GC Prognostications Revisited

A couple of days before leaving for GC, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post predicting the outcome on several GC issues. So I thought I'd look back at my Prognostications and see how I did.

Global church and Regionalism
Right on this one, it passed, and what it holds for us we'll have to see. Score 1.


Judicial Council Elections
As predicted Boyette and Daffin did not get re-elected, but was wrong in thinking the Renew coalition would muster the votes for more conservative seats. Score 1/2 point.

Ministry Study
A) Full Deacons did get sacramental priviledge, when needed for a specific ministry location and approved by the Bishop. Score 1.
B) Local Pastors' sacramental priviledges were not limited. Score 0.
C) No changes in ordination (at least not at this GC). Score 1.
D) Residency changed from 3 years to 2 years. Score 1.
E) Voting rights for LP's after Course of Study and two years - exactly. Score 1
F) Guaranteed appointments changed by giving the bishop more options, including suspension and involuntary leave of absence, for those not demonstrating continuing effectiveness. Score 1/2
G) and yes, there is another Study commission on ministry. Score 1.

Mission Statement
We added the phrase for the transformation of the world as predicted. At least we left the Jesus Christ in, as in making disciples of Jesus Christ (!) Score 1/2


Budget.
I'll give myself a 1/4 point. The projected $642 million budget remained at that level, even though we added several million in non-budgeted expense. GC Finance and Administration made the agencies absorb the increases.


Resolutions.
We did pass more resolutions, but none about Grandma's Chicken Soup. 1/4 point.


General.
The worship WAS great. By the third day someone stole the cushion out of my chair and replaced it with a piece of concrete that looked exactly like the cushion, so the seats WERE uncomfortable. The food was tolerable, the friends were great, and yes, we blogged this GC!


Wrap-up.
Nine points out of a possible twelve! 75% - if only I'd done that well with my March madness basketball bracket!

Great Daughter and Friends

What a surprise to see the post just prior to this one. I had forgotten I'd added Lauren as an author on this blog. And she knows I wouldn't say anything about my back. When it's worn out from so much sitting I'm in danger of aggravating a damaged back muscle. When I got the dogs home I reached over awkwardly to pick up the puppy and the muscles locked up on me. When that happens I take my "knock out" meds and go to bed for a day or two. This evening the pain has subsided and I am nearly at the point of standing up straight again. So thank you Lauren and great friends who lifted me in prayer.



The ending of GC was no surprise, running up to the last possible minute with a determination to deal with every petition. That's what we did, but exactly what we did I don't know yet. A lot of petitions get approved on the consent calendar, so it will all come to light as we look back on it. I know I've been surprised to read some of the reports on the GC site reporting what was passed. But I'm not all against the consent calendar process. If 90% of a legislative committee (usually 70-100 people) agree on a petition, then it is extremely probable the whole plenary will go that way with it.



I do know that like everyone else I was frustrated with our legislative process. We talked a lot about "Holy Conferencing," but in the time precious process there is little time for talking together or more importantly, for listening to one another. When the rules end up being one speech for and one against, limited to one minute each, you're just pitting sound bite against sound bite. If we just depend on the sound bites, we're not much more than a presidential election (!)



Now for some positive. You can't help but be impressed with the greatness of God's grace working through our church as you participate in a general conference. With the amazing variety of backgrounds and perspectives we have, it's no wonder that when we pull it all together we are a church of the middle ground (the "via media," or the "extreme center").



I also come back grateful for several new friends. "Surviving" a general conference is a bonding experience. On the way home my girls said, "There's no way you can explain what we just experienced to people who've never been to one." (I've heard that said about the Walk to Emmaus week-end, but didn't think to apply it to GC.) Still, while I didn't always agreed with the new friends, I was grateful for their faith, their commitment to serve the church, and the opportunity to work with them. And finally, all that said, it is good to be back home.

It's A Long and Winding Road

It is after 10 PM central time and we have 25 petitions left to address. The agenda called for an end of Gen Conf at 3:00 PM today. That was a joke. During the supper break (of 2 and a half hours - why so long I don't know!) I found an easy chair on the upper level and took a nap. That turned out to be a good choice. I feel OK as we plod along, and plod is the correct word here.

