Month: February 2019

The General Conference just approved the Disaffiliation – Taylor Petition with revisions which lays out a process for churches to leave the denomination while retaining their property and assets provided that they meet the financial obligations in the plan. This would allow any church the opportunity to leave the denomination in a more detailed, structured, and unified fashion than is currently provided in the Book of Discipline. A representative from our General Council on Finance and Administration reported that on average for ever 1% of UMC churches that leave the denomination the General Church and Annual Conferences will lose 5.2 million dollars. It will be interesting to see if many churches choose this path moving into the future.

 

At approximately 4:46 PM the Traditional Plan passed. As I reported earlier, parts of the Traditional Plan were ruled unconstitutional. Some amendments were made to some of the parts of the plan, but not all of the constitutional problems were fixed. The rulings from the Judicial Council are advisory rulings. The ultimate constitutionality of the plans will have to be tested on a case by case basis over time. In time, parts of the plan will be ruled unconstitutional officially. At the same time, other parts of the Traditional Plan were constitutional and further narrow the stance of the UMC on issues of homosexual practice, marriage, and ordination.

After the ruling some who are of the traditionalist viewpoint sang hymns of praise. Those who were hoping for the One Church plan began singing, “This is my Story, This is my Song” and began chanting phrases between those on the floor to the observers in the stands. In an earlier blog I remarked about how I love the diversity of our denomination. The scene in the arena today is the painful part of being part of such a diverse denomination. We have divergent viewpoints about theology, the Bible, and how to practice our faith. More homogeneous denominations would not get to experience the beauty or the pain of the scenes we’ve witnessed this few days.

It’s important to acknowledge that persons within the Christian faith have different viewpoints on these issues of human sexuality. Those hoping for a more inclusive UMC will walk away from today hurt and disappointed. We need to remember that the UMC Discipline continues to say that “homosexual persons, no less than heterosexual persons, are individuals of sacred worth.” All people are loved by God.

As mentioned in earlier posts The One Church Plan which would allow local churches to make their own decision about same-sex marriage and pastors would be able to make his or her own decision about whether to do same-sex marriages. This plan did not pass through the legislative committee yesterday, but was brought forth today as a minority report. Dr. Tom Berlin, a pastor in the Virginia Conference, presented this report and urged delegates to vote for the One Church plan or to abstain from voting if they could not, in good conscience, vote for it.  After the votes were cast the One Church Plan failed to pass. It will not be able to be passed at this point.

This afternoon the delegates of the General Conference will continue to work through the proposals which passed yesterday. They will be amended, and ultimately voted up or down. We General Conference must adjourn at 6:30 PM based on our standing rules and also because the arena in which we are meeting will be used for a Monster Truck Rally this weekend and there are dump trucks of dirt poised to come in and radically change this place (it’s hard to make this stuff up). This time limit means that it is possible that all of the proposals will not be able to be considered. This is a common problem at General Conferences. It is hard to slowly work through legislation and be done when you have to be done.

One of the fears about this Conference that some have had that we would gather and nothing will really get passed. It seemed overly optimistic that this decades long debate could be figured out in the course of four days.  I’ve heard some say that the worst thing that could happen is nothing. I’m not so sure that is true. There will be another General Conference in 2020 where further work can be offered on these challenges. I’m grateful that in our local church in Mobile, AL we continue to be focused on our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world: love God, love people, and change the world.

 

The organization of the UMC is similar to the organization of the U.S. government with three basic branches that have separation of powers. Our legislative branch is the General Conference which passes legislation and the only body that can officially speak for the UMC. Our “executive branch” could be described as our Council of Bishops. This is probably where our system is MOST different from the U.S. government. Bishops have a role in enforcing the church’s rules as well as making initial rulings of law. Also, they do not have any kind of veto power over legislation. The third branch is our Judicial Council which is similar to the U.S. Government’s Supreme Court. The Judicial Council reviews the rulings that Bishops make, and also rules on the constitutionality of legislation (our church has a constitution like most organizations) in a case-law fashion.

The Judicial Council will provide a declaratory ruling of legislation if asked by the General Conference to do so (some other groups can also request this). The Council of Bishops requested and received rulings about the three plans a few months ago. They ruled on the Traditional Plan and the One Church Plan. The Traditional Plan had many things in it which were ruled unconstitutional; the One Church Plan had fewer constitutional problems. Only a few amendments passed that would have “fixed” the constitutional problems, so it is not a surprise that the Judicial Council just released their ruling that most of the Traditional Plan is still not constitutional.

Right now Dr. Tom Berlin is presenting the minority report from yesterday’s legislative session. He is proposing that the Traditional Plan be substituted by the Once Church Plan. I’ll update after the vote on the minority report.

