Some words of hope from a member of the DRUM leadership, posted with permission:
There are several things that could happen over the next few months but I am doubtful that they will have any real effect on the overall outcome or will impact GC2020 in a big way. There is speculation that the entire Traditionalist Plan could be declared unconstitutional. Will the jury verdict be back in at the end of the Judicial Council's meeting in late April? I doubt it. From a psychological and theological perspective, that meeting happens immediately after we have celebrated Christ's resurrection but I do not believe that anything in that meeting will be celebrated as a resurrection moment - lol. The JC has traditionally been very slow in rendering a ruling - I think it must be in their own precepts that they are supposed to muddy the water with being slow with their decisions - all in the name of discernment - lol!
The Western Jurisdiction is already looking at and discussing what to do, Church of the Resurrection (Adam Hamilton's church) is studying the situation -I have not heard anything from Gatlinburg, OH (Mike Slaughter's church) but I would not be surprised if Mike and Adam are already having meetings- just the two of them. Whatever they decide will indeed have an impact on the ultimate outcome. Whatever happens, it is not going to be quick.
MFSA is planning a gathering in Lansing on Saturday, March 16 to begin the arduous task of discerning what is our next step. It promises to be a very interesting day. It will just be us-no celebrity pastors, no Bishops, etc. However, Bishop Bard's letter to our conference clergy will have been delivered and clergy will have had almost 2 weeks to process it - I believe it will be delivered as early as this weekend. It is not intended to be a meeting to discuss a plan of action or to have one in place. I am interested to know, however, what the thought processes are down the road (sooner than later) of what some of Michigan's mega churches are planning to do - like Grand Rapids FUMC, Kalamazoo FUMC, Birmingham, Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, Nardin Park, etc Jeff Nelson is very outspoken as is the lead pastor at Kal-zoo First. I do know that Elbert Dulworth is absolutely devastated and has asked that no one contact him for a statement regarding his thoughts or what Birmingham will do-he wants to be reclusive for a little bit - at least this seems to be the posture there after I spoke with Doris Hall yesterday.
Whatever happens I firmly believe that we should not expect or even hope that either side will emerge from GC2019's decision and rally to be the same church. If the Tradionalist Plan is declared unconstitutional in its entirety - the WCA [the conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association] will be gone. If it is declared constitutional the Progressive Methodist Church(that's my own name for it right now-lol) will be birthed. The schism will happen now - there is no more speculation. Wes Brun says that the schism has been happening since 2004 when the Good News people tried to effect a split then.
I do believe our eyes and ears should be tuned to the Western Jurisdiction. I have always said there are no accidents. It is not an accident that the Western Jurisdiction elected a lesbian bishop last Jurisdictional Conference. And I believe Bishop Karen, whom I know personally, has what it takes to lead a new movement. We also need the power of people like Bishop Deb(even though she is retired as well as other retired's: Bishops Talbert, Hoshibata and probably soon to be retired Palmer), David Bard, Sally Dyck, Laurie Haller, Tracy Malone, Carcano, etc to decide to be with us. The bureaucracy on the Episcopal office is beyond my comprehension at the moment so I am not sure how the Council of Bishops splitting would impact their pensions, etc.
The decision for you, me and our brothers and sisters is to say, "I'm done!" or to stay around a little while longer to see how it plays out. I fear the former is going to be the case in many of our really good strong fighters who are tired and can only take so much. Unfortunately, we have to discern that action totally on an individual basis.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Thoughts on the outcome of General Conference
Lying in bed last night and this morning I thought about what happened at General Conference. So I offer a few opinions on the matter. Though I write this blog under the banner of Dedicated Reconciling United Methodists, these are my opinions and may differ from the DRUM leadership.
First, a bit of history that should be well known to most of us. The United Methodist Church was formed by combining two denominations in 1968. The first General Conference of the new denomination was in 1972. As part of creating the Social Principles, the phrase “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” was inserted to the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s governing document.
Progressives have been trying to get that phrase removed at every General Conference since then. Conservatives have for just as log been trying to add restrictions to LGBTQ people (can’t serve as pastors, can’t be married) using this incompatibility phrase as justification. Some of those restrictions have been approved.
In the 1980s the vote to remove the incompatibility clause lost by about 80% (I don’t have exact numbers). By 2008 the vote lost by only 54%. That was enough for me to feel 2012 was our year and I went to General Conference as an observer to experience the joy when the clause was removed.
