Even More Thoughts on General Conference 5/1

By now I am sure most of you know the outcome of the plenary sessions yesterday. The denomination's language on homosexuality and inclusiveness remains the same as it was 36 years ago. One can still see the denominational divide almost in two sections, the vote to change the language was 55% - 45%. As my friend and colleague Matt Kelley reports in his blog The Truth as Best I Know It (see the link on the side of this blog), the vibe in the discussion was very negative and hurtful. This is not what John Wesley had in mind when he began these holy conferences. My question is this; did we set ourselves up for this kind of failure of holy conferencing? In order to save money the denominational leaders decided to reduce the number of days that General Conference met this year by 2. That and an increasing number of petitions that must be sorted through and debated led to many late nights, lack of sleep, and a limited number of breaks and work during those breaks. This has led to some serious fatigue and irritability within the body as some other bloggers have reported. Everyone knows that these issues were going to come up as they will every year and so why do we give ourselves less time to deal with them. As I watched the live feed from GC I noticed many calls of the question before adequate debate and discussion, while other issues took too long in my opinion. When this kind of fatigue sets in people become less willing to hear other opinions and simply want to go home leaving things the way they are without change. This is what we got. In 2012 I hope the powers that be consider this problem in their scheduling. I think the money spent on two more days would be a good investment and I am willing to be that the delegates would agree.

Even More Thoughts on General Conference 4/30

Today has been a hotbed of intense debate and decision. The majority of this was on GBLT issues and the future of homosexuality and the church. I sum up the events of the day with the line, "it's the same ol' story, same ol' song and dance." The debate on GBLT issues has continued since 1972 when the line "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teachings". A Judicial Council decision 1032 where the idea that the pastor has the final say whether or not a person is ready to become a member. The pastor in the Virginia Conference deferred membership to a openly gay man. The petition 80088 states that the pastor and congregation must receive all people who wish to become members. The rationale is that grace is abundant for all and that if we disallowed sinners the churches would be empty. The minority report wanted to uphold the JC decision and give the pastor the final say. The rationale is that people might try to take advantage of open membership for selfish gain, i.e. wedding discounts, and KKK recruitment (That is not my example, a clergy person actually stood in front of the body and said that a KKK member might join a church to recruit members, I would laugh if it wasn't so sad and pathetic). They say that the pastor must regulate the membership of the church. Personally I don't really want that responsibility.


BTW, the petition just failed by 8 votes. The Discipline language will remain ambiguous. This is disappointing and is another example of the impotence of the 2008 General Conference. The make big statements on easy subjects and ignore the tough issues.

More thoughts on General Conference

So I am trying my best to keep up with the events of the 2008 General Conference. I realize now, just keeping up with the plenary business as it is streamed live on the Internet (kudos to the UMC for technological improvements) that these 10 days of discussions and committees are just a whirlwind of activity, emotions, and information. I really can't imagine at this point in my life being a delegate at GC and I have a tremendous respect for those who take on this heavy burden.

I can tell that the wear and tear of GC is getting to some of the delegates. There have been hints of sarcasm and cynicism in the body. This is not progressive nor Christian. I hope and pray that the delegates can continue to discuss and debate the issues of our church in a respectful manner despite fatigue and frustrations.

Today there has been a lot of discussion in the area of episcopacy. A petition (#81432) that called for a change in the number of bishops in the jurisdictional conferences basing the number of bishops on membership was passed by a narrow margin 457-401. The results of this petition would reduce the number of bishops in all jurisdictions, except for the Southeastern, by 1 and thereby saving money in the episcopal fund opening monies to bishops in the Central Conferences. I do not like this legislation for several reasons. One it puts even more emphasis on numbers, as if there was not enough focus on numbers. If you attend enough district and conference meetings you will hear a lot about increasing numbers. I believe that if we worried as much about helping people as we do about increasing numbers then the numbers would come. Secondly, our bishop in the TN Conference is also the bishop in the Memphis conference and therefore we hardly ever see him. Bishops have too much on their plates already and this will only add more burdens to the episcopacy. Also, although the Holy Spirit is doing great things in Africa and Asia and they are in need of bishops to lead new congregations, we cannot ignore the congregations in the US although the majority of them are losing members. We have to work together to makes disciples of Christ.