From May through July, I shall use part of my Sabbatical to visit various churches and record my experiences there. My first venture was to Apostles Church, on the Upper East Side in New York City. This choice was easy, as both my NYC sons and families attend there. They willingly agreed with my walking in alone so I would be noticed as a first time visitor. A fifteen minute stroll from the west side of Central Park to the... Read more
I’ve read all I can find about the final, inconclusive, disturbing and yet almost liberating end to General Conference 2012. I wish I could have been there, but this way from the distance I was free to spend many hours in prayer for the situation. The badly need restructuring just didn’t happen. Huge, scary trust issues, or lack of trust issues, surfaced. Nearly half the delegates walked away saddened and defeated by the church’s continued focus on sexuality as the... Read more
I am now in New York City. But today is more a day of rest and continued healing as I’m having trouble with being still enough to let the stitches heal properly from my surgery, nearly three weeks ago. So, I spent a few hours this morning reading blogs again and trying to figure out what on earth was happening at General Conference 2012. Twitter, which I as a rule quite thoroughly dislike, did exactly today what it is supposed... Read more
I’m sitting on an airplane to NYC to begin my Sabbatical, which will include much thinking and writing about the nature of healthy church culture. I am both pastor and gardener. The first by occupation, the second by avocation. I love both venues. I also often say that there is no place like the church, and the garden, to break my heart. In the garden, weather, insects, weeds, and pestilence often combine to destroy hours, weeks, months of hard work.... Read more
From what I can tell as I read other blogs and reports from General Conference, it was the rigid adherence to Roberts Rules of Order and a case of thoughtlessness that led to the dismantling yesterday of a key element in the United Methodist system. Now, is the current system working well? Nope. But I’m betting the unintended consequences of this move, to give Bishops the power to put clergy on a two year transitional leave, without financial support, without... Read more
Is there one righteous Bishop in The United Methodist Church? This would be akin to Abraham asking if there were 50 righteous men in Sodom. I am just asking for one. I ask for just one righteous Bishop to stand up and say, This is wrong. All of our colleagues who are in covenant relationship with us as Bishops have just lost their guaranteed appointments, while I am a Bishop for life with a great salary and nice retirement and... Read more
First, if you do nothing else, read this blog by Dan Dick. It is a passionate and eloquent call to discipleship, not this watered-down stuff that can be measured on public shaming boards (i.e., electronic dashboards that will measure nickels and noses). Second, after getting some interesting responses to this post about biblical ignorance and the delegates to General Conference, a few more thoughts popped up today. I ask: those who adamantly oppose full inclusion of our GLBT brothers and... Read more
I have been reading blog after blog about what is happening at General Conference 2012, taking particular interest in the ones that supported the now-dead legislation that would take language out of the Book of Discipline that condemns homosexual practices. I have numerous thoughts here. The thing that hits me the hardest here is the utter biblical ignorance that is being expressed by those who oppose the full inclusion of our GLBT brothers and sisters into the life of the... Read more
“My bags are packed, I’m ready to go . . .” People of a certain age may recognize this song, “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane”—and the mixed joy and sorrow it brings. Yes, I’m leaving—and on a jet plane, but just for three months. This is a long-planned Sabbatical which is intended to give me rest with time to heal, write and pray, plus spend time with my very scattered family whom I rarely get to see. Today was my... Read more
Early morning: fearful. Bleeding heavily. Should not be. Mid morning: relief: Yes, it was a huge tumor (baseball sized), and yes embedded in the wall of the uterus, but definitely contained and benign in nature and now I am forever free of it. Also relieving: I’ve torn a stitch, but have not (yet) put a hole where there should not be one. Mid morning: warned: I listened to stern words: activity level must decrease immediately and stay that way for... Read more
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