A report on what I did and saw and learned from the Reconciling Ministries Convocation held at a hotel near the St. Louis airport. The city was chosen because it is where the special General Conference will be next February.
Thursday, July 26
Convo opened in the evening. One of the first announcements was that there would be a police presence during the whole event because some people had received threats. The announcer said that the organizers are very aware that for some people a police presence is a threat and not a reassurance. We are to be mindful of the white supremacy that creates that tension.
Attendance at this Convo is about 300. This is lower than the 6-700 in the past. Part of the reason is this one was a lot more hurriedly organized.
We opened with a worship service of welcome. Then came a bible study led by Rev. Dr. Tyler Schwaller, a white gay man, and Rev. Tonya Parker, a black woman, both of Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga. The overall theme of their several studies they said would have a feminist intersectional frame. Each talked for a few minutes before turning the topic over to the other. We got two perspectives on the scripture. In my notes I didn't record who said what.
The opening statement: A church that proclaims liberation but is obsessed with persecution is dead. Though the denomination is dead, the overall church is not.
The first text was Philippians 2:1-11. I won't repeat it here. A lot of this text refutes the ranking, the social hierarchy, I've talked about many times in my blogs. He opening verses say that while Jesus has the nature of God and could exploit that, he doesn't. The next verse (in some translations) say Jesus took on the nature of a slave. We don't like to use that word because it is embarrassing and we have to deal with acceptability politics. But what the verse is saying is Jesus took the position of the lowest member of society – so low that slaves were considered animals and not human. We were reminded that the life of a Roman slave was just as brutal as was the life of a slave in the American South.
Friday, July 27
The preacher for the morning worship service was Rev. David Meredith. He was charged with being a practicing homosexual (he married his partner). The charges were dropped. Then the case was reopened (I don't know the details) and he was convicted. He was betrayed by the fine print.
He played a clip from the movie Lincoln showing a bit of the debate over the 13th Amendment. The speaker said black people didn't need to be equal in all things, they just need to be equal before the law. This is equality with exceptions. We – and the Gospel – are betrayed. Meredith told the story of Philemon, a really short book in the bible. The story centers on the marginalized, in particular on a slave. Writer Paul tells the owner the one who was a slave is now a brother. He is to have full rights in all spheres of public life equal to those of the former owner. We are to strive for equality. Inclusion requires permission of the powerful. Equality does not.
Another bible study session. The team looked again at the passage from Philippians, this time focusing on a Greek word that they say is often mistranslated. The correct translation should be something like “rape and rob.” The Roman gods of the day were depicted as violent. They could rape and rob as they pleased. These gods supported the social hierarchy. Paul was making the point that Jesus is a god who is not violent, who does not rape and rob. Alas, Paul blows it by saying to Jesus every knee shall bow. That's an action that an imperialist demands. Paul had just told us that Jesus was not imperialist.
Four members of the Commission For a Way Forward shared their experiences. Two of them were two of the three LGBT members (yeah, the Commission was deciding gay issues with little gay presence). They said the whole process went very well – except that it was rigged from the start. And when they challenged the other members on this point the response was bafflement. When the process is rigged it can only take us so far.
Rev. Amy DeLong, who has gone through a church trial, commented that a flawed system has produced a flawed result and we must resist it.
The panel reviewed the proposals before General Conference 2019.
* The One Church Plan – The incompatibility clause is removed, current prohibitions are removed, and each Annual Conference or perhaps each congregation decides how to treat LGBT people, whether with equality or with discrimination.
* The Connectional Plan – The church creates three parallel structures for progressive, moderate, and conservative views and Annual Conferences and local churches choose which one to join. This one is highly complicated, requires several amendments to the denomination's constitution, and may take ten years to implement. Very few are treating is seriously.
* The Traditional Plan – This is the existing harm “on steroids.” Even worse, it is structured so that conservative churches can toss a lit match into the denomination as they sneak out the back door.
A fourth plan is being proposed:
* The Simple Plan – Remove the incompatibility clause, remove the LGBT restrictions and change nothing else.
Some people are suggesting another outcome: none of the proposals may pass. GC 2019 leaves us where we are now. Fresh proposals can be made for GC 2020.
The panel said that if any of the original three proposals pass there will still be harm to LGBT people. Even more, there may be harm where there was none before. While the One Church plan seems to be the best of the original three one black woman described it as moving from slavery to Jim Crow. The actual denomination wide prohibitions may be gone, but areas of the denomination can institute their own prohibitions.
A workshop titled Hope Floats, led by Sue Laurie. She was a longtime leader in the Reconciling Ministries organization. At time I thought this session was unfocused, but she did say some important things.
She started by saying, “Homosexuality is not a sin. Those who teach that need to be stopped.” The bishops know that homosexuality is not a sin. Yet, they continue to do nothing about those who keep teaching that it is.
People commented on the panel that had just met. The three gay members would say something and then “the machine kicked in to protect itself.” And nobody would name this self-preservation of power.
Sue said: “I could not despise the One Church Plan more.” It continues the harm. It says discrimination is still acceptable. Areas of the church will be free to write harmful rules, which will last a long time. We'll want out of an abusive relationship.
“Unity is the golden calf.” Too many people are refusing to act because, as they tell Sue, “We're with you, but we don't want to split the church.”
Sue hears people say if we just told our story... Sue responds, it's been done. She points to a pile of books spread out on the floor, each one telling part of the story. She even helped write at least one. So, she has to remind herself it's not her fault if we lose. We can educate all we want but there is an aspect of bigotry that education doesn't touch.
If the One Church Plan passes the Western Jurisdiction may pat itself on the back. Its congregations will be open and affirming. But a congregation in West Pennsylvania (Sue mentions this locale because she is from there and can't find a church home) will see the ship of affirmation sail away. So, is the One Church Plan better than what we have now? For many congregations, a resounding no.
Mittie Quinn did a workshop on The Long March: Are We There Yet? She reviewed the denomination's history of splits and reunitings. We split over slavery. We came back together but institutionalized racism. She then covered every step in the way the denomination treats LGBT people. Mittie says this type of presentation is able to talk about the issue without talking about human sexuality.
Our evening session was an address “Ain't I a Christian, Too?” given by Rev. Dr. Jay Williams. The United Methodist Book of Discipline has the phrase that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Williams said that if that phrase is true than LGBT people are not true Christians. We may be a child of God, but that's not the same as being Christian. This is an idea we must challenge.
And we challenge it by queering the church. The word “queer” includes the meanings interconnected, unique, and odd. And the church should be those things too. Some say we should move beyond the discussion of homosexuality – we've discussed it long enough. But homosexuality should be a defining matter for the church because justice is a defining matter for the church.
Williams also rejects the One Church Plan. Nobody has the freedom to put me in chains. This plan sanctions discrimination. It is theologically flawed and morally bankrupt.
Williams recognizes the issue is about social dominance. We must reject the church's pathological obsession with policing the queer body. The UMC is a police state. Queer people aren't safe in church. This is the same logic as white supremacy. It is a power that repeatedly kills.
The denomination has used the phrase “for the transformation of the world.” That can't happen until we have a transformation of the church.
Our ethics should not be based on rules but on holistic living. We should show our solidarity with other oppressed people.
Saturday, July 28
The morning preacher was Rev. Starsky Wilson. All of us have unfinished business, a list of things that need to be done. Some of these things never get done. But there are some things we can't leave unfinished.
We must have responsible agency. There are a lot of things in this world that cry out for us to do something. We can feel overwhelmed. So do the things we can do. Don't wait.
We must have a resurrected identity. Many groups try to deny that Jesus had a body, that he was fully human. But a lot of the Christian story falls apart of Jesus doesn't have a body. Now we're that body. If someone on the outside looks in do they see us as a resurrected body? Or do they see a dead body?
We must be reconciling. Wilson discussed the scene after the resurrection in which Jesus hosts a fish fry for the disciples and asks Peter, “Do you love me?” A previous scene with Peter was at the trial of Jesus when Peter denies him three times. So after the fish fry Jesus reconciles with Peter. This is a critically necessary scene. If Jesus did not do this he would have contradicted all of his prior ministry and the Christian church would not exist.
Williams worked up a litany beginning with, “If there is no Bayard Rustin there is no Civil Rights movement.” He listed perhaps ten names this way, most I didn't recognize. I am familiar with Bayard Rustin, a critical organizer within the movement and also gay. Williams told us that all of the people he mentioned are gay or lesbian.
The service ended after we were each anointed with oil.
The next bible study was about two stories of healing. The first is recorded in both Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. It is the Centurion asking Jesus to heal his slave. The second is Mark 7:25-30 and Matthew 15:21-28 and is about the gentile woman who argues with Jesus about healing her daughter and uses the line even the dogs eat the crumbs under the table.
In that first story there are some interesting features. First, the person to be healed. Luke uses the word for slave (and if the word was translated as servant, cross it out and write in slave – it was a person who was dehumanized). But Matthew uses a different word that can mean youth or even boy-love, yes, implying a same-sex lover.
Second, the Centurion, a person of power, recognizes the power in Jesus. This is a story about the Centurion. Jesus never meets the one he heals. The Centurion is likely thinking in terms of a patron-client relationship with Jesus as the patron. In that time the patron might steal a lover, so the Centurion wants to avoid contact.
Third, this is healing for one. Healing and liberation for one is good, but much better if it is for everyone.
In the second story the gentile woman absorbs the insult of being called a dog, but won't let that stop her from getting the healing for her daughter she know Jesus can provide. The figurative dogs being described are not wild, but pets in the house.
It seems this woman is telling Jesus is mission is not just to the Jews. An audience member notes this is the one time Jesus takes correction and it is from a woman. Without her we would not be Christians.
Another important point: The Centurion said he wanted healing for his slave/lover but he was not worthy of the attention from Jesus. The gentile woman said she is worthy and pesters Jesus until she gets what she wants.
The gentile woman settles for crumbs. What if we got only crumbs? But we're tired of crumbs, not just us, but everyone. We can learn from the boldness of the gentile woman.
On both Friday and Saturday the worship services took a lot longer than had planned, so adjustments were made to the schedule. On Saturday that meant our meetings by jurisdiction were only half as long as originally planned.