A high point for me was the action we took on allowing Deacons the ability to provide the sacraments in certain circumstances. I thought it was dying, but then a colleague moved to refer it, giving us another chance to speak in favor of the petition. I support it because, as I said, in our Methodist movement form has always followed the function of ministry. Wesley ordained Coke, Vasey and Whitcoat because the people in America needed the sacraments. We allow Local Pastors to provide the sacraments because the people need them. We do ministry with people and keep adjusting our forms to accommodate our ministry. Some Deacons are in places of ministry where the ability of offering the sacraments truly meets the needs of the people. The Deacon has to receive the approval of the Bishop for the particular ministry setting, and I know this makes us keep working on our understanding of the Orders of ministry, but I think it is in keeping with who we are.

Wow. Kathleen Baskin -Bell, the chair of our Ministry and Higher Ed Legislative Committee just took the podium and said since it was her last petition to present she wanted to say hello to her son back home who is watching by webcast. Then she took our hearts by sharing personally:. Some of what she just said was: "This church of ours is absolutely the greatest blessing in my life and my family's life. In my battle with cancer these last 14 months we have known no greater joy than the fellowship of the church." I couldn't catch all she said, but what a witness. Battling cancer, and knowing time could be precious, she took all this time away from home to lead us here because she believes the church is the best hope for her son, and for the world.

It's a long road, to finish conference, and then the drive home tonight. Well, we won't make all the 1400 miles, but hopefully we'll get to Shrieveport.

The Cross of Brokenness

Center stage today is the cross from the Mississippi Conference, made of broken items collected from the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina. Bishop Ward gave us an excellent sermon reminding us that God is always present and is over all, wherever our journey takes us. Bishop Wade is the episopal leader of the Mississippi area.

Bishop Thomas Bickerton is presiding this morning. He reminded us that we will be in session for 3 and 1/2 hours this morning and during that time 430 children will have died from malaria. It is a sobering reminder. On the positive side of this reminder, the delegations continue to raise money here for our Nothing But Nets campaign against malaria. As of last night at closing, the secretary reported we had collected (or pledged) over $350,000. Our SC delegation has collected over $2000, which qualifies us to receive one of the basketballs signed by all the bishops, which I imagine we will present at Annual Conference and may try to use to raise even more money.

Also, we have 68 petitions left to act upon and some are pretty big, including the budget for the next quadrennium. There are calls for us to use restraint in our comments, motions and questions. One good quote: "Kicking a dead horse harder don't make it run any faster." But the way it works is that everyone who speaks does so because they think the issue/comment is important. Yet we have also basically affirmed the decisions of the legislative committees on 98.6% of all the petitions, even those we dealth with individually. Even with that, we probably won't finish until late today.

102 And Counting

On Thursday of General Conference we were greeted by Mrs. Louise Short, the widow of Bishop Roy Short. Mrs. Short is 102 and was full of pep, ready to talk to us. She has attended every General Conference since I believe it was 1938! The Daily Christian Advocate has an article on her today and reports her answer to their question, "What's been the single most importnt development of her lifetime?" She said, "The empowerment of the laity, that has made them the heart of the church."

When she spoke to us she said she was disappointed we haven't done much on temperance lately. "I am saddened by so many deaths of young people driving when drunk." She said she is a member of MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "We quit talking about liquor in the church."

What a witness, and what an inspiration. "Keep the faith!" she said. And so we shall.

Just Representation for Local Pastors

After some difficult legislative wranglings, the Conference passed a Constitutional amendment that would give local pastors and probationary (now called provisional) members of the Annual Conference the right to vote for delegates to jurisdictional and general conferences. The constitutional amendment will now have to be ratified by the annual conferences, but this is a historic and just step for the church.

I spent a lot of time working on this legislation in the Ministry and Higher Ed Legislative Committee and tried to help shepherd it on the floor. That was difficult because the presiding bishop would recognize me only for a point of order. But as the mood of the delegates became more apparent, I knew that finally, after three general conferences, it was on its way.

Paragraph 35 of the Constitution would now read:
The clergy delegates to the General Conference and to the jurisdictional or central conference shall be elected from the clergy members in full connection and shall be elected by the clergy members of the annual conference who are deacons and elders in full connection, associate members, and those provisional members who have completed their educational requirements and local pastors who have completed the Basic Course of Study or the Masters of Divinity degree, and have served a minimum of two consecutive years under appointment immediately preceding the election.