That year it lost by 60%. It was a painful day. Conservatives were waiting with more restrictions, such as requiring church trials for pastors who officiated at same-sex weddings. We avoided more harm by running out the clock.
In 2016 tensions were high. More harm was avoided by creating the Commission For a Way Forward, which culminated in the just concluded special General Conference.
So, on reflection, I’m not surprised the Traditional Plan, the one to heap on more LGBTQ punishments, passed. Yes, disappointed, but no longer surprised. A good number of its provisions were ready to be voted on in 2012, a time when the denomination was getting tired of negative publicity of pastor trials, yet conservatives wanted them to continue. I suppose I should be heartened that this year the plan passed with only 53% rather than the 60% or more of 2012. Given a chance to approve more restrictions on LGBTQ people, GC did.
In yesterday’s post I wrote about the influence of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, a non-Methodist group funded by the Koch brothers who also fund the GOP and the Tea Party. Though not naming names, a letter this morning from Reconciling Ministries Network confirms my understanding:
I see this mess as a failure of leadership, mostly a failure of the United Methodist Council of Bishops. They guide the denomination (under the BoD set by General Conference), but there hasn’t been a lot of guiding over the last several years. This is a longstanding complaint and comes from many people. Some of my complaints:
Before General Conference I told people I couldn’t predict an outcome. As I mentioned above I’m not surprised by what happened. But I think the bishops should have had a strong understanding of the likely outcome. If they didn’t want this outcome, they could have prepared to prevent it. They didn’t.
The bishops put together the Commission, but didn’t do such things as actively promote what the Commission recommended. Once the Commission was done the bishops didn’t make sure the GC was about the outcome they recommended. Instead, they offered options – allowing GC to choose the worst one.
The progressive plans were written by the Commission and were designed with the rules of the denomination in mind. According to Rev. Jeremy Smith of the blog Hacking Christianity, the Traditional Plan was not written by the Commission, rather a small group of conservative bishops. There are a lot of ways this Plan was outside the normal channels. Since it was not a part of the Commission’s work, it did not need to be a part of this General Conference. The bishops had a chance to halt this plan before it was included in the GC agenda.
A big part of the GC in 2012 and 2016 was about preventing more harm, preventing harsher penalties from being approved. And here the bishops essentially handed conservatives an opportunity to do a great deal of harm.
The bishops have consistently chosen unity over harm reduction of LGBTQ people. I agree that we would be better as a denomination with both progressive and conservative members. But conservatives were insisting on more and more harm. It has been clear to me for quite a while that to reduce harm a split should be made to happen. Instead, harm continues.
There has been talk since at least before the 2012 GC to implement a way for American congregations to make decisions about LGBTQ people without conservative votes from Africa. The Africans already have the ability to change the global rules to fit their culture. The American church cannot. Efforts to make this change didn’t get much support from the bishops and didn’t get very far.
The bishops didn’t call out the influence of outside groups such the Institute for Religion and Democracy. This influence and money has damaged the church.
The bishops haven’t prepared for a split. The conservatives have, creating a structure congregations could move to if the GC vote didn’t go in their favor. There is no such structure on the progressive side.
The Traditional Plan has been approved. It has, I think, 17 parts. Half of them were declared in violation of the denomination’s constitution. Some were modified before voting. But, yeah, delegates voted for a proposal they knew didn’t have constitutional approval. They approved it anyway. The Judicial Council will convene in April and will likely invalidate many of the parts. Even with them gone, the remaining pieces are still pretty bad for LGBTQ people and their allies. Those pieces will officially become part of denomination law. Also approved proposals about how congregations exit the denomination and still protect pensions. But GC did not address anything about how the denomination might split in two. That will likely (hopefully) be a big topic for next year’s GC.
Yes, I’m angry. I’ve been a member of the United Methodist Church ever since I’ve been old enough to be a member of any church. What happened yesterday has a very good chance of destroying the denomination, the conservative side because few youth want to be associated with such bigotry, especially against their LGBTQ friends, the progressive side because of a poor effort to gather the leaving congregations into a connected denomination and because a much smaller denomination may not be financially sustainable.
As some of my progressive friends have said to blow up the United Methodist Church over this issue is silly and stupid. I agree.
The only ones who win in this situation are IRD. The destruction of the denomination is their goal.
There is a lot of muttering about the conservative Africans, that if they didn’t vote on American issues the Traditional Plan wouldn’t have passed – that the American delegation was 2/3 in favor of the One Church Plan that would have allowed each region to set its own rules for how to treat LGBTQ people (and allowing African congregations to keep restrictions).