Alex Shanks is the coordinator for the North-Central Jurisdiction (Ohio to the Dakotas). He started only last October and is working part time for Reconciling Ministries. So contact with him may be slow. Because time was short he went directly to eight things we can do before the General Conference in February.
1. Engage the issue at district and Annual Conference meetings.
2. If conversations aren’t happening bring it to the attention of the bishop or district superintendent.
3. Ask the local pastor if such a discussion has been scheduled or ask why not. The bishops say each congregation is supposed to engage with the issue. Is yours?
4. Host your own conversation in your home or as part of a Sunday School class.
5. Contact the delegates to GC from your area. Thank them for their work and support. Share some stories to indicate why we fell strongly. If a delegate is undecided, tell Alex.
6. Get involved in Reconciling Ministries leadership in your Annual Conference.
7. Continue to encourage local churches to go through the reconciling process.
8. Be a part of the Reconciling Ministries video project.
The Reconciling Ministries Network’s official view is all three of the proposals from the Commission For a Way Forward do not provide justice. They support the Simple Plan. However, they are aware that the One Church Plan is more likely – at least it gets rid of the incompatibility clause. A reminder the Simple Plan does that too and without the baggage of allowing conservative churches to continue to discriminate.
Those in the room were concerned that official view sounded like we’ve already set our default support for the One Church Plan. What we want is full support for the Simple Plan as our starting position and the One Church Plan as a possible, though less desirable, negotiated compromise.
Rev. Dr. Traci West spoke on valuing bodies. She said a lot about what I’ve said in my discussions of ranking, but in ways not easy for me to understand. However, I agree with her main point: We are classified at birth by our bodies, by its gender and skin color. Those of us in lower positions in the social hierarchy experience violence against our bodies. We experience that violence because violence is the quickest and most sure way to enforce the hierarchy.
After lunch we listened to Bishop Karen Oliveto answer questions and tell stories of her first two years as the denomination’s first lesbian bishop. Her territory is Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. In some areas of the country there is a United Methodist Church every 2-3 (or 20-30) miles. In this area there is a church every 200-300 miles. Many are small, but are the only progressive Protestant voice in town. Oliveto says that instead of a Bishop’s residence (in Denver) she should have a Bishop’s RV. She has vowed to visit every church in her area and has visited over 300 of the over 400 churches. Some have told her that a bishop has never visited before.
Oliveto has received several boxes of letters of support. Many of them say thanks for being there. Your presence in that job gives hope. Letters in opposition: 50. Parents of gay kids have been reluctant to ask their congregations for support. She tells them look at the way your congregation has supported a lesbian bishop. Alas, she has also heard, “Well, you broke the rules, so I can …”
As for General Conference in 2019 she says we need to lay down our arms. We’ve been using the Book of Discipline as a weapon. But no matter how GC goes most members look to the local congregation and not to the global institution. To those at the top of the social hierarchy she says we can use our privilege to make space for others and to declare our passion for diversity.
Oliveto says one of her favorite bible verses is Deuteronomy 30:19 – “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.”
On to a third workshop. This one was Sacred Resistance, led by Rev. Ben Roberts, the Director of Social Justice Ministries at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC, and Ed Crump, a lay leader in many of those ministries. After the 2016 elections their members participated in resistance actions (usually protests) about once a week for a year. That was leading to burnout, so they are working to develop a new strategy.
The first step in resistance work: show up. That includes the church as well as individual members.
What makes resistance sacred is such things as live in peace and justice (even while protesting), actively respond to an issue, work toward the common good, focus on the needs of others, advocate the vulnerable, attempt to love everyone, avoid the binary choice, resist self-protection, resist retaliation, resist the “win,” emphasize community, remember the goal is justice for all. A guiding phrase is from Martin Luther King: “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Ed described one action in which he went with DACA recipients to talk to several senators. When the group walked in the door the senator looked to Ed, the white male, as the presumed leader. Ed could do what Bishop Oliveto described. “Hello Senator, I’d like you to meet some of my friends.” He used his privilege to make space for others and let them speak for themselves. With Ed there the senator could not say they’re not voters, I don’t care about them. One of the senators talked about his support for compromise legislation. A DACA youth said, “You’re talking about my mother.”
Ed suggested ways of making all this happen while avoiding burnout. Study the ways in which Jesus supported and lived in community. Break feelings of isolation. Don’t act for someone, act with. Ask those affected what they want the solution to be. Immerse yourself in love (scripture and books on loving resistance), which may need to be done frequently, perhaps daily. There are songs of resistance – learn them and teach them to the participants (which means having a training session before the protest begins).
Explain your resistance to the rest of the congregation, preferably during worship services. Resistance isn’t just protest. Foundry Church has found lots of ways to help those at the low end of the social hierarchy. That help includes advocacy.
After our evening banquet several people talked about our movement’s history by decade. Affirmation for Lesbians and Gays began in 1974. In 1984 they started the Reconciling Church movement and soon released it into a separate organization. The last presenter Jarell Wilson, a seminary student, talked about his hope for the future. He said he and his colleagues will be the first generation to come to the pulpit already out.
Sunday, July 29
The morning events were an invitation to be a witness to General Conference 2019, a bible study, and a concluding communion service. Reading through my notes I don’t have much more to add. Only this:
Working through the process to become a Reconciling Church is a great way to grow the congregation with a side benefit of getting them interested in social justice issues.
Showing posts with label Convo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Convo. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2018
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Reconciling Ministries Network Convocation
I attended the Gather at the River Convo in San Antonio put on by RMN and Methodist Federation for Social Action. Many of the events, including the plenary sessions were held in Travis Park United Methodist Church. We also had sessions in the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in the same block. We convened on Thursday evening and departed at noon on Sunday. There were about 700 in attendance. Here is my report on Convo.
Thursday, August 6
Convo opened with a worship service at 7:30. Since the title of this Convo is Gather at the River many scripture passages featured a river. So the altar during this service featured a river.
The first part (after a few rousing songs) was a presentation about Gene Legget. He was the first Methodist (before the "United" was added) pastor to come out as gay. He was quite the agitator in the 1970s at his local Annual Conference, which is held in the same sanctuary as our Convo. He also protested at several General Conferences. Much of his work was to attempt to eliminate the "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" phrase that was put in the new Book of Discipline in 1972.
Then came the bible study by Rev. Grace Imathiu. She is from Africa and is currently leading a church in a Chicago suburb. When asked to lead the bible study sessions she figured she would select her own verses. But no, the worship team did that for her. Thursday's passage was Revelations 22:1-5, from the last chapter of the bible. This passage is a glimpse of heaven. Imathiu's points: In times of stress and struggle it helps to read the last chapter first. We know how the story will end, which will help us to carry on. And once we've seen that last chapter a future without diversity will feel like an impoverished place.
The sermon was given by Rev. Peter Storey of South Africa. His bio is impressive – chaplain to Nelson Mandela while in jail, pastor of a congregation that was integrated in defiance of Apartheid, a leader behind the nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Storey also preached on the last chapter of Revelations.
The struggle for justice always involves pain. We need hope and signs of hope. He indicated us and said, "Welcome to God's future of the United Methodist Church!" Revelations 22 is a vision of heaven but it follows many darker visions. Some more people will die doing the work of justice. Justice is hard to sustain. We must be willing to suffer for the dreams of love.
The current fight of LGBT acceptance is a case of the church wounding the church. That makes us ask is our witness and pain worth it? Storey's response to that question is that we are not able to judge the worth of our pain. We are asked to witness, no matter the cost. Each bit of message is worth it. Cutting down a tree requires many strikes from the ax, but we don't know which strike will be the one that topples the tree.
Storey said that Apartheid would have ended ten years earlier but for the cowards in the pulpit. Of what or whom were they afraid? When we follow the love Jesus describes we are led to outrage.
The service ended around 10:00. Yeah, two and a half hours. But worth it.
Friday, August 7
We ended one day with worship and started the next with worship. The speaker was Nikilas Mawanda, a transgender man from Uganda. Yes, that's a dangerous place to be transgender. He was forced out of his parent's home when they concluded he was a lesbian, though he long knew he was transgender. He founded a support group for trans people. Then that nasty anti-gay bill was passed and he was arrested. Mawanda has strong words for Scott Lively and others who went to Uganda to stir up hate. You're playing politics with our lives. Does your theology kill people? He calls on us to reach out to Africa because they look up to us.
Elsewhere in the service transgender people did such things as read the scripture. Then we had the best part of the whole weekend: We invited all transgender people into the front and center and had a small ceremony of blessing. This was significant because within in the LGBT world the trans people are frequently discriminated against.
The service was followed by a panel discussion on Biblical Obedience. The panel was moderated by Matt Berryman, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network. Biblical Obedience is a rule breaking sense of justice for those on the margins. This is some of what was said.
Bishp Melvin Talbert is beloved by the reconciling movement for his call in 2012 at General Conference to Biblical Obedience, quite different from obedience to the Book of Discipline. Talbert connected our movement to the sit-ins of the 1950s and 60s that were a part of the civil rights movement. Discrimination against anyone is the same. General Conference is the last word on the Book of Discipline, but, as Talbert says, "My last word is before God." The church tries to be counter-cultural, stressing values ignored by the culture, such as taking care of the poor. But the church (including the UMC) missed it on marriage. The culture got there first. That's not being counter-cultural. Talbert is reminded of the question asked at baptism: Will you reject oppression in all its forms? So be faithful to your answer to that question. Give your whole self to the beloved community. There is no other way to be faithful.
Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto is the senior pastor at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church on San Francisco, an early church to declare itself to be reconciling. Oliveto has been a leader in RMN. She said that grace was taught to her by the church from an early age. She noted how much the institutional church supports the status quo. We are to be the leaven that changes the church. But we aren't to bring the margins to the center because the center is sinful. We are to take the church to the margins.
Alex Shanks is a transman, a spoken word poet, and an advocate for ministry with gender non-conforming people. He says that as a trans person he is made as God intended. He is called to ministry as much as anybody else. He considers his transition from female to male to be part of what God intended for him and a part of his call. He said he is more of a feminist as a man. He found out what he had been missing as a woman. Being trans allows him to be an advocate for blacks and for the poor.