Notice that there are "qualifying" indicators, so that only certain local pastors will attain the right to vote. I do hope the Conferences will see this as a fair way for just representation for colleagues in ministry who do wonderful ministry and need inclusion.

Together Against Malaria

Just haven’t had the energy, physical or emotional, to write a post until now, and now is Thursday after lunch. Mr. Bill Gates, Sr. is speaking to us, since we have entered a historic partnership with the Gates Foundation to eradicate malaria. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as has been announced, has pledged $5 million to join us in our Nothing But Nets cause.

“We have wiped malaria off the face of one continent (North America) and allowed it to continue on another (Africa)…. Brothers and sisters don’t just sit back and watch children die. We must tell the world “malaria is no longer acceptable.”…”You are 12 million people armed with the conviction that all the world is your parish, which makes you the most powerful weapon against disease.”

“People are dying and that ought to be enough. They are human beings, and we ought to help them.”

“Let me end with telling you a story about the kind of leadership your church has for this cause. Candy Marshall, who works at the Gates Foundation in Seattle, grew up on a farm in Nebraska and attended the local UMC. She said that her church, when she was growing up, had a birthday bank where children deposited a penny for every year of their life. She got a letter from her mom. They still keep the bank and this year the gross receipts were $62.

Williamsburg UMC sent $62 to the work against malaria. Candy’s mom sent a little extra. Her minister heard what Candy does and invited her to come speak. The power of your church is that it teaches children in Nebraska and the children in Zambia that they are part of the same parish. That is your gift, and it will end malaria.”

This was a great message about Our Future With Hope, a timely message as we needed to refocus on the world beyond our internal struggles.

Endless Debate on Human Sexuality

ALL afternoon we have dealt with the social principle statement on Human Sexuality in paragraph 161.g of the Discipline. Essentially the report out of committee removes the statement "we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching" that was put in the Discipline in 1972 and has essentially remained unchanged (though debated regularly) through all GC's since. The report out of committee states that we are not of one mind on this subject. A minority report reinstated the phrase.

I just now got the post for this morning up on the blog, but now we are going to finally vote, after endless motions, etc., to "perfect" both the majority and the minority reports. The minority report prevailed 394 to 293. Oops that vote was ruled invalid by a point of order. So now we are at it again. This time the minority report prevailed again 517-416. Now we have to vote on whether we approve the minority report, which now is the report, but essential the traditional phrase is retained because if it fails the present Discipline remains.

It is 5:14 Central time and the vote is being taken. By a vote of 501- to 417 we have a new statement. We are tired and people are on edge. May we find a way forward for there is yet much work for us to do and we will need some way of working together.

Wednesday Morning at GC

The conference has dealt with about 75% of the petitions. Most of that was done with consent Calendars. But nearly all those calendars (list of petitions with very little opposition) are completed. Now we take the remaining ones singularly. We have about 120 petitions to complete, and with the legislative time left, that gives us a max of 10 minutes per petition. Yea, like we will hold to that! The last days are going to be hectic.

Important items can be passed on consent calendar. One of the items done that way today was a change to our membership vows. Now we are to ask if people will serve Christ with their prayers, presence, gifts, service AND WITNESS (capitalized words were added). This petition was brought by the association of conference lay leaders.

Opening worship today was great, and not just because my girls were singing in the choir. The music was of great variety (including probably the first rap song every sung at GC) and the sermon by Bishop Violet Fisher was powerful. She spoke on the woman at the well (John 4) encouraging us to be aware of positions of privilege and to recognize how God opens grace to all. We have heard some excellent preaching at this conference.

Then we heard the report on Africa University. While there are calls for us to recognize and give support other United Methodist school in Africa, there obviously is still a lot of pride in AU, and there is a lot to be proud of with the school. It was good to hear the school is able to “survive” in the harsh economic and political climate of Zimbabwe. And it was good to be reminded how graduates from AU are serving throughout Africa.

Then we began the difficult work on petitions relating to homosexuality, etc. First, one from Ministry Legislative Com called for retaining our present Discipline language that prohibits ministers from performing civil unions. It passed. Then we passed a new resolution on homophobia. More is in store for the afternoon.

We had a moment of celebration before adjourning for lunch. It is the 100th anniversary of the United Methodist Men. Several statistics were given showing the important of men having a significance impact on the faith development of their families. They repeated that men can Make a Difference. I immediately thought of Trinity’s early Tuesday morning bible study where we call ourselves M.A.D.Men meaning “Men who Make A Difference.”