 

The One Church Plan would allow local congregations, local clergy, and Annual Conferences to make their own determinations regarding same sex marriage and the ordination of homosexual persons. This plan was supported by a majority of our active Bishops and a majority of those serving on the Commission on a way Forward. This plan was amended and debated today, but was defeated. This means that the One Church Plan will not be move forward to tomorrow’s plenary session as a majority motion of the committee. This does not, however, mean that the One Church Plan is “dead.” It will most assuredly come to the plenary session tomorrow as a minority report and could be taken up by the plenary session by a majority vote. This seems unlikely to happen since the members of the legislative committee today are the same people who will be voting in tomorrow’s plenary session. Time will tell.

Two petitions about disaffiliation were voted as “high priority” and are being discussed and debated this morning. Some have called these types of petitions as a “Gracious Exit Clause.” The idea is that some churches may not be able to accept the decision of this General Conference regarding human sexuality. These plans outline a process by which UM churches can disaffiliate or leave the denomination. Currently there is a process for leaving the denomination in the Discipline, but it isn’t very uniform or clear. It basically leads to a case by case process for each church that desires this.  Each of these plans give churches a certain time period to use this option to disaffiliate.

At approximately 11:40 AM this morning the first of the disaffiliation petitions was passed by the legislative committee (the Taylor one for those keeping track). This will be forwarded to the plenary session tomorrow. I want to be clear, the decisions being made today are not binding. They are preliminary actions to perfect legislation before being voted upon by the official General Conference. Only a vote of the entire General Conference tomorrow will make things officially church law and become part of our Book of Discipline. Of course the people making these decisions today are the same people who will be voting tomorrow. Things which pass with a majority today will likely pass tomorrow with a majority. That is likely, but not guaranteed.

Both the Boyette Amendment (which also ended up passing) and the Taylor Amendments (both disaffiliation amendments) will require churches to pay a significant sum to the Annual Conference in order to leave the denomination. This sum would, for the most part,  be tied to the amount the Annual Conference will need to fulfill commitments to clergy in terms of their pensions in the future. These have both been called “gracious exit” amendments. The thinking is that this would graciously allow churches to leave the denomination with their property (real, tangible, and intangible) while not leaving the Annual Conference in the lurch of having to meet pension obligations without the ongoing support of leaving congregations. As you probably know, local UM churches hold their property “in trust” of the Conference. This means that ultimately all local church property belongs to the Annual Conference. These disaffiliation plans would provide a way around that provision.

Many of us may recall the many lawsuits that ensued when Episcopal churches began to attempt to leave their denomination years ago. Many of those lawsuits were ugly, expensive, and divisive. These proposals are meant to avoid these kinds of lawsuits in the UMC. The concern of this legislation is that it opens the door for many churches to leave the denomination which may cause the UMC to splinter apart.  The deeply held convictions about human sexuality that persons hold will likely mean that some churches will opt to leave if that is made available to them depending on what all is decided here. There will be, however, a significant financial cost to churches who wish to leave with these options in order to ensure the denomination can meet it’s pension demands.

Next up: debate over the One Church Plan

The General Conference follows Robert’s Rules of Order along with their own Rules of Order that have been previously agreed upon. Many of our church committees, Civic Clubs, and other organizations follow a modified version of Roberts Rules of Order, but few really understand the depth of how they work and how to use them. The purpose of Roberts Rules of Order is primarily to carefully and respectfully manage conflict, and hopefully move along debate in an orderly way. These rules are usually confusing in a church’s Board of Trustees meeting, but get a lot more complicated and confusing in a body like The General Conference. Though our General Conference delegates are more adept and experienced at these kinds of proceedings than your average pastor or church-member, it is still very confusing. Watching from the sidelines or online can be very tedious, and a little frustrating. I sometimes think, “Why can’t they just move on.” This day will be filled with lots of amendments to the petitions and plans. Each one will have to be moved, seconded, and speeches for and against will be offered. As tedious and frustrating as this is, this is what legislative committees do.

The Traditional Plan, which is being amended and debated this morning had large parts ruled unconstitutional by our Judicial Council in an advisory ruling a few months ago. The amendments being offered this morning are trying to fix some of these issues. There are going to be lots of amendments and each one will be very tedious. With every vote that is taken, it seems that the strength of those with a traditional mindset are still in the majority and are trying to push the Traditional Plan through and are trying to repair the unconstitutional parts. The body (at approximately 10:35 AM) voted to close debate on the Traditional Plan, approved the most recent amendment then passed the plan by 56% which means it will go to the plenary session tomorrow to be debated, amended, and voted upon.

Next up: Debate about the disaffiliation plan #1.