Next was another bible study by Grace Imathiu, this time on the Exodus story, leading into the story of Joshua. At one point of their wanders in the wilderness Moses sent scouts into the Promised Land. Most returned with stories of giants who should be avoided. Imathiu said these scouts told the Israelites to back off as a way of protecting God. Those timid scouts were part of the reason for why the people of God wandered for 40 years. She said it takes 40 years to get pharaoh's thinking out of your head. The first task of an oppressor is to convince the oppressed that it is proper for them to be oppressed. Getting rid of that thought takes time. It also takes a while to undo the idea of two categories of people – us and them. Or in our case, male and female.
The Convo leaders randomly assigned us to groups called Reflecting Pools. These groups were a way for us to meet and get to know others in our movement. Today's discussion was essentially that.
I attended two workshops. The first was about intercultural competency and forming a broader community. It was put on by the denomination's General Commission on Religion and Race. The UMC in America is 90% white and that number is dropping. How are we forming community with other ethnic groups? How do we have deep and vital conversations across these groups?
One idea is the privilege walk. Participants form a line standing side by side. The leader reads a series of statements, such as, "If your parents attended college take a step forward." "If you have ever been arrested, take a step back." After many of these kinds of questions some people will be far ahead of others. This becomes a way of starting a discussion of privilege and a chance to hear each other's stories. One participant asked whether it was worth making those in the back of the room feel bad about their lack of privilege in order to teach those in the front of the room about their privilege.
Another idea is vital conversations. These are held in a safe environment, likely with a discussion of what that means. The conversations allow people to tell their stories, prompted by such questions as: Have you ever been followed in a store? Have you been an employee told to follow others in a store? Have you intentionally benefited from privilege? Do you avoid certain ethnic neighborhoods? How do you feel about others wanting to avoid your neighborhood? Keep in mind that people of color may feel the need to please white people in what they say, so responses may be internally edited. More here on the GCORR website.
My second workshop was about General Conference 2016. I'll save that to include with what was presented at a plenary session.
The evening session included some entertainment. Opening the session was the mariachi band Campanas de America. This is the first time I've seen a harp in such an ensemble. It was a lever harp and stood on legs so the player could stand while performing. The other instruments were guitar, bass guitar, violins, and trumpets. Various performers also sang. This photo shows the harp, but missed the one female of the group.
The evening speaker was Bishop Minerva Carcaño, currently serving in Los Angeles. She is the one who extended a job offer to Frank Schaefer when he was defrocked back in 2013. Even in the American South there are pastors who welcome their gay and lesbian members in spite of what their bishops say. They recognize same-sex love.
Carcaño told us the General Conference will be moved outside the United States starting in 2024. That one was slated for Harare in Africa with 2028 to be in Manila. But Amy DeLong, a lesbian pastor who has been on trial for conducting a same-sex wedding, asked if she would be safe in Harare. That prompted the question, are we life giving or life threatening? That prompted a revised schedule: the 2024 General Conference in Manila and 2028 in Harare only if gay and lesbian delegates would be safe.
The evening concluded with a performance by IlluMen, a local 8 member a cappella men's chorus. The music was wonderful!
Saturday, August 8
The morning again started with a worship service. The message was brought by Sara Thompson Tweedy, who had been brought up on charges for being a “self-avowed practicing homosexual” as the Book of Discipline puts it. She says, “I'm not practicing. I'm a professional!” She talked about how the institutional church dams up living water. It protects the institution, not the church – the people that make it a living thing. But the real danger isn't from our opponents, but from the mushy middle. She was quite critical of the church hierarchy for their slowness in doing what is loving and for the harm that has been caused along the way.
Tweedy's trial was scheduled to take place just after Frank Schaefer's trial and about the same time as Tom Ogletree's trial. This second one didn't happen because there was such outrage from the first and so much support for Ogletree the institution backed down. That was in November. The following May Tweedy's case was quietly dismissed. Tweedy said we can't wait for the Book of Discipline to change.
Every Convo invites the local bishop to visit, and speak if he wants. In places such as Maryland (the last Convo) the bishop is friendly to our cause (I don't remember if he showed up). But this is Texas. Bishop Jim Dorff came and requested to speak.
Even before he came to the pulpit the protests began in the form of signs hung from the balcony.
When the bishop was introduced the Convo leader reminded us we should be glad he showed up at all. We were also reminded this is a safe space – for everybody.
By this time the communion rail was full. Those kneeling there had a piece of blue cloth either covering the mouth or binding the wrists.
Dorff began, “This is not a fun time to be a bishop.” Ooh, bad start. “It is also not a fun time to be LGBT either.” He said his time with us is a God time for him. He needed to hear all the criticism that Sara had said. All he said was quite bland. He ended by saying he wants to be part of the solution. Many in the congregation shouted back, “SO DO IT!”
Emotions ran high (including mine). Many present had been hurt by this particular bishop or by many others like him. His bland pronouncements were unacceptable. The Convo leaders asked for a moment of silence. I heard a nearby whisper, “Our church will marry all,” apparently a Texas congregation ready and willing to defy this bishop. Rev. Dr. Julie Todd took part in the protest and shared her experience.
A woman made her way to the front and was given a microphone. This is a summary of what she said:
The remaining morning sessions were shortened because the bishop's speech and our recovery took a good chunk of time.
The panel discussion was about the intersections of injustice. When one deals with health issues, one also deals with poverty, race, and even gay issues. Or, as is the case with these panelists, race, climate change, reproductive rights, and police brutality all intersect. The moderator was Chett Pritchett of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, the second sponsor of Convo.
Ann Craig specializes in social media skills to support LGBT-friendly faith leaders in Africa. She started by saying she challenges the stereotype that all Africans are against LGBT concerns. She also said that many of these intersections are personal and that working in intersections makes her work possible. We must address all of African's concerns.
Jenny Phillips works for the Pacific Northwest Conference in environmental stewardship. She represented the Fossil Free UMC drive to guide the church into divesting $700 million from all oil and coal corporations. We've already divested from tobacco, time to do the same for fossil fuels. She notes people on the margins are the ones who suffer most from climate change. Those who exploit creation also exploit people. It is hard to name a problem when we benefit from it. We don't need to be gay to be a gay ally. In the same way we don't have to be a scientist to advocate for protecting the climate.
Kathryn Johnson is a leader in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, an interdenominational group. She said for women to have a choice we must address sexism, racism, and economic need.
Jason Redick is on the board of the Center for Theological Activism. He advocates for immigrants, against police brutality, and against the death penalty. He says those who work with immigrants must be aware of LGBT rights because deportation of an LGBT person frequently leads to death.
On to another bible study by Grace Imathiu. She was disappointed that she had planned for 20 minutes and now was told she only had five. So she started skimming her notes and tossing pages onto the floor while those in the audience shouted that they wanted the full 20 minutes. She actually spoke for 15. The scripture this time was Ezekiel.
An old African saying: When two elephants fight, the grass suffers. In this passage Egypt and Babylon are fighting and Judea suffers. Judea is marched into exile. Back in 1972, when the first gay prohibitions were added to the Book of Discipline, LGBT people were marched into exile.
Exile strips us of everything. The priest, who doesn't have (and isn't bound by) a supporting institution and is useless in exile, becomes the prophet. He is free to imagine what the Promised Land looks like.
As Imathiu read the scripture she turned to us and said, "This next part is really great!" The passage describes a river of fresh water that is so full of life that when it enters the Dead Sea it turns that sea to fresh water, full of life.
After lunch my Reflecting Pool group got into a discussion of how we should label ourselves. The term "queer" used to be a disparaging term. Some of the older people in the group thought it was a word to avoid. But they were puzzled by younger people who embraced the word. We spent some time to puzzle out why. The collection of letters LGBT doesn't cover such things as intersex or asexual. I said I've used the term "sexual minorities." But another said that would include sex addicts, which is not what we want. Yet another said my term puts the emphasis on sex at a time when we complain our opponents reduce our relationships to a sexual act. So "queer" seems to be the word of choice, even if it does have that antagonistic baggage.
On to a discussion of next year's General Conference, including what I heard at Friday's workshop. The number of delegates has been reduced to 864, down from the usual number of almost a thousand. I'm sure the change is to reduce the cost of GC. The number doesn't matter as much as the percentages from each country. That is still mostly based on the number of UMC members in a country compared to the world-wide membership. In America the membership has dropped again so our delegates will be 58.3% of the total, down from 61.3%. Membership in Africa has grown, so their delegates will be 30.1%, up from 28.5%.
The bishop who presides over a session has influence over the discussion and procedures. Bishops volunteer for this task. We need to encourage progressive bishops to volunteer.
RMN, MFSA, and Affirmation formed the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC) back in 1996 (though under a different name). Three more groups joined in 2012. LYNC now has 11 partners and is active all the time, not just in the year before GC. They are: RMN, MFSA, Affirmation, Black Methodists for Church Renewal, MARCHA (Hispanic Americans), NFAAUM (Asian Americans), PINCUM (Pacific Islanders), Native American Caucus, UMC Ministers with Disabilities, Western Methodist Justice Movement (formed in the Western Jurisdiction after the 2012 GC), and Love Prevails. All of these groups are working on justice issues.
The Love Prevails group was started in response to the trial of Rev. Amy DeLong back in 2011. She introduced the group to the rest of Convo. Their slogan is disclose(t), divest, and disrupt. The first term is a combination of disclose and dis-closet. Both our LGBT pastors and our support for LGBT issues need to be disclosed, to come out of the closet. The group intends to divest their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness (part of membership vows) from all structures within the denomination that support the status quo of institutionalized discrimination. They intend to disrupt business as usual, because the time for polite persuasion has passed.
http://loveprevailsumc.com/
The LYNC coalition sees GC 2016 will be about struggles over power, ideals, and right belief. In particular that will play out over five areas. Will the church be for inclusion or will it (at least in America) be the church for straight white guys over the age of 45? The battle will be over sexuality, in particular heterosexism and reproductive rights. There are lots of petitions about judicial process – will proceedings before the Judicial Council be fair with a transparent process or will there be mandatory penalties for pastors who violate the Book of Discipline? There are lots of proposals for revising the church structure at the global, national, and regional level. Will those changes enhance or obstruct justice? Will money be allocated or denied for justice issues?