Tues Pictures and Process at GC

Tuesday was another long day of work at General Conference. The legislative process is tedious, pushing you to the edge of frustration with your brothers and sisters as there is always someone wanting to be recognized to ask a question or add an amendment.

Actually, that’s not so bad. What’s frustrating is when with a vote the conference expresses its “mind” on a matter, and then someone tries to do a “run-around” by changing a petition relating to the same subject. There have been times when we have “tinkered” with the legislation so much on the floor with amendments that you wonder if the petition will make any sense when it’s put in context in the Discipline.

Still, significant work gets done. We did approve yesterday the new mission statement, that I opposed. Now our mission is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” My earlier post states why I thought it would be ambiguous and unhelpful. But, it won’t hurt us and there are bigger fish to fry.

The worship times, dinners, celebration moments, etc., that punctuate the proceedings keep us going. I don’t think we could do this without those frequent “change of pace” events. The picture is of the Higher Education Dinner. It is always an excellent event, good food and this time a choir made of students from a variety of our colleges and theological schools. Kelsey and I were fortunate to sit at the table with representatives of Africa University. The acting chancellor, Dr Fanual Tagwira, remembered me from a mission trip there in 2000! The picture is of Kelsey with Bishop Nhiwatiwa, episcopal leader of the Zimbabwa Annual Conferences.

Walking into the convention center yesterday morning there was a display, a reminder of the cost of war. Shoes, most of them army boots were set across the lawn. It was a powerful reminder that as we meet and debate, there are serious issues and conflicts across our world that need the church’s message and witness. We cannot afford to “do church” just to do church, but to bring the hope of Christ to our broken world.

The Hope for Africa Children’s Choir that blessed us the day before was back at the lunch break for those who were in the convention dining area. Such energy. Then when the president of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf, addressed us in the afternoon, they sang for her. Sirleaf's address was historic, the first leader of a country from the continent of Africa to address GC. She said, as a good politician would, “I am a United Methodist. I see my Bishop and my pastor here. And I am the product of U M education in Liberia. I feel very much at home here.”

Big legislation in the evening as we debated and debated and finally passed the report of the Episcopacy Study Committee. The effect of the petition is to reduce the number of bishops by one in every jurisdiction, saving the church $14 million beginning in 2013. Carolyn Briscoe of our delegation was on that committee and did a great job representing the petition. Janet Forbes, chair of the legislative committee that brought the petition to the floor of the Conference, represented the effort to defeat the petition. After it passed they went to each other and hugged. It was a small act, unnoticed by nearly everyone, but I thought, “wow, that’s the way Christians struggle with differences.” I was proud of Kesley, gaining the microphone to ask a question about the legislation.

When we got back to the hotel, we had to take the service elevator to our floor. Then Secret Service agents kept us from going to our room. President Sirleaf was staying in the suite our floor. Lauren said the hotel desk had called the day before wanting the names of everyone in our room, not just my name. Guess we were all checked out by the government yesterday. You never know.

It is Wednesday morning. The worship that is beginning is fantastic and then we will hear the Africa University presentation. But there is tension in the air as we’ve heard that this is the day Soulforce tends to interrupt GC with a demonstration. I hope I can capture more os this morning in a later post.

Words, Order, and Sacrament

Wish I was more polished in my speaking. An amendment was on the floor today that would change a major re-working of the section of the Discipline that determines the membership on general boards and agencies. The legislation was a needed clarification of several different changes made in the last couple of general conferences.

A big change was to proportional representation for the jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction is to have basic representation, but then there are additional members (at large members). The guidelines of the petition before us said that those members of the agency would be apportioned to the jurisdictions based on the membership size of the jurisdictions. (In effect, the Southeastern Jurisdiction, the largest American jurisdiction, would have more members on the boards and agencies.) The amendment before us was to remove the proportional representation from the legislation.

One speaker said that proportional representation was not fair representation. I think it is. We had in the legislation the concept that every area has basic representation (like our US Senate) so that then the at-large members could be apportioned the way we do representation in the US House of Representatives. I spoke against the amendment.

