GC Pictures Posted!

I finally got around to uploading my pictures from General Conference today.  There aren’t many of them because my batteries died and I couldn’t find a store to buy replacements.  I don’t have much but I thought I’d post what I did take.

My name badge

The NCNY Delegation - the BEST delegation there!

Worship

Opening worship - on the side the white banner says "Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World"

Opening worship - April 23

Heather - NCNY's journalist for GC

Drumming vigil

The Counter-protesters during the drumming vigil

Beth - wearing Bruce's jacket!

Ron Bretsch - NCNY's expert of all things episcopal

Just a little light reading...

My voting machine!

The Bishops on the perimeter of the floor during opening worship

Mark Miller leading worship

Video about the EUB - ME merger in 1968

Part of the Young People's Address

An attentive.... well sort of, delegation

Drumming Vigil

Drumming Vigil

The Counter-Protesters that we attracted!

Drumming Vigil - Friday night

MoSAIC - Methodist Students for an All-Inclusive Church

The Screen

Standing in protest after the vote

Until We Meet Again… 4 Years from Now!

I don’t know how many people will actually read this post, considering GC ended a few days ago, but I thought that I’d bring some closure to this blog anyway.

General Conference ended Friday night and I have to say that even though I’m glad I will be able to enjoy regular sleeping hours now, I’ll miss it.  Overall, it was a great experience.  I learned so much about myself, the church and others. I learned that I am called to help bring justice and healing to our broken church.  I learned a lot about the UMC these past two weeks, too.  I saw the church at its best and at its worst at General Conference.

Overall, General Conference was amazing, awesome, horrible, boring and exciting.  There were definitely bad moments; I witnessed ageism, sexism, racism and homophobia while there.  But there were also many, many good moments.

Perhaps the most important thing I learned while at General Conference is that the UMC really
does have a future with hope.  And I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that I am called to be a part of shaping that hopeful future.

(I don’t intend to blog here much more, since General Conference is officially over.  However, I do have another blog which I post at fairly regularly. It’s called “Curt Comments from Kurt” and you can find it here.  I write about a wider variety of subjects in that blog, but United Methodist polity and related topics are some of my favorite still!)

General Conference Upholds Exclusionary Language

Before I write this blog, I have to preface it with this statement.  This is my blog, and as I said in my first post, I intended to use it as a forum for me to express my thoughts and feelings about General Conference.  That being said, I do not want comments to devolve into a theological argument.  If you disagree with my opinion, that is absolutely fine.  I respect that, but please do not comment to engage in debate.  If you wish to do so, I will simply ignore your comment.

Yesterday afternoon was a horrible, horrible plenary session.  We voted on several calendar items about homosexuality issues.  The afternoon was dominated by discussion on paragraph 161G in our Book of Discipline, which among other things, calls “homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching.”  Now if you’re familiar with me and my theology I strongly disagree with that statement.

Prior to General Conference convening, I never expected this clause to be removed this time around.  However, when the Human Sexuality subcommittee of the Church and Society #2 legislative committee passed a petition that struck this clause and said that faithful Christians have very different understandings of this issue but would be in dialogue with each other until the Holy Spirit illuminated a new understanding for us.  I had even more hope for its passage when this revision of 161G passed the full CS2 committee.

There was, however, also a minority report.  To those who are not familiar with parliamentary procedure, a number of persons can submit a minority report if they substantively disagree an issue.  According to procedure, the body votes on the minority report first and if it gets a majority, it becomes the majority report and the committee’s majority report is disregarded.

With this being such a controversial issue, there was a minority report.  This report retained the incompatibility clause and after amended by the whole General Conference contained even more discriminatory language than already in the Discipline and Book of Resolutions.  (Note: This is a social principle of the UMC and therefore appears both in the Discipline and Book of Resolutions.)

The process frustrated me so much.  The presiding bishop, with all due respect, was not at all impartial.  When speeches for the minority report were out of order, he allowed them or waited a rather long time
to cut the delegate off.  And when it came time to vote, a motion to suspend the rules to not have debate on the actual minority report passed!  We really only debated the minority and majority report through amendments, never the actual report.

I don’t think I ever felt so much suspense as I did yesterday when the room waited for the results to be tallied.  When the results were posted, I was so angry.  The minority report passed and the former majority report was discarded. And then, without much more debated we voted on adopting the minority report (new majority report) as becoming the new language for paragraph 161.  I so hoped that it wouldn’t pass, since the current language in the 2004 Discipline is less hateful.  Unfortunately, it passed 55-45%.  (I have been told that, despite its passage, the votes to retain the clause has narrowed each General Conference.)

After its passage, delegates gradually began standing up as a symbol of solidarity with out LGBT brothers and sisters.  During the vote, many people in the spectators’ gallery already stood up.  After the vote, the delegates joined them.  It was an amazing moment, seeing all these people standing up.

This vote happened right before we adjourned for dinner.  As usual, before we adjourn, the secretary of General Conference has announcements to read.  As he was reading, one delegate who was standing up a few rows behind me started singing “Jesus Loves Me.”  Slowly, just like the standing, others started joining in.  Soon, the secretary’s voice was drowned out by the singing. Some were crying, many were hugging and lots were singing.  It was truly an amazing sight to witness.

Several years ago, when I went to China on the Mission of Peace, I remember being in a Chinese church where they sung “Jesus loves me” in Chinese.  We, the Americans sang it in English.  That was such an amazing moment because it testified to the unity across cultures in Christ.  Yesterday was so different.  It showed the division within the Church.  It showed we are a divided body.  It showed that the communion is deeply broken.

Yet, within all of us who stood together singing (and I am very proud to say that every delegate from NCNY stood up except the one delegate who ran off the floor crying) there was a sense of unity.  Though we may be in the minority now, we know that this will someday change.  The minority is growing and the majority is shrinking.

The part that frustrated me the most was that the majority report was misrepresented by those presenting the minority report.  They called it vague, incoherent and one that does not represent their views.  However, the majority report specifically said, “Faithful, thoughtful people who have grappled with this issue deeply disagree with one another; yet all seek a faithful witness.  We continue to reason and pray together with faith and hope that the Holy Spirit will soon bring reconciliation to our community of faith.  The fire in our disagreements points to a deeper human mystery than we knew.  We believe that the Spirit has brought our collective conscience to acknowledge this mystery more honestly,  and to make our claims with greater humility before God and our neighbors.  We therefore ask the Church, United Methodist and others, and the world, to refrain from judgment of homosexual persons and practices as the Spirit leads us to new insight.  Let us seek to welcome, forgive, and love one another as Christ has accepted us, that God may be glorified through everything in our lives.”

These statements don’t state that we accept or condemn homosexuality.  It merely says, to use a familiar phrase, that we will be in holy conferencing with each other.  This was not a ploy by the liberals to take over the church.  Nor was it insensitive to the conservatives’ beliefs.  It remained open to dialogue from both sides. It allowed for a future with hope.  I am deeply disappointed that this did not pass.

In case you’re wondering, I do not identify as gay.  I just think it’s hypocritical that our church excludes people.  The God I follow, love and worship does not discriminate. After the vote yesterday, I said to a member in my delegation that I just don’t understand how we can do this to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Jesus offered radical hospitality and anything short of that, in my opinion, is incompatible with Christian teaching.

Today, there was a witness/non-violent protest about the issue.  It’s posted on the UMC General Conference website here. I don’t really have anything to comment about it. I think that it speaks for itself.