There were several restructuring plans presented in 2012. One was adopted, then thrown out during the last few hours of GC. Many of those are back, along with a few more. LYNC is watching them closely. One that appears missing would create an American Central Conference that can revise the Book of Discipline for local use in the same manner as is already done in Africa and other parts of the world.
A goal is to avoid schism. That has been a threat used against progressives for the last 20 years. But if the denomination split, it would collapse. Neither side would have enough money for the boards and agencies that support the local churches and give the denomination its distinctive focus.
There is a proposal is for continental "connections." Then GC would have delegates from each connection. An American connection would deal with American issues and be authorized to create an American version of the Book of Discipline. But GC 2016 would only get this process started, with approval in 2020. In addition, sexuality issues wouldn't be addressed until the new system is up and running.
During GC LYNC will do several things: They will witness to GC. They hope to have 350-500 volunteers there for various witness events. They will build relationships with delegates. They will propose and monitor legislation. They will communicate coalition goals to delegates and volunteers, including having prepared legislation talking points. They will care for each other when things go bad, including chaplains on call. They will conduct worship services and provide lunchtime speakers. They will extend hospitality, especially to delegates from around the world.
The witness events will be built around empathic resistance, an idea developed elsewhere. Event success will be measured in coalition building.
One leader said our hopes are high, but our expectations are low. Be prepared. Another said the votes are against us. The democratic avenue is closed. Miracles may happen, but miracles are not a good planning strategy.
But that gives us freedom in our witness. Show up anyway. We don't have to be meek. Our job is to witness, not worry whether our witness is effective. Who is the coalition? We are.
There are things we can do now: Sign the LYNC vision statement and pass it around for others to sign. Fill out the volunteer form and plan to go to Portland. Tell leaders what you think. Donate to LYNC. Pray.
Since we will likely not overturn official oppression of LGBT people the sense is there will be a great deal of disobedience of the Book of Discipline, over the next several years. The denomination will have to deal with it. How it does so may determine how and whether it survives. One response to that disobedience are the proposals for minimum sentences when pastors violate the rules.
The Convo banquet was held that night. The music entertainment was by Jennifer Knapp, a lesbian contemporary Christian singer. She told her story in between her songs.
Rev. Vicki Flippin of MFSA interviewed Frank and Tim Schaefer. Tim spoke first saying he wouldn't get a chance once his father started talking. Tim is the gay son whose wedding was officiated by Frank, which cost Frank his credentials. Tim said he now feels supported well enough that he will be attending seminary this fall. He doesn't know if he can be ordained in the UMC.
Frank recounted his trial. Before then he had been living in fear, not able to tell his conservative congregation how he felt. The filing of charges was an outing and he watched his congregation fall apart. During the trial Tim gave his testimony. A friend commented to Frank that what Tim said was his story 35 years before. That prompted Frank to change his closing testimony. He has a new goal – be an advocate for LGBT people. He is now free.
Later Grace Imathiu tied Frank to her bible studies. He had been sent into exile. The support of the institution had been withdrawn. Similar to Ezekiel, the pastor became a prophet.
Tim said the recent marriage equality ruling puts pressure on either the pastors or the bishops. Frank added unless we change we'll alienate the Millennials. We'll lose young families. Professionals will not want to associate with homophobia. We will bankrupt the UMC. Tim said the reconciling movement represents inclusivity and that tells gay kids they are OK.
We were shown the trailer for the documentary movie Act of Love. Part of it is about the story of Frank Schaefer. Another part is about GC 2012. One moment in the trailer caught my attention. A member of Good News (one of our opponent organizations) said he had reveled in beating us in policy fights. But he has grown tired of seeing our pain when we lost. I so much wanted to hear about the implications of that statement.
Sunday, August 9
The first morning session was reports from various areas around the country telling us about local initiatives.
The first speaker asked an important question, though without supplying an answer. Why don't secular and faith-based gay rights organizations work together?
In the Cal-Nevada Conference sexual orientation is officially not an issue of ordination.
A speaker reminded us that laity have power. We must use it. The bishop cannot threaten us as can be done against wayward pastors.
The morning bible study was on Luke, chapter 3, in which John goes out into the wilderness to preach and baptize. Grace Imathiu noted the passage says Tiberius has been around for 15 years and that he had installed four puppet rulers over Judea. People had been eating empire food for 15 years. Here comes John and he doesn't wear empire clothes and doesn't eat empire food. He is living as an exile within the Promised Land, in exile within the church.
When we baptize infants, following John's example, we don't know that baby. We can't ask who are you? Are you gay? Even so, we make promises to that baby, that we will surround the baby with steadfast love. Will we break that promise? Should we wait until we know whether the baby is gay? When the baby grows up and becomes troublesome or makes us feel uncomfortable we must still say, "I promised the baby!"
The people who came to John said, "Abraham is our father." John replies that doesn't matter. Each person must produce fruit. Part of that means to search out people who need our help.
Our closing worship was with the Travis Park congregation, since we were in their sanctuary. The two groups filled the place. Our morning schedule took longer than was planned, so the service actually began at 11:00 instead of 10:30 and lasted until 12:30. The preacher was Theon Johnson of Glide UMC. He preached that God was not after right belief, but right living. From the way the church has been acting there is no surprise those outside don't come in. They don't trust us. Working from the same bible passage he said we must produce fruit, which stands for:
Faithful in action
Reaching out for inclusion
Unapologetic in saying hate is incompatible with Christian teaching
Intentional in our teaching
Transforming our ministries through radical love.
Johnson, who is black, talked about the controversy around black lives matter / all lives matter. The first phrase is a declaration that black lives also matter as much as white lives. The second accuses black people of saying only black lives matter and white lives don't.
Thursday, August 6
Convo opened with a worship service at 7:30. Since the title of this Convo is Gather at the River many scripture passages featured a river. So the altar during this service featured a river.
The first part (after a few rousing songs) was a presentation about Gene Legget. He was the first Methodist (before the "United" was added) pastor to come out as gay. He was quite the agitator in the 1970s at his local Annual Conference, which is held in the same sanctuary as our Convo. He also protested at several General Conferences. Much of his work was to attempt to eliminate the "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" phrase that was put in the new Book of Discipline in 1972.
Then came the bible study by Rev. Grace Imathiu. She is from Africa and is currently leading a church in a Chicago suburb. When asked to lead the bible study sessions she figured she would select her own verses. But no, the worship team did that for her. Thursday's passage was Revelations 22:1-5, from the last chapter of the bible. This passage is a glimpse of heaven. Imathiu's points: In times of stress and struggle it helps to read the last chapter first. We know how the story will end, which will help us to carry on. And once we've seen that last chapter a future without diversity will feel like an impoverished place.
The sermon was given by Rev. Peter Storey of South Africa. His bio is impressive – chaplain to Nelson Mandela while in jail, pastor of a congregation that was integrated in defiance of Apartheid, a leader behind the nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Storey also preached on the last chapter of Revelations.
The struggle for justice always involves pain. We need hope and signs of hope. He indicated us and said, "Welcome to God's future of the United Methodist Church!" Revelations 22 is a vision of heaven but it follows many darker visions. Some more people will die doing the work of justice. Justice is hard to sustain. We must be willing to suffer for the dreams of love.
The current fight of LGBT acceptance is a case of the church wounding the church. That makes us ask is our witness and pain worth it? Storey's response to that question is that we are not able to judge the worth of our pain. We are asked to witness, no matter the cost. Each bit of message is worth it. Cutting down a tree requires many strikes from the ax, but we don't know which strike will be the one that topples the tree.
Storey said that Apartheid would have ended ten years earlier but for the cowards in the pulpit. Of what or whom were they afraid? When we follow the love Jesus describes we are led to outrage.
The service ended around 10:00. Yeah, two and a half hours. But worth it.
Friday, August 7
We ended one day with worship and started the next with worship. The speaker was Nikilas Mawanda, a transgender man from Uganda. Yes, that's a dangerous place to be transgender. He was forced out of his parent's home when they concluded he was a lesbian, though he long knew he was transgender. He founded a support group for trans people. Then that nasty anti-gay bill was passed and he was arrested. Mawanda has strong words for Scott Lively and others who went to Uganda to stir up hate. You're playing politics with our lives. Does your theology kill people? He calls on us to reach out to Africa because they look up to us.
Elsewhere in the service transgender people did such things as read the scripture. Then we had the best part of the whole weekend: We invited all transgender people into the front and center and had a small ceremony of blessing. This was significant because within in the LGBT world the trans people are frequently discriminated against.
The service was followed by a panel discussion on Biblical Obedience. The panel was moderated by Matt Berryman, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network. Biblical Obedience is a rule breaking sense of justice for those on the margins. This is some of what was said.
Bishp Melvin Talbert is beloved by the reconciling movement for his call in 2012 at General Conference to Biblical Obedience, quite different from obedience to the Book of Discipline. Talbert connected our movement to the sit-ins of the 1950s and 60s that were a part of the civil rights movement. Discrimination against anyone is the same. General Conference is the last word on the Book of Discipline, but, as Talbert says, "My last word is before God." The church tries to be counter-cultural, stressing values ignored by the culture, such as taking care of the poor. But the church (including the UMC) missed it on marriage. The culture got there first. That's not being counter-cultural. Talbert is reminded of the question asked at baptism: Will you reject oppression in all its forms? So be faithful to your answer to that question. Give your whole self to the beloved community. There is no other way to be faithful.
Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto is the senior pastor at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church on San Francisco, an early church to declare itself to be reconciling. Oliveto has been a leader in RMN. She said that grace was taught to her by the church from an early age. She noted how much the institutional church supports the status quo. We are to be the leaven that changes the church. But we aren't to bring the margins to the center because the center is sinful. We are to take the church to the margins.
Alex Shanks is a transman, a spoken word poet, and an advocate for ministry with gender non-conforming people. He says that as a trans person he is made as God intended. He is called to ministry as much as anybody else. He considers his transition from female to male to be part of what God intended for him and a part of his call. He said he is more of a feminist as a man. He found out what he had been missing as a woman. Being trans allows him to be an advocate for blacks and for the poor.