But don’t blame Africa. Though African delegates supplied the votes, the effort and desire to get the Traditional Plan passed came from conservative Americans, including the IRD, which isn’t a part of the denomination and not even particularly religious. That conservative effort has, over the years, included some shady methods by the Americans to get the Africans to vote their way.
So now what?
There is a regular two-week General Conference 14 months from now. Will the bishops guide what happens or will they be bystanders? Will they help create a progressive structure for congregations or regions that refuse to operate under the restrictions of the Traditional Plan? What about the other denomination assets, such as the United Methodist Building just north of the Supreme Court in Washington? What about the publishing company? Boards and agencies that advocate for justice? And the one I’m most worried about – UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, which rivals the Red Cross and certainly outdoes FEMA in responding to disasters. Are plans being proposed about how to handle all this so that GC in 2020 can approve it?
I’ve thought of leaving the denomination and my local church. However, I’m willing to stick around long enough to see what happens at GC 2020.
First, a bit of history that should be well known to most of us. The United Methodist Church was formed by combining two denominations in 1968. The first General Conference of the new denomination was in 1972. As part of creating the Social Principles, the phrase “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” was inserted to the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s governing document.
Progressives have been trying to get that phrase removed at every General Conference since then. Conservatives have for just as log been trying to add restrictions to LGBTQ people (can’t serve as pastors, can’t be married) using this incompatibility phrase as justification. Some of those restrictions have been approved.
In the 1980s the vote to remove the incompatibility clause lost by about 80% (I don’t have exact numbers). By 2008 the vote lost by only 54%. That was enough for me to feel 2012 was our year and I went to General Conference as an observer to experience the joy when the clause was removed.
That year it lost by 60%. It was a painful day. Conservatives were waiting with more restrictions, such as requiring church trials for pastors who officiated at same-sex weddings. We avoided more harm by running out the clock.
In 2016 tensions were high. More harm was avoided by creating the Commission For a Way Forward, which culminated in the just concluded special General Conference.
So, on reflection, I’m not surprised the Traditional Plan, the one to heap on more LGBTQ punishments, passed. Yes, disappointed, but no longer surprised. A good number of its provisions were ready to be voted on in 2012, a time when the denomination was getting tired of negative publicity of pastor trials, yet conservatives wanted them to continue. I suppose I should be heartened that this year the plan passed with only 53% rather than the 60% or more of 2012. Given a chance to approve more restrictions on LGBTQ people, GC did.
In yesterday’s post I wrote about the influence of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, a non-Methodist group funded by the Koch brothers who also fund the GOP and the Tea Party. Though not naming names, a letter this morning from Reconciling Ministries Network confirms my understanding:
The Traditionalist Plan was passed by the efforts of organized opponents to gospel inclusion who have funded and promoted the demise of Christian witness across denominations who have dared to call out a white nationalist strain of Christianity. For decades, they sought the decline of biblical justice-rooted Christian traditions and have built the infrastructure and narrative that has now risen to power in The United Methodist Church. What has transpired today is an effort to weaken the Church and the local church, its global witness and reach, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
I see this mess as a failure of leadership, mostly a failure of the United Methodist Council of Bishops. They guide the denomination (under the BoD set by General Conference), but there hasn’t been a lot of guiding over the last several years. This is a longstanding complaint and comes from many people. Some of my complaints:
Before General Conference I told people I couldn’t predict an outcome. As I mentioned above I’m not surprised by what happened. But I think the bishops should have had a strong understanding of the likely outcome. If they didn’t want this outcome, they could have prepared to prevent it. They didn’t.
The bishops put together the Commission, but didn’t do such things as actively promote what the Commission recommended. Once the Commission was done the bishops didn’t make sure the GC was about the outcome they recommended. Instead, they offered options – allowing GC to choose the worst one.
The progressive plans were written by the Commission and were designed with the rules of the denomination in mind. According to Rev. Jeremy Smith of the blog Hacking Christianity, the Traditional Plan was not written by the Commission, rather a small group of conservative bishops. There are a lot of ways this Plan was outside the normal channels. Since it was not a part of the Commission’s work, it did not need to be a part of this General Conference. The bishops had a chance to halt this plan before it was included in the GC agenda.
A big part of the GC in 2012 and 2016 was about preventing more harm, preventing harsher penalties from being approved. And here the bishops essentially handed conservatives an opportunity to do a great deal of harm.
