would be all of us," he said, "If God held us in the midst of our falling and kept us all in our fallen state. Be thankful that God Loves you despite how you are."

With a Biblical foundation established, Bishop Cousin called the 184 Session of the Philadelphia Annual Conference together.

The Philadelphia Annual Conference was organized with the following officers:

Presiding Officer, Bishop Philip R. Cousin; WMS Supervisor Dr. M. Joan Cousin; Secretary, Rev. Ellis Louden; Assistant Secretary, Rev. Stanley Hearst; Treasure, Presiding Elder Carl D. Ogden, Sr.; Statistician, Rev. Janet J. Jenkins; Chief Marshall, Rev. Marie Patterson; Marshals, Rev. Percy L. Ransome, Rev. Darnell L. Montgomery, Rev. Rondo L. Na'el and Sister Frances Archer; Reporters, Rev. Wilfred Lewis and Rev. John Fisher.

Bishop Cousin stressed the importance this year of the Ministerial Efficiency Committee and the Judiciary Committee.

"We have to be very careful how we keep our own law," Bishop Cousin explained. He said we are living in a world where people take one another to court. And that the church has to make sure its legal foundation is in order. The Committee is urged to protect both preacher and church."

Bishop also took this time to discuss briefly the relationship between a pastor and the officers in his congregation. How there had to be a working partnership for the church to grow.

There seemed to be a consistency, and dovetailing of themes as the morning worship service featured a dynamic sermon by Rev. Vernal E. Simms, pastor of Morris Brown A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia.

The heart of Rev. Simms' sermon was the church being Myopic or near sighted. That it had to look beyond what it could see close up, to address and work with the problems that were obvious just down the road.

Rev. Simms said he hoped some to this would be issues addressed at General Conference. That time would be taken to examine the drug problems in the community, the acts of violence and death on the streets. He said the local church and its members also are myopic. That they sit half full but do not want anyone joining and "taking my spot." Also how some traditional settings in the church do not want people praise dancing or shouting in church and how the youth of today are leaving to find a place where they feel comfortable. "They are not leaving 'the' church," Rev. Simms opined. "They are leaving our church. You do not want to go to a church that is as cold as a refrigerator."

Rev. Simms said to cure the church's myopic state, it had to, and we as it members had to, wear the glasses prescribed in Revelations 7:13-14, "And one of the elders answered, who are they that are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

That God has not made any set numbers for us or set circumstances but has allowed his church to be open and free to all who have washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev. Simms worked the sermon up slowly to a fever pitch. The tone now was set for the remainder of the first day of conference.

The afternoon session had two of the four Presiding Elder districts that compose the Philadelphia Annual Conference reporting. Both the South District lead by Presiding Elder Herman Rhodes and the Philadelphia District, lead by Presiding Elder Carl Ogden completed their reports.

Episcopal Candidate Thomas Brown brought the first day of the Philadelphia Annual Conference to strong spiritual conclusion with his stirring sermon that was the centerpiece of the evening's Communion and Dedication service.

Brown, who pastors in New Orleans, and is a member of the 8th Episcopal District, built on the concept of the church not being near sighted and reaching out to all of the people in its surroundings during his spirit-filled service that worked around the theme, "He loves me anyhow...oh what a Friend."

Although the start of the Philadelphia Annual Conference was held at 3801 Market Street, today's session is scheduled for the host church, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, the flagship of African Methodism.

For a schedule of the Philadelphia Annual Conference [Click Here]