Next was another bible study by Grace Imathiu, this time on the Exodus story, leading into the story of Joshua. At one point of their wanders in the wilderness Moses sent scouts into the Promised Land. Most returned with stories of giants who should be avoided. Imathiu said these scouts told the Israelites to back off as a way of protecting God. Those timid scouts were part of the reason for why the people of God wandered for 40 years. She said it takes 40 years to get pharaoh's thinking out of your head. The first task of an oppressor is to convince the oppressed that it is proper for them to be oppressed. Getting rid of that thought takes time. It also takes a while to undo the idea of two categories of people – us and them. Or in our case, male and female.
The Convo leaders randomly assigned us to groups called Reflecting Pools. These groups were a way for us to meet and get to know others in our movement. Today's discussion was essentially that.
I attended two workshops. The first was about intercultural competency and forming a broader community. It was put on by the denomination's General Commission on Religion and Race. The UMC in America is 90% white and that number is dropping. How are we forming community with other ethnic groups? How do we have deep and vital conversations across these groups?
One idea is the privilege walk. Participants form a line standing side by side. The leader reads a series of statements, such as, "If your parents attended college take a step forward." "If you have ever been arrested, take a step back." After many of these kinds of questions some people will be far ahead of others. This becomes a way of starting a discussion of privilege and a chance to hear each other's stories. One participant asked whether it was worth making those in the back of the room feel bad about their lack of privilege in order to teach those in the front of the room about their privilege.
Another idea is vital conversations. These are held in a safe environment, likely with a discussion of what that means. The conversations allow people to tell their stories, prompted by such questions as: Have you ever been followed in a store? Have you been an employee told to follow others in a store? Have you intentionally benefited from privilege? Do you avoid certain ethnic neighborhoods? How do you feel about others wanting to avoid your neighborhood? Keep in mind that people of color may feel the need to please white people in what they say, so responses may be internally edited. More here on the GCORR website.
My second workshop was about General Conference 2016. I'll save that to include with what was presented at a plenary session.
The evening session included some entertainment. Opening the session was the mariachi band Campanas de America. This is the first time I've seen a harp in such an ensemble. It was a lever harp and stood on legs so the player could stand while performing. The other instruments were guitar, bass guitar, violins, and trumpets. Various performers also sang. This photo shows the harp, but missed the one female of the group.
The evening speaker was Bishop Minerva Carcaño, currently serving in Los Angeles. She is the one who extended a job offer to Frank Schaefer when he was defrocked back in 2013. Even in the American South there are pastors who welcome their gay and lesbian members in spite of what their bishops say. They recognize same-sex love.
Carcaño told us the General Conference will be moved outside the United States starting in 2024. That one was slated for Harare in Africa with 2028 to be in Manila. But Amy DeLong, a lesbian pastor who has been on trial for conducting a same-sex wedding, asked if she would be safe in Harare. That prompted the question, are we life giving or life threatening? That prompted a revised schedule: the 2024 General Conference in Manila and 2028 in Harare only if gay and lesbian delegates would be safe.
The evening concluded with a performance by IlluMen, a local 8 member a cappella men's chorus. The music was wonderful!
Saturday, August 8
The morning again started with a worship service. The message was brought by Sara Thompson Tweedy, who had been brought up on charges for being a “self-avowed practicing homosexual” as the Book of Discipline puts it. She says, “I'm not practicing. I'm a professional!” She talked about how the institutional church dams up living water. It protects the institution, not the church – the people that make it a living thing. But the real danger isn't from our opponents, but from the mushy middle. She was quite critical of the church hierarchy for their slowness in doing what is loving and for the harm that has been caused along the way.
Tweedy's trial was scheduled to take place just after Frank Schaefer's trial and about the same time as Tom Ogletree's trial. This second one didn't happen because there was such outrage from the first and so much support for Ogletree the institution backed down. That was in November. The following May Tweedy's case was quietly dismissed. Tweedy said we can't wait for the Book of Discipline to change.
Every Convo invites the local bishop to visit, and speak if he wants. In places such as Maryland (the last Convo) the bishop is friendly to our cause (I don't remember if he showed up). But this is Texas. Bishop Jim Dorff came and requested to speak.
Even before he came to the pulpit the protests began in the form of signs hung from the balcony.
When the bishop was introduced the Convo leader reminded us we should be glad he showed up at all. We were also reminded this is a safe space – for everybody.
By this time the communion rail was full. Those kneeling there had a piece of blue cloth either covering the mouth or binding the wrists.
Dorff began, “This is not a fun time to be a bishop.” Ooh, bad start. “It is also not a fun time to be LGBT either.” He said his time with us is a God time for him. He needed to hear all the criticism that Sara had said. All he said was quite bland. He ended by saying he wants to be part of the solution. Many in the congregation shouted back, “SO DO IT!”
Emotions ran high (including mine). Many present had been hurt by this particular bishop or by many others like him. His bland pronouncements were unacceptable. The Convo leaders asked for a moment of silence. I heard a nearby whisper, “Our church will marry all,” apparently a Texas congregation ready and willing to defy this bishop. Rev. Dr. Julie Todd took part in the protest and shared her experience.
A woman made her way to the front and was given a microphone. This is a summary of what she said:
This is not a new issue. Don't pretend to be surprised by it. I was denied ordination 22 years ago. No current bishop was consecrated before this became an issue. No current pastor was ordained before this became an issue. There are no excuses.There was lots of spontaneous singing, including “We Shall Overcome.” Leadership offered another prayer for healing and then called for a break. There were a lot of hurt people that needed healing. We all needed time for emotions to subside.
The remaining morning sessions were shortened because the bishop's speech and our recovery took a good chunk of time.
The panel discussion was about the intersections of injustice. When one deals with health issues, one also deals with poverty, race, and even gay issues. Or, as is the case with these panelists, race, climate change, reproductive rights, and police brutality all intersect. The moderator was Chett Pritchett of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, the second sponsor of Convo.
Ann Craig specializes in social media skills to support LGBT-friendly faith leaders in Africa. She started by saying she challenges the stereotype that all Africans are against LGBT concerns. She also said that many of these intersections are personal and that working in intersections makes her work possible. We must address all of African's concerns.
Jenny Phillips works for the Pacific Northwest Conference in environmental stewardship. She represented the Fossil Free UMC drive to guide the church into divesting $700 million from all oil and coal corporations. We've already divested from tobacco, time to do the same for fossil fuels. She notes people on the margins are the ones who suffer most from climate change. Those who exploit creation also exploit people. It is hard to name a problem when we benefit from it. We don't need to be gay to be a gay ally. In the same way we don't have to be a scientist to advocate for protecting the climate.
Kathryn Johnson is a leader in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, an interdenominational group. She said for women to have a choice we must address sexism, racism, and economic need.
Jason Redick is on the board of the Center for Theological Activism. He advocates for immigrants, against police brutality, and against the death penalty. He says those who work with immigrants must be aware of LGBT rights because deportation of an LGBT person frequently leads to death.
On to another bible study by Grace Imathiu. She was disappointed that she had planned for 20 minutes and now was told she only had five. So she started skimming her notes and tossing pages onto the floor while those in the audience shouted that they wanted the full 20 minutes. She actually spoke for 15. The scripture this time was Ezekiel.
An old African saying: When two elephants fight, the grass suffers. In this passage Egypt and Babylon are fighting and Judea suffers. Judea is marched into exile. Back in 1972, when the first gay prohibitions were added to the Book of Discipline, LGBT people were marched into exile.
Exile strips us of everything. The priest, who doesn't have (and isn't bound by) a supporting institution and is useless in exile, becomes the prophet. He is free to imagine what the Promised Land looks like.
As Imathiu read the scripture she turned to us and said, "This next part is really great!" The passage describes a river of fresh water that is so full of life that when it enters the Dead Sea it turns that sea to fresh water, full of life.
After lunch my Reflecting Pool group got into a discussion of how we should label ourselves. The term "queer" used to be a disparaging term. Some of the older people in the group thought it was a word to avoid. But they were puzzled by younger people who embraced the word. We spent some time to puzzle out why. The collection of letters LGBT doesn't cover such things as intersex or asexual. I said I've used the term "sexual minorities." But another said that would include sex addicts, which is not what we want. Yet another said my term puts the emphasis on sex at a time when we complain our opponents reduce our relationships to a sexual act. So "queer" seems to be the word of choice, even if it does have that antagonistic baggage.
On to a discussion of next year's General Conference, including what I heard at Friday's workshop. The number of delegates has been reduced to 864, down from the usual number of almost a thousand. I'm sure the change is to reduce the cost of GC. The number doesn't matter as much as the percentages from each country. That is still mostly based on the number of UMC members in a country compared to the world-wide membership. In America the membership has dropped again so our delegates will be 58.3% of the total, down from 61.3%. Membership in Africa has grown, so their delegates will be 30.1%, up from 28.5%.
The bishop who presides over a session has influence over the discussion and procedures. Bishops volunteer for this task. We need to encourage progressive bishops to volunteer.
RMN, MFSA, and Affirmation formed the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC) back in 1996 (though under a different name). Three more groups joined in 2012. LYNC now has 11 partners and is active all the time, not just in the year before GC. They are: RMN, MFSA, Affirmation, Black Methodists for Church Renewal, MARCHA (Hispanic Americans), NFAAUM (Asian Americans), PINCUM (Pacific Islanders), Native American Caucus, UMC Ministers with Disabilities, Western Methodist Justice Movement (formed in the Western Jurisdiction after the 2012 GC), and Love Prevails. All of these groups are working on justice issues.
The Love Prevails group was started in response to the trial of Rev. Amy DeLong back in 2011. She introduced the group to the rest of Convo. Their slogan is disclose(t), divest, and disrupt. The first term is a combination of disclose and dis-closet. Both our LGBT pastors and our support for LGBT issues need to be disclosed, to come out of the closet. The group intends to divest their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness (part of membership vows) from all structures within the denomination that support the status quo of institutionalized discrimination. They intend to disrupt business as usual, because the time for polite persuasion has passed.
http://loveprevailsumc.com/
The LYNC coalition sees GC 2016 will be about struggles over power, ideals, and right belief. In particular that will play out over five areas. Will the church be for inclusion or will it (at least in America) be the church for straight white guys over the age of 45? The battle will be over sexuality, in particular heterosexism and reproductive rights. There are lots of petitions about judicial process – will proceedings before the Judicial Council be fair with a transparent process or will there be mandatory penalties for pastors who violate the Book of Discipline? There are lots of proposals for revising the church structure at the global, national, and regional level. Will those changes enhance or obstruct justice? Will money be allocated or denied for justice issues?