The bishops have consistently chosen unity over harm reduction of LGBTQ people. I agree that we would be better as a denomination with both progressive and conservative members. But conservatives were insisting on more and more harm. It has been clear to me for quite a while that to reduce harm a split should be made to happen. Instead, harm continues.
There has been talk since at least before the 2012 GC to implement a way for American congregations to make decisions about LGBTQ people without conservative votes from Africa. The Africans already have the ability to change the global rules to fit their culture. The American church cannot. Efforts to make this change didn’t get much support from the bishops and didn’t get very far.
The bishops didn’t call out the influence of outside groups such the Institute for Religion and Democracy. This influence and money has damaged the church.
The bishops haven’t prepared for a split. The conservatives have, creating a structure congregations could move to if the GC vote didn’t go in their favor. There is no such structure on the progressive side.
The Traditional Plan has been approved. It has, I think, 17 parts. Half of them were declared in violation of the denomination’s constitution. Some were modified before voting. But, yeah, delegates voted for a proposal they knew didn’t have constitutional approval. They approved it anyway. The Judicial Council will convene in April and will likely invalidate many of the parts. Even with them gone, the remaining pieces are still pretty bad for LGBTQ people and their allies. Those pieces will officially become part of denomination law. Also approved proposals about how congregations exit the denomination and still protect pensions. But GC did not address anything about how the denomination might split in two. That will likely (hopefully) be a big topic for next year’s GC.
Yes, I’m angry. I’ve been a member of the United Methodist Church ever since I’ve been old enough to be a member of any church. What happened yesterday has a very good chance of destroying the denomination, the conservative side because few youth want to be associated with such bigotry, especially against their LGBTQ friends, the progressive side because of a poor effort to gather the leaving congregations into a connected denomination and because a much smaller denomination may not be financially sustainable.
As some of my progressive friends have said to blow up the United Methodist Church over this issue is silly and stupid. I agree.
The only ones who win in this situation are IRD. The destruction of the denomination is their goal.
There is a lot of muttering about the conservative Africans, that if they didn’t vote on American issues the Traditional Plan wouldn’t have passed – that the American delegation was 2/3 in favor of the One Church Plan that would have allowed each region to set its own rules for how to treat LGBTQ people (and allowing African congregations to keep restrictions).
But don’t blame Africa. Though African delegates supplied the votes, the effort and desire to get the Traditional Plan passed came from conservative Americans, including the IRD, which isn’t a part of the denomination and not even particularly religious. That conservative effort has, over the years, included some shady methods by the Americans to get the Africans to vote their way.
So now what?
There is a regular two-week General Conference 14 months from now. Will the bishops guide what happens or will they be bystanders? Will they help create a progressive structure for congregations or regions that refuse to operate under the restrictions of the Traditional Plan? What about the other denomination assets, such as the United Methodist Building just north of the Supreme Court in Washington? What about the publishing company? Boards and agencies that advocate for justice? And the one I’m most worried about – UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, which rivals the Red Cross and certainly outdoes FEMA in responding to disasters. Are plans being proposed about how to handle all this so that GC in 2020 can approve it?
I’ve thought of leaving the denomination and my local church. However, I’m willing to stick around long enough to see what happens at GC 2020.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
General Conference, final vote
The Traditional Plan passed, 53% to 47%.
A motion to send the Traditional Plan to the Judicial Council and their April meeting passed by just over 50%.
UM News story here.
A person sent me an email earlier today saying she and her family and likely several friends have had enough. They’re strongly considering leaving the United Methodist Church. I’ve been thinking the same thing.
However, before I walk out the door, I want to find out what my own congregation and progressive congregations are going to do.
The conservatives said if the Traditional Plan didn’t pass they would leave. They already have an association to which they could go.
Progressives don’t (yet) have that. Currently, if a progressive congregation leaves, they’re on their own.
So, will this be an expulsion of the progressive congregations (or maybe just progressive members) or will this be a schism, where there are two denominations with some sort of Methodist name? That question hasn’t been answered. This General Conference didn’t provide a way to answer that. Maybe GC 2020 will.
From my reading over the past few days (alas, I don’t have a link to share) is that one of the driving forces on the conservative side is the Institute for Religion and Democracy. It isn’t a group within the United Methodist family, but a group outside. Even so, they provided assistance to the conservative side. When I first heard of IRD many years ago I quickly figured out they should really be called the Institute for Religion Without Democracy. They objected to denominations that decided things, including doctrine, in a democratic way – which is what GC is. They want all denominations to have a person or central group to issue doctrine by decree.