Whether my speech helped or hurt, I do not know, but the amendment failed and the legislation was approved. I was pleased with the outcome, but as I sat in my chair afterwards, I realized there were many people who felt (even if the facts said otherwise) they would be “left out.” I wondered how I could have been more gracious to acknowledge this in speaking for my position.
Well, I know you just have to do the best you can do in these situations and then let it go. But I also know we have many sensitive issues still ahead of us and some of them carry strong emotional attachments. I know also we have to speak what we feel is right. So my prayer for myself, and for all of us: God, give us to speak words that are strong in understanding, mighty in truth, and soothing in grace, Amen.

On a more positive note, I stayed at the lunch break for the communion service, held in the center of the convention hall. It was renewing to break bread in that small group of fellow disciples from all over the world.

Come to the Lord's Table, all you who love him.

Come to the Lord's Table, confess your sin.

Come to the Lord's Table, be at peace.

Speed walking at GC

This is not a post about the health initiatives of GC. Its about how we work. It's like those times on the treadmill when you set the pace to where you are walking as fast as you can without jogging. General Conference deliberations are like that. Fast pace, but not not getting anyway.

That's the way it felt last last night as we worked throught the last of the petitions that have financial implications. Those we approved last night are now sent to the Gen Council on Finance and Administration, and then they will come back to us later in the week for approval or disapproval. The late session wore us out. I got to the hotel after midnight and just went right on to bed. Then it was up early for the Emory University breakfast (the Candler singers were Great!), and now back in session.

Couple of big petitions last night. We approved extending the age of retirement for bishops to age 68. That means we will likely approve extending the age of retirement for elders (to 72) when that comes before us. We also approved the UM Publishing House beginning a new hymnal. Adam Hamilton has a great post about this and says this will be the last printed hymnal we have, since in the future we will use something like iHymns for singing. He's probably right, but just think, such a move to music being controlled totally by the worship leaders, is another step of removing the worshippers from full participation. I learned to sing thumbing through a hymnal and it is sad to me to think of a day when that won't be possible.

The chair of the Supertendency Leg Committee just gave us a good laugh with the following poem:
Mary had a little lamb
It never became a sheep.
It followed her to General Conference
And died from lack of sleep.

Tears of Hope

For the second time in just a few hours we have been moved to tears through a presentation to the Conference and at the same time were filled with hope. The Hope for Africa Children's Choir, all the way from Gula, Uganda, came to sing to us.

These children, about 22 in number, filled the room with joy, energy, and praise. Less than a year ago they were living in squalor in refugee camps. Through a church program, through Humble UMC, over 200 children were taken to their own "camp" or homes. A school was started and the music became a joyous part of their lives.

The South Georgia Conference paid for them to come sing at GC, and then they will go on tour singing and raising money for the mission. Changed lives! If our local churches could experience what we've experienced today in two presentation and see what a difference the United Methodist Church is making, we'd have no trouble raising money for missions!

(Blogging note: Thanks for all the comments. I'm glad these posts are helpful, as are your responses. I took video of the choir singing and if I can figure out how to get it uploaded I'll post it as well. Important votes all week are before us, so keep the prayers going up.)

The Advance

I have just been moved to tears through part of the presentation celebrating the Advance, one of our church’s mission arms. A woman from Bolivia spoke to us. She told of the weaving project the UMC helped her develop. When we arrived at Conf, each delegate received a cloth bag which had a section woven. They provided the weaving for those bags.


The lady, Justo Sarazia Mamani, said, “All this I have done without an education. But because of our work, my three daughters have all graduated high school. They will finish their education and come back to be leaders in our community. Where I come from the people of the Methodist church are called good people, because they share what they have, and they help those in need. Thank you for helping us.”

Her words were so sincere and pure. You can’t help but be thankful for the work being done all over the world by brothers and sisters in ministry. Gloria a dios!

(Updated 4 hrs later with lady's name and pictures.)

Sunday at GC

Was it Sunday yesterday? We began the day with worship, just as we’ve done every day, but it was a long day of GC work just like all the other days. I know we had to shorten the length of GC for financial reasons, but I miss having Sunday for a day of visiting an area church and some time of renewal. My meeting day began at 7 AM and ended at 12 midnight.

What a day in the Ministry and Higher Ed Legislative committee. Some ground-breaking decisions were forwarded to the plenary session and now we’ll see what happens. The biggest perhaps was a petition to give qualifying Local Pastors the right to vote in General, Jurisdictional and Central Conference elections. The qualifying level would be completion of their educational requirements and completion of two years of service under appointment.