There were several restructuring plans presented in 2012. One was adopted, then thrown out during the last few hours of GC. Many of those are back, along with a few more. LYNC is watching them closely. One that appears missing would create an American Central Conference that can revise the Book of Discipline for local use in the same manner as is already done in Africa and other parts of the world.
A goal is to avoid schism. That has been a threat used against progressives for the last 20 years. But if the denomination split, it would collapse. Neither side would have enough money for the boards and agencies that support the local churches and give the denomination its distinctive focus.
There is a proposal is for continental "connections." Then GC would have delegates from each connection. An American connection would deal with American issues and be authorized to create an American version of the Book of Discipline. But GC 2016 would only get this process started, with approval in 2020. In addition, sexuality issues wouldn't be addressed until the new system is up and running.
During GC LYNC will do several things: They will witness to GC. They hope to have 350-500 volunteers there for various witness events. They will build relationships with delegates. They will propose and monitor legislation. They will communicate coalition goals to delegates and volunteers, including having prepared legislation talking points. They will care for each other when things go bad, including chaplains on call. They will conduct worship services and provide lunchtime speakers. They will extend hospitality, especially to delegates from around the world.
The witness events will be built around empathic resistance, an idea developed elsewhere. Event success will be measured in coalition building.
One leader said our hopes are high, but our expectations are low. Be prepared. Another said the votes are against us. The democratic avenue is closed. Miracles may happen, but miracles are not a good planning strategy.
But that gives us freedom in our witness. Show up anyway. We don't have to be meek. Our job is to witness, not worry whether our witness is effective. Who is the coalition? We are.
There are things we can do now: Sign the LYNC vision statement and pass it around for others to sign. Fill out the volunteer form and plan to go to Portland. Tell leaders what you think. Donate to LYNC. Pray.
Since we will likely not overturn official oppression of LGBT people the sense is there will be a great deal of disobedience of the Book of Discipline, over the next several years. The denomination will have to deal with it. How it does so may determine how and whether it survives. One response to that disobedience are the proposals for minimum sentences when pastors violate the rules.
The Convo banquet was held that night. The music entertainment was by Jennifer Knapp, a lesbian contemporary Christian singer. She told her story in between her songs.
Rev. Vicki Flippin of MFSA interviewed Frank and Tim Schaefer. Tim spoke first saying he wouldn't get a chance once his father started talking. Tim is the gay son whose wedding was officiated by Frank, which cost Frank his credentials. Tim said he now feels supported well enough that he will be attending seminary this fall. He doesn't know if he can be ordained in the UMC.
Frank recounted his trial. Before then he had been living in fear, not able to tell his conservative congregation how he felt. The filing of charges was an outing and he watched his congregation fall apart. During the trial Tim gave his testimony. A friend commented to Frank that what Tim said was his story 35 years before. That prompted Frank to change his closing testimony. He has a new goal – be an advocate for LGBT people. He is now free.
Later Grace Imathiu tied Frank to her bible studies. He had been sent into exile. The support of the institution had been withdrawn. Similar to Ezekiel, the pastor became a prophet.
Tim said the recent marriage equality ruling puts pressure on either the pastors or the bishops. Frank added unless we change we'll alienate the Millennials. We'll lose young families. Professionals will not want to associate with homophobia. We will bankrupt the UMC. Tim said the reconciling movement represents inclusivity and that tells gay kids they are OK.
We were shown the trailer for the documentary movie Act of Love. Part of it is about the story of Frank Schaefer. Another part is about GC 2012. One moment in the trailer caught my attention. A member of Good News (one of our opponent organizations) said he had reveled in beating us in policy fights. But he has grown tired of seeing our pain when we lost. I so much wanted to hear about the implications of that statement.
Sunday, August 9
The first morning session was reports from various areas around the country telling us about local initiatives.
The first speaker asked an important question, though without supplying an answer. Why don't secular and faith-based gay rights organizations work together?
In the Cal-Nevada Conference sexual orientation is officially not an issue of ordination.
A speaker reminded us that laity have power. We must use it. The bishop cannot threaten us as can be done against wayward pastors.
The morning bible study was on Luke, chapter 3, in which John goes out into the wilderness to preach and baptize. Grace Imathiu noted the passage says Tiberius has been around for 15 years and that he had installed four puppet rulers over Judea. People had been eating empire food for 15 years. Here comes John and he doesn't wear empire clothes and doesn't eat empire food. He is living as an exile within the Promised Land, in exile within the church.
When we baptize infants, following John's example, we don't know that baby. We can't ask who are you? Are you gay? Even so, we make promises to that baby, that we will surround the baby with steadfast love. Will we break that promise? Should we wait until we know whether the baby is gay? When the baby grows up and becomes troublesome or makes us feel uncomfortable we must still say, "I promised the baby!"
The people who came to John said, "Abraham is our father." John replies that doesn't matter. Each person must produce fruit. Part of that means to search out people who need our help.
Our closing worship was with the Travis Park congregation, since we were in their sanctuary. The two groups filled the place. Our morning schedule took longer than was planned, so the service actually began at 11:00 instead of 10:30 and lasted until 12:30. The preacher was Theon Johnson of Glide UMC. He preached that God was not after right belief, but right living. From the way the church has been acting there is no surprise those outside don't come in. They don't trust us. Working from the same bible passage he said we must produce fruit, which stands for:
Faithful in action
Reaching out for inclusion
Unapologetic in saying hate is incompatible with Christian teaching
Intentional in our teaching
Transforming our ministries through radical love.
Johnson, who is black, talked about the controversy around black lives matter / all lives matter. The first phrase is a declaration that black lives also matter as much as white lives. The second accuses black people of saying only black lives matter and white lives don't.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
First Sunday Program, October 6
This month we won't be having a worship service. Instead, Paul Kinney (that's me!) will be discussing his experiences at the recent Reconciling Ministries Convo. Come learn what Convo was all about. There is fellowship time with refreshments at 6:00 and worship at 6:30. We meet at Nardin Park United Methodist Church, 29887 W. Eleven Mile Rd., Farmington Hills. That's just west of Middlebelt.
The First Sunday Program will be changing soon. Please check back here for details.
The First Sunday Program will be changing soon. Please check back here for details.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Reconciling Ministries Network Convo
This is my report of my experience in Convo, held just outside Washington, DC this past weekend.
Friday, August 30
The Reconciling Ministries Convo “ChurchQuake” started today. I attended a day-long workshop on how to be a reconciling process coach. So, I know the basics of how to help a church become more welcoming. And I'm ready to be put to work... The materials for the workshop are much more comprehensive than I had gotten in previous such workshop. The guidance is much more step-by-step. The back cover of the booklet shows it was developed in conjunction with several other denominations.
We listened to Alton Pollard talk about what he learned from his mentor Howard Thurman. He suggested Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited. Some of the comments that caught my attention: Live the Village! There are no divisions in humanity even though we keep constructing new ones. Celebrate the rainbow. The church must be forever built, destroyed, and renewed. We think the destroy part means we've failed and avoid it. Playing is safe is destroying us. Be at home within yourself. Know who you are, know your home, then open your door and knock on another door. There are examples of communities without walls: those campaigning for the Dream Act, the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, the Marriage Equality movement, and the March on Washington a few days ago. There is a problem in our language. “Diverse” is a noun, we need a verb.
Convo officially opened in the evening with a worship service. Rev. Vicki Flippin of Church of the Village in New York City gave the sermon. The Scripture was Acts 16:23-34 (though you might start a few verses before). Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown into prison. An earthquake opens the doors and breaks their chains. The jailer is afraid they had escaped and moves to kill himself. Paul says “We're still here.” The jailer becomes a follower.
Rev. Flippin (saying it much better than I could) proposed a new interpretation: The jail is the church that has become rigid, trusting rules more than love. The jailer believes he must support the church or chaos will result. Paul and Silas represent the gay people who have been chained by church doctrine. But when they break free they don't flee quietly into the night. Instead, they boldly proclaim we are still here, ready to build a new church out of the old one, a church with a foundation of love.
Peterson Toscano is our Bible study leader this weekend He talked about the sexual minorities in the Bible. In the Old Testament there were three sexes – male, female, and eunuch. Many times when the Bible mentions “official” or “government official” the Hebrew word was the equivalent of “eunuch.” So consider a story form Jeremiah (chapter 38). The prophet had upset the people in power (which is what prophets do). He was kidnapped and dumped down a well where it was expected he would die. But it was a eunuch who planned and carried out a rescue operation. One of our people.
Saturday, August 31
The morning worship service featured the story of Esther. Preacher Karen Oliveto expanded on the story. Her main point was: Perhaps you are where you are for such a time as this.
Peterson Toscano was back with a couple more stories about gender minorities in the Bible. This time he acted out the role. In the first story he took the part of the head eunuch in the court of Xerxes at the time Esther became queen. He played the character as really gay. His point was there are huge numbers of eunuchs in the story. Without them the story would fall apart.
In the second story he took the role of the manly Esau telling us about his nephew Joseph. Even though scholars say they don't know the proper definition of the Hebrew word translated as “coat of many colors” the word is used in the Bible one other place and there it clearly is described as “princess dress.” Yes, that implies Joseph was transgender. In addition, when the brothers find Joseph in Egypt Joseph rejects what all the other men in the family tend to do which is retaliate. Instead, he forgives.
The morning plenary session was a roundtable on the state of the movement. A few of the comments: Matt Berryman, new executive director of RMN, called on us to be Biblically obedient (as in the message of love) because we know how the story ends. The theme of Biblical obedience returned several times.
Randall Miller said this movement is greater than changing a few paragraphs in the Book of Discipline. It is also larger than gay issues. RMN should be larger too. We are not alone in this struggle. But we face problems. The United Methodist Church is aging, its population centers (thus more votes at General Conference) are in the South and in Africa, and the American church policy is based on a world vote.