What I’ve learned in the last few days is that IRD has been funded the Koch brothers, the same guys that have donated heavily to the Republican Party and the Tea Party. I began to understand they targeted the UMC because of our strong advocacy for justice. And they’ve succeeded in damaging that. Which means what happened today at GC is part of much broader push for conservatives to seize control both nationally and around the world.
Many of us are grieving. General Conference has said they don't want us. Many of you are like me -- my confirmation was about the time the denomination was formed back in 1968 and I've been a member since. It is strange and scary to contemplate going to some other denomination.
Twitter user Lance Presley from Jackson, Mississippi wrote a thread about leaving the UMC. The church has made it uncomfortable for LGBTQ people for a long time. Those of us still here love the UMC and belong to it just as much as conservatives do. As for leaving, yeah, the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ are welcoming to LGBTQ people, but such congregations don't exist in rural Mississippi. There are two UCC churches in the state. And there is a UMC in every small town and poor neighborhood. It just won't be the progressive voice in town.
A motion to send the Traditional Plan to the Judicial Council and their April meeting passed by just over 50%.
UM News story here.
A person sent me an email earlier today saying she and her family and likely several friends have had enough. They’re strongly considering leaving the United Methodist Church. I’ve been thinking the same thing.
However, before I walk out the door, I want to find out what my own congregation and progressive congregations are going to do.
The conservatives said if the Traditional Plan didn’t pass they would leave. They already have an association to which they could go.
Progressives don’t (yet) have that. Currently, if a progressive congregation leaves, they’re on their own.
So, will this be an expulsion of the progressive congregations (or maybe just progressive members) or will this be a schism, where there are two denominations with some sort of Methodist name? That question hasn’t been answered. This General Conference didn’t provide a way to answer that. Maybe GC 2020 will.
From my reading over the past few days (alas, I don’t have a link to share) is that one of the driving forces on the conservative side is the Institute for Religion and Democracy. It isn’t a group within the United Methodist family, but a group outside. Even so, they provided assistance to the conservative side. When I first heard of IRD many years ago I quickly figured out they should really be called the Institute for Religion Without Democracy. They objected to denominations that decided things, including doctrine, in a democratic way – which is what GC is. They want all denominations to have a person or central group to issue doctrine by decree.
What I’ve learned in the last few days is that IRD has been funded the Koch brothers, the same guys that have donated heavily to the Republican Party and the Tea Party. I began to understand they targeted the UMC because of our strong advocacy for justice. And they’ve succeeded in damaging that. Which means what happened today at GC is part of much broader push for conservatives to seize control both nationally and around the world.
Many of us are grieving. General Conference has said they don't want us. Many of you are like me -- my confirmation was about the time the denomination was formed back in 1968 and I've been a member since. It is strange and scary to contemplate going to some other denomination.
Twitter user Lance Presley from Jackson, Mississippi wrote a thread about leaving the UMC. The church has made it uncomfortable for LGBTQ people for a long time. Those of us still here love the UMC and belong to it just as much as conservatives do. As for leaving, yeah, the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ are welcoming to LGBTQ people, but such congregations don't exist in rural Mississippi. There are two UCC churches in the state. And there is a UMC in every small town and poor neighborhood. It just won't be the progressive voice in town.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Program – What Happened at GC? March 3
General Conference begins in about a week. This short Conference is to consider and vote on the various proposals that came out of the Way Forward Commission last year.
Please join us on Sunday, March 3, 1:30 – 3:00 at Nardin Park United Methodist Church.
Rev. Melanie Carey, a clergy delegate, and Alex Plum, a lay delegate, will share their General Conference experiences and the GC decisions on the direction of the denomination and LGBTQ inclusion in the worldwide church.
Finger foods and beverages will be provided.
The event is hosted by the Nardin Park Church and Society Team and Dedicated Reconciling United Methodists. The church is at 29887 W. Eleven Mile Rd, Farmington Hills. That’s just west of Middlebelt.
Please join us on Sunday, March 3, 1:30 – 3:00 at Nardin Park United Methodist Church.
Rev. Melanie Carey, a clergy delegate, and Alex Plum, a lay delegate, will share their General Conference experiences and the GC decisions on the direction of the denomination and LGBTQ inclusion in the worldwide church.
Finger foods and beverages will be provided.
The event is hosted by the Nardin Park Church and Society Team and Dedicated Reconciling United Methodists. The church is at 29887 W. Eleven Mile Rd, Farmington Hills. That’s just west of Middlebelt.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)