We voted to increase mandatory retirement from 70 to 72. We forwarded a change to the probationary membership (which we renamed to provisional membership) from 3 years to 2 years for provisional elders and provisional deacons.

We approved a measure that would make it easier for Bishops and the cabinet to exit ineffective pastors. In my opinion it didn’t not undermine “guaranteed appointments” as some were concerned about, but simply provided an avenue to address some problem pastors. We reaffirmed the prohibition on performing same sex unions with a 49-34 written ballot vote. A reporter showed up taking pictures as we voted on that one. Interestingly that’s the only issue he hung around for when we were dealing with some major changes for the church.

It looked to me that even without a lecture on inclusiveness our committee heard from many areas, international, lay and young adult. Probably the quietest were the lay women. I can remember seeing them at the mike only 3 or 4 times. However, the sense of working together as a team really developed in the committee today. Our chairperson did a great job fostering that. When we gathered at 8 PM (while everyone else was attending the “Night Under the Stars” areas entertainment event) she began the session by throwing out bags of candy and chocolates to us, then shooting us with a water gun/rifle reminding us to “remember our baptism.” It was great, alleviating the weariness and taking us into a long session with renewed vigor.

On a final note, someone took a picture of the two most astute, focused, globally minded, inclusive, and good looking delegates. We couldn’t get a hold of that picture, but here’s one of Kathy James and me during a break.

Too Much Inclusiveness? Oh my!

Being politically correct is a difficult thing, but we work hard at it as United Methodists. So let me warn you, this post is about my present frustration with our fanatical insistence on inclusivity, so it would not be PC sanctioned.

There are many people who for a variety of reasons observe the work of our Legislative Committees. Sometimes there is an overflow crowd. But once about 100 chairs are filled, that’s it. But our rules say that four seats are reserved for the PC monitors. Two monitors from the Commission on the Status and Role of Women and two from the Commission on Religion and Race record the proceedings in terms of what “type” of persons speaks and how much.

I have no problem with that, and neither do I mind a report from the Monitors, letting us know what they see. We want to be respectful of others and encourage full participation and such information helps us. But twice now, as we have begun our Legislative Com. sessions, the Monitor has then told us what we needed to do. We needed to have more laity talk. We should have more women (“except not clergy women because they’re doing fine”) talk. We need to have more of our international delegates talk, etc.

Why? Do we get pretty stars on our petitions if we achieve the undefined goals of full inclusiveness? Is the reason for the great expenditure of our time and money to report equal participation, or is it to primarily get the work done that we were sent here to do?

Let me explain a little. On our LC we are dealing with matters of ministry, ordination, conference relations of all categories of clergy, etc. To deal with some of the petitions, you have to have a good working knowledge of our rules regarding ministry (the 300 paragraphs of the Discipline), and how things work on the Board of Ministry.

We have several clergy members of our LC who have such experience, DS’s, former DS’s, BOM chairs and members, etc. There may be laity who have such knowledge as well, but the many times we have struggled over how a particular petition relates to the “whole picture,” it’s been a clergyperson who’s gone to the mike to explain. We have essentially been lectured not to do that. Why? Because it is apparently more important to be politically correct on our inclusiveness than to efficiently get our work done.

I was talking with one of our translators whose degree is in cultural relations. She said the international delegates have different cultural expectations for participation. We want them to speak and give their opinion. She said their attitude is, “If I am comfortable with my opinion, why should I give it to you?” Also, they cannot understand why we Americans are so ready to give our opinions without being asked.

She gave a few more reasons why, for cultural reasons, many of the international delegates do not wish to participate by speaking. And yet we’ve made it a high priority to not only provide everyone equal access, but to make everyone participate equally.

So, yes, I challenged the Chairperson on this. I did it quietly during a break. I informed her and our parliamentarian that our Rules of Organization do not allow non-LC members to speak to our group, unless they are speaking to the issues we are working on and the body has voted to allow them voice. According to our rules, the Monitors have no basis for speaking to us as a group. She was very agreeable and we’ll see what happens.

To many people this rant may seem minor. But this situation is repeated over and over throughout the Conference. I think we have to offer participation to all and to conduct ourselves in a way that shows respect of persons and their opinions. But when we mandate it, despite practical needs or cultural differences, and place parity as our highest value in the process, we have erred just as bad. May God save us from ourselves.