Kristian Clauser is a transgender man. He said that when we get involved in trans issues, we will do such things as get involved in challenging voter ID laws, which will get us involved in issues of the homeless, the blind, the elderly, and immigrants. We're all connected.
Our afternoon was spent on a field trip. My group of a dozen went to the Sewall-Belmont House. It is across the street from the Supreme Court, though the Court was elsewhere when the house was built and used for its memorable purpose. That purpose was to serve as headquarters for the Suffrage movement of the turn of the last century. It is now a museum of that cause. Our tour guide told us of some of the events and described some of the interesting characters.
One of the women, with Vanderbilt in her name somewhere, hosted parties and at each one talked incessantly about a woman's right to vote. Finally, many of her friends said that unless she stopped talking about it they wouldn't come to any more parties. She agreed to be quiet. At the next party she displayed new china and every piece had the words “Votes for Women.” Of course, copies are on sale in the gift shop.
Another interesting character was cartoonist Nina Allender. Her job was to explain the movement to the country as concisely as she could. She always portrayed the women with dignity. This one is my favorite. Uncle Sam says:
In spite of the cuteness of those two stories these women sometimes faced severe trials. That included a protest march that turned into a riot, sending 100 women to the hospital. Another march resulted in arrests ("obstructing traffic") and harsh treatments, including forced feedings. They asked to be labeled as political prisoners so their conditions would approve. The slipped notes of their treatment to the press, resulting in more converts to their cause.
The amendment granting the vote to women was approved by Congress on June 8, 1919. Two days later Wisconsin and Michigan ratified it. Enough states ratified it by August of 1920, only 14 months. Those that didn't ratify it (or didn't need to because there were already enough states that did) are mostly in the South. Alaska and Hawaii weren't states yet, though Hawaii did ratify it in the 1960s.
That evening Rev. Sam Offer led a plenary session on Embracing Connectedness. We each have a variety of identities, such as white, male, straight, middle class, well educated, Christian, etc. All these identities speak with one voice. They can't be separated. They influence how I relate to others who are not like me. We show up as an individual, but are frequently seen first as a member of a group which hides our individuality. Because of that we need to understand what the culture is saying about each of the groups in our identities.
A panel session featured people from organizations related to RMN – the youth MOSAIC group, the transgender group, and United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church. They were asked how they felt about the denomination and what they bring to the discussion.
MOSAIC feels they are being silenced and ignored by the church. They feel dismissed as the “future” but they're ready to work for justice now! The people of color feel between worlds. Because of their stance on gay issues they feel shut out of their old world, but not quite embraced by the new. Yet, they know discrimination and want to end discrimination towards gay people as much as they want to end discrimination based on race. We need to create safe spaces to hear other voices. Trans people prompt discussions of gender and gender oppression.
How do we avoid tokenization? Are we talking to a person to check off a box or are we interested in their voice? The solution is to get to know more than one of us.
Sunday, September 1
The sermon in the morning worship was given by Marcus Briggs-Cloud of the Muskogee Nation. He gave the native view of America and Christianity and it wasn't always pretty. In native culture is the celebration of people described as one who stands between genders. They were integral to society and were assumed to have entered the world that way. This is a sharp contrast to the homophobia taught by the church. Though the Muskogee had men's work and women's work they didn't have a word for gender. Which means perhaps some of their stories are mistranslated. That includes the one about the spirit animal that liked to look up dresses. Europeans will say that animal is male. But maybe it was lesbian. Much of Western Society is built around oppression and that includes oppression of the Earth. If there is no Earth there is no life. Listen to the wind and rain.
Here is the altar and backdrop of our worship space.
Peterson Toscano was back with another story. This one was about Jesus instructing his disciples to prepare the Passover meal that would be the Last Supper. He tells them to go into the city and talk to a man carrying a water jug – but that was women's work! Peterson proposes this was a transgender person. Just before the Last Supper it is possible a transgender person played a key part of the story.
My first workshop was on Will Africa Always be Anti-gay ? It was an important topic because the African vote was a seen as a big reason why the gay affirming vote failed last year at General Conference. What do we do about that so we can avoid the same result in 2016? The discussion was lively. Some of the comments and questions: Should we be imposing our culture on another country? How do we share without exporting Western values? Perhaps we should break all ties? What do Africans think about possible separation? Would they feel free of our culture or miss the money we give them? What happens to our relationships when the size of our donations shrink? How can we be a worldwide church with a single nomenclature when differing cultures would seem to prevent that? Didn't our missionaries create this mess? How do we clean it up? Do we take the blame? If the only thing that seems to be part of the worldwide denomination is our social principles (even though they feel free to ignore the parts that don't fit their culture) what happens when that document is no longer world-wide?
Alas, a lot of our perceptions of Africa are negative and most of them appear to be wrong. Issues of literalism, sexuality, and polygamy aren't as black-and-white as they are frequently made out to be. The denomination has seen huge growth in Africa and Philippines. But in Europe and America we are shrinking. How is the relationship faring now? Even so, there are stories of hope. What should we do now? Talk.
The second workshop was about mercy and justice. The leaders asked us to define both terms. Then we were led an exercise. What do congregations do to help those in poverty? We came up with a long list. Then we were asked to name causes of poverty. That list was even longer. Then the discussion got interesting.
Why don't we church people work to eliminate poverty? That was a long list: The things we do to alleviate the basic needs of poverty are easy and allow us to feel good. We are sometimes given awards for it. But work to reduce poverty requires risk and sacrifice. It can lead to arrest. It might alienate us from friends. It is seen as too radical and too political. It requires building relationships with the poor, which we don't have. We fear the other. Some people feel the poor deserve their plight. It takes too long to see results. We might get compassion fatigue. We have no way to measure success. We don't know what to do when they ask for more.
When might we work towards elimination of poverty? When it is someone with whom we have a relationship. We want change that lasts for the people we love.
Charity work, or mercy, is never enough. It leaves the root cause in place and allows us to feel we've done enough. We can step up to self-help projects, such as community gardens. We can educate ourselves for transformation. We can step up to advocacy. Best of all is when we organize to advocate together. As a team we can name a specific change and create a strategy. We work up from one person to a team a district, a conference, and a nation.
How do we start? With a buddy. Share each other's story. My story includes the people and experiences that shaped me, my understanding of oppression, my vision, dream for change, and my hope. We look for points of connection and talk about who else cares and what's next. As we invite more people to the cause we share stories again, then develop a plan. Systemic problems are caused by real people and real people can be challenged.
Back at General Conference Bishop Melvin Talbert called for Biblical obedience over church laws. If we weren't able to change an unjust law, it was time to start ignoring it. Talbert was with us to renew that call. Oppression is a opportunity for all of us to practice what we preach. He and Bishop Mary Ann Swenson talked about how they came to support Biblical obedience. A panel told their own stories. One of them explained that no matter how much he checks the labels on clothing he can't eliminate foreign sweatshops. We as individuals cannot live ethically, the powers will make us complicit in their oppression. We can only end injustice together.
We had an evening service at one of the several Reconciling churches in Washington. The choir was a combined group from all such churches. Bishop Talbert was the preacher. The general theme was a celebration of how far we've come in marriage equality, including a recognition of the gay couples in attendance.
Monday, September 2
After a gathering by jurisdiction (USA is covered by 5 of them) to share a few ideas and meet our RMN jurisdiction coordinator, we had one more story from Peterson Toscano. He told the story of the Ethiopian eunuch recorded in Acts 8, which includes a discussion of Isaiah 56. This passage in Acts is usually seen as evangelism or as describing the atonement of Jesus. Perhaps, as Peterson told it, it is about an outcast seeing himself in the text of Isaiah and knowing he is welcome, that we are all welcome.
I talked to Peterson a bit after lunch. His catalog of sexual minorities in the Bible was much longer than he could share with us. He's done some serious scholarship here. You can find a few of his stories on YouTube. They're about 5 minutes each. He is writing a book as well, though I didn't hear a date for publication.
The closing worship featured a rousing Evangelical-style sermon by Rev. Joseph Tolton. He used the theme of the service "Recreating Resolve." It was an enthusiastic ending to the whole event.
Many of the plenary sessions and worship services were live-streamed. Videos will probably be posted on the RMN website soon (though you may have to pay for them).
Friday, August 30
The Reconciling Ministries Convo “ChurchQuake” started today. I attended a day-long workshop on how to be a reconciling process coach. So, I know the basics of how to help a church become more welcoming. And I'm ready to be put to work... The materials for the workshop are much more comprehensive than I had gotten in previous such workshop. The guidance is much more step-by-step. The back cover of the booklet shows it was developed in conjunction with several other denominations.
We listened to Alton Pollard talk about what he learned from his mentor Howard Thurman. He suggested Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited. Some of the comments that caught my attention: Live the Village! There are no divisions in humanity even though we keep constructing new ones. Celebrate the rainbow. The church must be forever built, destroyed, and renewed. We think the destroy part means we've failed and avoid it. Playing is safe is destroying us. Be at home within yourself. Know who you are, know your home, then open your door and knock on another door. There are examples of communities without walls: those campaigning for the Dream Act, the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, the Marriage Equality movement, and the March on Washington a few days ago. There is a problem in our language. “Diverse” is a noun, we need a verb.
Convo officially opened in the evening with a worship service. Rev. Vicki Flippin of Church of the Village in New York City gave the sermon. The Scripture was Acts 16:23-34 (though you might start a few verses before). Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown into prison. An earthquake opens the doors and breaks their chains. The jailer is afraid they had escaped and moves to kill himself. Paul says “We're still here.” The jailer becomes a follower.
Rev. Flippin (saying it much better than I could) proposed a new interpretation: The jail is the church that has become rigid, trusting rules more than love. The jailer believes he must support the church or chaos will result. Paul and Silas represent the gay people who have been chained by church doctrine. But when they break free they don't flee quietly into the night. Instead, they boldly proclaim we are still here, ready to build a new church out of the old one, a church with a foundation of love.
Peterson Toscano is our Bible study leader this weekend He talked about the sexual minorities in the Bible. In the Old Testament there were three sexes – male, female, and eunuch. Many times when the Bible mentions “official” or “government official” the Hebrew word was the equivalent of “eunuch.” So consider a story form Jeremiah (chapter 38). The prophet had upset the people in power (which is what prophets do). He was kidnapped and dumped down a well where it was expected he would die. But it was a eunuch who planned and carried out a rescue operation. One of our people.
