The delegates have spoken and the UMC has just died: gays are irredeemably bad, evil and unacceptable. I can barely write about this. The delegates have been debating the inclusive One Church Plan, one three minute speech after another, since about 1:15 pm. Each side makes points that they feel are definitive. Nowever, as I see tight, tight votes on what are simple corrections and not substantive changes passing by one vote or not passing by a tie, I am... Read more
My sleepless, grieving night accompanies my fatigue and my frustration as I see yet another conservative takeover. They’ve done a great job taking pages from the Southern Baptist playbook. As most people who are following the events of yesterday afternoon know, the results of the voting for the order of the petitions to be discussed in the legislative committee ended up with these top five priorities. Wespath Recommendations-pension liabilities and CRS Traditional Plan, except 90042 and 90048) 90032-90040, p. 182-186, 190-194 Disaffiliation–Taylor–New... Read more
The real craziness of the organizational day is just about to start. I’m going to sign off here and start a fresh post. Forgive me for the typos and run-on sentences. All written quickly. Hope we all survive the afternoon. I started writing this at 10:30 am. To that point, opening at 7:30 am, we had spent an hour in worship. Then a break. Then singing. Then “setting the bar” of the Conference (I’ve yet to figure out what that means... Read more
Yes, should the Holy Spirit fall here, no one will walk away unchanged. We’ll all recognize ourselves as hopelessly in need of grace, utterly thankful when it falls upon us, and devoid of judgment over the other, knowing that we all stand in the same space. My bet for this Conference? The Holy Spirit will stay far away as the intent to split and to “get my way” resides solidly in the hearts of way too many delegates. We can’t... Read more
The words of Bishop Carter and his passionate call for unity ring in my mind. May they do so in the minds of these 864 people, whose hard work now awaits them. But I’m worried. Sunday morning: Worship started at 7:30 am. I was a bit late getting to the press box, but most others are late getting in at all as the lines to enter the dome are hundreds of people long–and it’s pretty cold out there. At least... Read more
The delegates have now been given the opportunity to move from prayer station to prayer station to continue in this exercise of world prayer. At first, few seemed to be taking advantage of the opportunity to get up and move and find spots of prayer around the room, but that changed shortly. We are praying our way around the world now. Great reminders of the suffering everywhere–some on a level most of us quite comfortable folks in the US have trouble... Read more
Brokenness and surrender. These are the themes of the morning. Very triggering for those who have suffered much at the hands of an autocratic church which has offered few open doors and limited welcome to many. Because of delays in getting press passes, the conference had already started by the time we of the press, still without proper passes, were ushered into what is a terrible observation point. We do have TV’s up here, but there is an echo so... Read more
That’s the thing about pearls: in their imperfections, they mirror the church. Furthermore, the more they are worn, the more beautiful they seem to become. They grow richer with age. They come in many different hues and shades. I have always loved pearls and have a nice collection of them, some from years past, some quite recently acquired. A meme has recently appeared on Facebook with a photo of a woman wearing her pearls and noting this: Wearing my pearl... Read more
It is that “don’t knowness” that is now bringing me to a breaking point. I, deeply educated as I am about the Holy Scriptures, about church history, about the nature of theology, am aware that when I declare something about God with absolute certainty, I am also most certainly lying–or at least not offering the whole truth. It has been a tough week for the religiously faithful people. Let’s start here: On the front page of the Friday, Feb 15,... Read more
The often-funny Pearls Before Swine comic strip with its “Great Bunny of Wisdom” wish speaks specifically to our crazy political world. The fights in the church world, particularly the UMC one, nearly perfectly mirror the ones in the political world. The essential message slammed me in the face. Why the facepalm when I saw this? Because we in the church DO have a Great Bunny of Wisdom. We call that Great Bunny by far more majestic titles, of course. Things like... Read more
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