Are We Who You Think We Are?

Walking to the convention center this morning I stopped to enjoy some of the festival spirit on Main Street. There was a Run For the Cure taking place and a large festival raising money for the cure of breast cancer. To that group we probably don't even exist.

Arriving at the Convention center I noticed that the Soulforce witnesses had arrived overnight. Also, I had heard yesterday that over 200 scholarships had been given to bring in young people for the weekend who would stand in witness for Reconciling Ministries events. Now every time we enter or leave the Center we will walk the "gauntlet of niceness and phamplets."

Worship this morning emphasized the renewal of our baptism. Bishop Bill Hutchison's message was full of humor, but was direct in saying, "we have been baptized into form, but not into power." Based on the passage of Nicodemus (John 3) he reminded us of the danger of having the form of righteousness but not the power thereof, that with our baptism of structure, we need the baptism from above of God's spirit. He asked, "Have we moved from the "my, my, my" state of baptism to the "yes, indeed" state of baptism?"

Then confirmation class members from the North Central Texas Annual Conference walked among the delegates sprinkling us with water, as a reminder of our baptism. It was a very nice moment of connection. Is this who we are?

Then came a copy of the local paper with their article that simply wrote about "sensitive issues" to be addressed, focusing mostly on the issues dealing with homosexuals in the church. There was nothing there about the large crowds for our worship, or the worldwide ministries celebrated in the opening ceremonies, or the Nothing but Nets focus, etc, etc. Is this all we are to the media, a big conflict or fight that people will read about?

Finally, and I'm writing this as I listen to the report, we've been hearing the Report on Rural Ministries, and Town and Country Ministries. Volunteers came in with banners of 2500 butterflies, representing 2500 Places of Hope in rural settings. Some were riding P.E.T.s (Personal Energy Transportation) arm powered carts which are designed for people who have lost mobility. Visit their website to see how you could donate one.

Following that there has been story after story of the impact of small membership churches on individual lives, producing leaders for the church. We heard (and saw) many stories of outreach ministries and renewed churches. One story was about the St. Thomas Charge in the Charleston District of South Carolina. Their choir was here to lead us in singing. Great moment! Are We who others think we are?

This part of the Body of Christ called Methodists is a multi-facted, multi-personality, multi-conflicted, multi-blessed, and multi-gifted body. And out of all this there is yet one body and one spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, and one God and Father who is over all and in all, thanks be to God!

Friday recap at GC

Oh, the fun of GC work. It is midnight on Friday as I write this, although I won’t post it until tomorrow when I can find some free wireless access. We finished up work in the sub-sub committee about 11. I caught the bus to the hotel, found some snacks to eat for supper and am settling down for a few minutes before bed. Friday night in a pretty cool city with a lot happening and all I can think about is getting some sleep.

Good worship and sermon this AM. The sermon was given in Portuguese by Bishop Joao Machado. He spoke about Paul writing the church in Galatia (Gal 5:7), “You were running the race so well, what happened?” And he said Paul could ask the same thing of the UMC. “We cannot say we are going to transform the world if we are not transformed ourselves.” “The world does not listen to us because it sees us speaking only with words, and not with actions.”

Another high point in our plenary time was the emphasis on Nothing But Nets, for Malaria day. We were challenged to give freely by placing at least $10, the price of one net, on the communion table at the center of the convention hall. I look forward to hearing tomorrow how much was received, since it seems all the delegates filed by and put an offering on the table.

We got into our Legislative Committees and organized into sub-committees. Then the sub-committees organized into sub, sub committees. The work all this afternoon and night has been in the smaller committee. I am in the sub-committee on the Local Pastor petitions and chair the sub sub committee to review about 25 petitions. Our sub committee has spent the day debating and considering the parameters of whether local pastors should have vote on certain matters, and why or why not. At this point it looks like the report that will go forward will recommend vote for constitutional matters and elections for those who have completed basic Course of Study, or its equivalent with two years of service to the Conference.

Another highlight of the day – lunch with several of the young adult delegates. If I didn’t have my girls here with me, it wouldn’t happen. But they made the connections and I was welcomed to join right in (might have something to do with me paying the check!). Anyway, the energy and interest in the church and the life of faith shared around the table was energizing. I know this is only the third GC where young people been present in any numbers, but I can’t imagine what it would be without them.