Saturday, August 31
The morning worship service featured the story of Esther. Preacher Karen Oliveto expanded on the story. Her main point was: Perhaps you are where you are for such a time as this.
Peterson Toscano was back with a couple more stories about gender minorities in the Bible. This time he acted out the role. In the first story he took the part of the head eunuch in the court of Xerxes at the time Esther became queen. He played the character as really gay. His point was there are huge numbers of eunuchs in the story. Without them the story would fall apart.
In the second story he took the role of the manly Esau telling us about his nephew Joseph. Even though scholars say they don't know the proper definition of the Hebrew word translated as “coat of many colors” the word is used in the Bible one other place and there it clearly is described as “princess dress.” Yes, that implies Joseph was transgender. In addition, when the brothers find Joseph in Egypt Joseph rejects what all the other men in the family tend to do which is retaliate. Instead, he forgives.
The morning plenary session was a roundtable on the state of the movement. A few of the comments: Matt Berryman, new executive director of RMN, called on us to be Biblically obedient (as in the message of love) because we know how the story ends. The theme of Biblical obedience returned several times.
Randall Miller said this movement is greater than changing a few paragraphs in the Book of Discipline. It is also larger than gay issues. RMN should be larger too. We are not alone in this struggle. But we face problems. The United Methodist Church is aging, its population centers (thus more votes at General Conference) are in the South and in Africa, and the American church policy is based on a world vote.
Kristian Clauser is a transgender man. He said that when we get involved in trans issues, we will do such things as get involved in challenging voter ID laws, which will get us involved in issues of the homeless, the blind, the elderly, and immigrants. We're all connected.
Our afternoon was spent on a field trip. My group of a dozen went to the Sewall-Belmont House. It is across the street from the Supreme Court, though the Court was elsewhere when the house was built and used for its memorable purpose. That purpose was to serve as headquarters for the Suffrage movement of the turn of the last century. It is now a museum of that cause. Our tour guide told us of some of the events and described some of the interesting characters.
One of the women, with Vanderbilt in her name somewhere, hosted parties and at each one talked incessantly about a woman's right to vote. Finally, many of her friends said that unless she stopped talking about it they wouldn't come to any more parties. She agreed to be quiet. At the next party she displayed new china and every piece had the words “Votes for Women.” Of course, copies are on sale in the gift shop.
Another interesting character was cartoonist Nina Allender. Her job was to explain the movement to the country as concisely as she could. She always portrayed the women with dignity. This one is my favorite. Uncle Sam says:
American women. You are our inspiration. You give us our soldiers. You conserve our food. You work in our munition factories. You serve our sick and wounded. Accept this bouquet!Her bindings say:
Unequal political rights. Equal work, unequal wages. Kindly omit flowers.
In spite of the cuteness of those two stories these women sometimes faced severe trials. That included a protest march that turned into a riot, sending 100 women to the hospital. Another march resulted in arrests ("obstructing traffic") and harsh treatments, including forced feedings. They asked to be labeled as political prisoners so their conditions would approve. The slipped notes of their treatment to the press, resulting in more converts to their cause.
The amendment granting the vote to women was approved by Congress on June 8, 1919. Two days later Wisconsin and Michigan ratified it. Enough states ratified it by August of 1920, only 14 months. Those that didn't ratify it (or didn't need to because there were already enough states that did) are mostly in the South. Alaska and Hawaii weren't states yet, though Hawaii did ratify it in the 1960s.
That evening Rev. Sam Offer led a plenary session on Embracing Connectedness. We each have a variety of identities, such as white, male, straight, middle class, well educated, Christian, etc. All these identities speak with one voice. They can't be separated. They influence how I relate to others who are not like me. We show up as an individual, but are frequently seen first as a member of a group which hides our individuality. Because of that we need to understand what the culture is saying about each of the groups in our identities.
A panel session featured people from organizations related to RMN – the youth MOSAIC group, the transgender group, and United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church. They were asked how they felt about the denomination and what they bring to the discussion.
MOSAIC feels they are being silenced and ignored by the church. They feel dismissed as the “future” but they're ready to work for justice now! The people of color feel between worlds. Because of their stance on gay issues they feel shut out of their old world, but not quite embraced by the new. Yet, they know discrimination and want to end discrimination towards gay people as much as they want to end discrimination based on race. We need to create safe spaces to hear other voices. Trans people prompt discussions of gender and gender oppression.
How do we avoid tokenization? Are we talking to a person to check off a box or are we interested in their voice? The solution is to get to know more than one of us.
Sunday, September 1
The sermon in the morning worship was given by Marcus Briggs-Cloud of the Muskogee Nation. He gave the native view of America and Christianity and it wasn't always pretty. In native culture is the celebration of people described as one who stands between genders. They were integral to society and were assumed to have entered the world that way. This is a sharp contrast to the homophobia taught by the church. Though the Muskogee had men's work and women's work they didn't have a word for gender. Which means perhaps some of their stories are mistranslated. That includes the one about the spirit animal that liked to look up dresses. Europeans will say that animal is male. But maybe it was lesbian. Much of Western Society is built around oppression and that includes oppression of the Earth. If there is no Earth there is no life. Listen to the wind and rain.
Here is the altar and backdrop of our worship space.
Peterson Toscano was back with another story. This one was about Jesus instructing his disciples to prepare the Passover meal that would be the Last Supper. He tells them to go into the city and talk to a man carrying a water jug – but that was women's work! Peterson proposes this was a transgender person. Just before the Last Supper it is possible a transgender person played a key part of the story.
My first workshop was on Will Africa Always be Anti-gay ? It was an important topic because the African vote was a seen as a big reason why the gay affirming vote failed last year at General Conference. What do we do about that so we can avoid the same result in 2016? The discussion was lively. Some of the comments and questions: Should we be imposing our culture on another country? How do we share without exporting Western values? Perhaps we should break all ties? What do Africans think about possible separation? Would they feel free of our culture or miss the money we give them? What happens to our relationships when the size of our donations shrink? How can we be a worldwide church with a single nomenclature when differing cultures would seem to prevent that? Didn't our missionaries create this mess? How do we clean it up? Do we take the blame? If the only thing that seems to be part of the worldwide denomination is our social principles (even though they feel free to ignore the parts that don't fit their culture) what happens when that document is no longer world-wide?
Alas, a lot of our perceptions of Africa are negative and most of them appear to be wrong. Issues of literalism, sexuality, and polygamy aren't as black-and-white as they are frequently made out to be. The denomination has seen huge growth in Africa and Philippines. But in Europe and America we are shrinking. How is the relationship faring now? Even so, there are stories of hope. What should we do now? Talk.
The second workshop was about mercy and justice. The leaders asked us to define both terms. Then we were led an exercise. What do congregations do to help those in poverty? We came up with a long list. Then we were asked to name causes of poverty. That list was even longer. Then the discussion got interesting.
Why don't we church people work to eliminate poverty? That was a long list: The things we do to alleviate the basic needs of poverty are easy and allow us to feel good. We are sometimes given awards for it. But work to reduce poverty requires risk and sacrifice. It can lead to arrest. It might alienate us from friends. It is seen as too radical and too political. It requires building relationships with the poor, which we don't have. We fear the other. Some people feel the poor deserve their plight. It takes too long to see results. We might get compassion fatigue. We have no way to measure success. We don't know what to do when they ask for more.
When might we work towards elimination of poverty? When it is someone with whom we have a relationship. We want change that lasts for the people we love.
Charity work, or mercy, is never enough. It leaves the root cause in place and allows us to feel we've done enough. We can step up to self-help projects, such as community gardens. We can educate ourselves for transformation. We can step up to advocacy. Best of all is when we organize to advocate together. As a team we can name a specific change and create a strategy. We work up from one person to a team a district, a conference, and a nation.
How do we start? With a buddy. Share each other's story. My story includes the people and experiences that shaped me, my understanding of oppression, my vision, dream for change, and my hope. We look for points of connection and talk about who else cares and what's next. As we invite more people to the cause we share stories again, then develop a plan. Systemic problems are caused by real people and real people can be challenged.
Back at General Conference Bishop Melvin Talbert called for Biblical obedience over church laws. If we weren't able to change an unjust law, it was time to start ignoring it. Talbert was with us to renew that call. Oppression is a opportunity for all of us to practice what we preach. He and Bishop Mary Ann Swenson talked about how they came to support Biblical obedience. A panel told their own stories. One of them explained that no matter how much he checks the labels on clothing he can't eliminate foreign sweatshops. We as individuals cannot live ethically, the powers will make us complicit in their oppression. We can only end injustice together.
We had an evening service at one of the several Reconciling churches in Washington. The choir was a combined group from all such churches. Bishop Talbert was the preacher. The general theme was a celebration of how far we've come in marriage equality, including a recognition of the gay couples in attendance.
Monday, September 2
After a gathering by jurisdiction (USA is covered by 5 of them) to share a few ideas and meet our RMN jurisdiction coordinator, we had one more story from Peterson Toscano. He told the story of the Ethiopian eunuch recorded in Acts 8, which includes a discussion of Isaiah 56. This passage in Acts is usually seen as evangelism or as describing the atonement of Jesus. Perhaps, as Peterson told it, it is about an outcast seeing himself in the text of Isaiah and knowing he is welcome, that we are all welcome.
I talked to Peterson a bit after lunch. His catalog of sexual minorities in the Bible was much longer than he could share with us. He's done some serious scholarship here. You can find a few of his stories on YouTube. They're about 5 minutes each. He is writing a book as well, though I didn't hear a date for publication.
The closing worship featured a rousing Evangelical-style sermon by Rev. Joseph Tolton. He used the theme of the service "Recreating Resolve." It was an enthusiastic ending to the whole event.
Many of the plenary sessions and worship services were live-streamed. Videos will probably be posted on the RMN website soon (though you may have to pay for them).
Friday, June 22, 2012
Reconciling Ministries Network Convo
The date and location of the 2013 has been announced. It will be over Labor Day weekend, August 30 to September 2, 2013 at the 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. That's outside Washington DC.
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