Remember Me and communion

I've been perusing the official news pages of the United Methodist Church and the Reconciling Ministries Network. Neither has much on this second day of General Conference.

I've also been following the #UMCGC Twitter feed. Lots of tweets. I suppose it is a good thing that I see tweets from the conservatives, though 140 characters doesn't give any context.

I saw some tweets about people with rainbow colored stoles assisting bishops with communion during the opening worship service. It took some digging to get a hint of a story. From what I can tell the bishops set up communion serving stations in and around the plenary floor. Then...

That morning Sue Laurie was ordained. She earned her Master of Divinity in 1995, but was barred from ordination because she is a lesbian. She had been active in the Reconciling Ministries Network for many years. Her ordination now was apparently done by LGBT friendly pastors, not by bishops. These pastors are a part of the Love Prevails coalition. This ordination service included communion, properly blessed by pastors.

During the full GC opening service the Love Prevails group also sent communion servers around the plenary floor (though maybe not inside the bar – an area for delegates only). They fit in between the bishops and were backed by banners saying "Remember Me." They did it because so many LGBT people still feel excluded. This was a way for LGBT people to go to LGBT-friendly servers.