Could tell Kelsey was getting fatigued, so she missed her legislative meeting tonight in order to sleep and I will recommend she allow a reserve to sit in for her tomorrow morning. We still have a full week ahead of us, and I still have 15 petitions with me to get through sub-committees.

By the Morning's Light

Just read my post from late last night and I admit it's a bit cynical and I do seem to be harping about a lack of evangelical focus. True. I did bring issue that to the conference as seen in my post about the changing mission statement.

So, let me also say that it WAS good to see the Report of the Council on Bishops address our issues of division in a positive way, offering a focus beyond ourselves. I may have felt that it was overly positive in the claims that we can transform the world, but as they suggested, who knows what we might accomplish if we were to work together, faithful to God, who is always faithful to us.

And by offering the litany of measurable objectives for 2012 they tried to make it more than "pie in the sky" platitudes. If we only do 10-20% of what they challenge us with, we might begin to see some changes that are significant in our membership vitality and growth.

I'll have to be careful about posting late and tired. And that will be true for a lot of things these conference days. The pace is fast, there's really no place to rest during the day, and so all of the delegates have to call on emotional reserves to focus and to act with civility and a positive attitude. In truth, it will be the prayers of many people that will carry us through.

By the way, the pictures are of Bass Performance Hall, and Kelsey and Lauren in front of the Convention Center with our Bishop, Mary Virginia Taylor, and her husband, Rusty Taylor.

Speeches and Committees

All morning we heard addresses that told us the way forward, with the 3 Simple Rules, the 7 pathways (to somewhere), and the four mission emphases. We were basically told that if we could stop the internal focus and the bickering among ourselves then we had the resources to actually transform our world. It made me start thinking in terms of "Team Methodist" again. We just need to get on with the business of making a difference in our world.

No one ever really crossed the line to say we would actually make disciples of Jesus Christ, at least not until Lyn Powell gave the Laity address after lunch. But several got close. For instance, Bishop Felton May (of all people) did say, "A distracted denomination, unfocused, will not succeed in making disciples of Jesus Christ." Also, there was a stirring litany of goals for 2012, measurable goals for the four emphases. One spoke to a certain number of new churches , half in ethnic communities, but none spoke to the number of new disciples for Jesus Christ.

Most of the proposed goals dealt with making a measurable difference in our world, addressing poverty, injustice and disease. For example, we applauded the Global Board of Missions decision to send out 50 new missionaries -who were described as medical missionaries to address poverty diseases. That's great, and can and will make a real difference in our world. But I wonder if it will be OK for these missionaries to tell the people about Jesus and actually be evangelistic as well. No one wants to say that, it seems. But if we don't offer Christ, how are we as the Church any different than a relief agency, or the Peace Corps?

Some of the videos shared about particular and different UM ministries with the poor were wonderful and made you proud. After awhile it was just too much information. However, we were revived with the Young People's address, the first one ever. It was done by a team of youth who alternated speaking back and forth: Matt Lockett, Rebecca Farnum, Kira Volkova (Russian), Andrew Craig, Jason Rathrod, and Rev. Annie Rigo. Very well done and reminded us from a youth perspective that they want to be involved in changing our world for the better.

At lunch I grabbed a few shots of people and unusual buildings. If I was smart I'd post them on Flickr or something. But instead here's just a couple.

In the afternoon we began our legislative committees. We elected officers and broke for supper. Returning after supper we were to create sub-committees and elect chairpersons. The first order of business in the Higher Education and Ministry Legislative Committee was dealing with the recommendation from the 2004-2008 Ministry Study Committee to refer all petitions relating to ordination and changes in status be referred to a new study committee that would report to the 2012 HE&M Legislative Committee. After several speeches we defeated that petition, meaning our Leg Com will have a lot of petitions to deal with. But that's OK. We need to begin working on them now and not just postpone to a future legislative group.

We have a group of seminary students in the observer section who are the Spotted Owls. (see pic). They are there to remind us to do something to help increase the number of young clergy, or else they will become an endangered species in the UM Church, just like spotted owls.

I am on the sub com dealing with Local Pastors. That should keep us busy. All in all a good day, long (we didn't finish until 11 PM) but good. Still the hard work is ahead of us.