Today has been primarily about the basic three plans that have been brought forward by the Commission On a Way Forward. The Commission members (seemed like pretty much all of them) spoke about their process over the 17 month period. Presenters were chosen from the Commission to speak on behalf of each of the plans. Each persons chosen spoke passionately in favor of the plan about which they were speaking. The speaker speaking for the One Church Plan (which would allow the issues of homosexual marriage and the ordination of homosexuals to become more of a local matter) emphasized how this plan would allow for greater contextualization of churches to be in ministry with homosexual persons. The person speaking for the Connectional Conference Plan admitted that it was a complete restructuring of the church, however, said that the plan would allow the church to remain under a big tent together, while still being able to reach people for Christ in ways that fit their convictions. The final presenter, Rev. Jessica LaGrone, was the advocate for The Traditional Plan. She used the metaphor of a soccer field to talk about the need for the rule of Scripture and the accountability of the Discipline to play by the rules.

I appreciated the conviction and passion with which each speaker advocated for their plan. I was particularly inspired by the woman who spoke for the Connectional Conference Plan. I think most people rejected this plan pretty quickly because of the difficulty it would face in getting passed as well as it’s complexity. It would require at least eight Constitutional Amendments to pass. This is a very high bar, and the UMC has not had a good track record of getting large pieces of constitutional reform through all of the Annual Conference delegates.  In some ways it is the plan that actually provides a way forward beyond our ongoing debates about human sexuality. It would provide for a managed and orderly “split” of the church into three denominations: progressive, moderate, and traditional; while at the same time keeping the groups connected organizationally. There are plenty of problems and challenges with this plan, but I wish more people would take it seriously. The commission obviously put a LOT of work into it, we need to at least consider it.

Usually, when you go into a General Conference you have a hunch about what will happen. I don’t meet too many people who feel like they know what will actually happen. The Traditional Plan, or some version of it, seems like it would have the most support because it is most like what the UMC currently has. However, I’ve talked with One Church Plan proponents who feel confident it will pass. As I’m writing this (3:10 PM on Sunday) they are tabulating the results of the prioritization process. This will determine the order the various plans and petitions taken up by the legislative committee. The “voting” of this process took a good bit of time, but he tabulation seems to be taking even longer. Thankfully, the worship band has kept the group dancing and singing. I think the band may be the saving grace of this whole Conference.

I’m going to close this post by posting which plans and petitions are highest on the priority list. Don’t read too much into this. This will probably tell you more of what will not happen rather than what will happen. The high priority plans and petitions are as follows: 1) Wespath Pension Liabilities and CRS 63.56% (this is our UMC pension group that has developed plans to deal with the pension issues that these plans might cause; 2) Traditional Plan 55.57% (this is from the Commission on a Way Forward report); 3) Disaffiliation — Taylor — NEW 50.06% (this outlines a process by which UM churches could disaffiliate from the UMC and keep their property); 4) Disaffiliation — Boyette — NEW 49.51% (This is another petition that outlines a process for a UMC to disaffiliate from the UMC); 5) One Church Plan 48.67% (this is the plan supported by a majority of UMC Bishops and put forward by the Commission on a Way Forward.

The list continues on from here, but these were the top 5 petitions. Now, the whole Conference is moving into a “committee of the whole.” It’s hard to explain, but our process requires that legislation first go through a legislative committee and then be recommended to the plenary session. This listing simply means that this is the order the legislation will be processed and deliberated by the committee of the whole, it does not mean that any of these petitions have passed or will pass. It simply shows that these are the plans, in order,  that the group wants to work on and perfect to possibly move them forward. In my opinion, however, this vote tally indicates the strength of a traditional viewpoint of the delegates gathered here. It’s surprising that the One Church Plan which received a majority vote from our Council of Bishops did not garner a high priority by more than 50% of the delegates here.

We’ve now just elected the officers of the Committee of the Whole. The legislative committee’s work now begins!

 

 

This morning I’m reminded again of the global nature of the Church. We gathered for worship here this morning with well known hymns and praise songs and were also led in worship in Kiswahili, a Native American language, and other languages including English. Simultaneously my own church family, Christ United in Mobile, AL was gathered for worship. I fired up our live stream on my phone so I could see them gathered together. All of us are worshiping the same God. Of course that is happening in every time zone around the globe. People worshiping God in spirit and in truth.

I remarked in  a Facebook comment that the Spirit of this Conference already feels different than what I sensed at the General Conference in Portland in 2016. I’ve heard others say both verbally and online that they feel similarly. I was sort of dreading coming here, because I felt like the room would be heavy with anxiety and division. There is certainly plenty of that to go around here, however, there’s a Spirit of worship which feels good and right. The whole congregation here began to sing Siyahamba which is a South African hymn in the Zulu language. The English chorus goes like this: “We are marching in the light of God, we are marching in the light of God.” The whole group gathered was singing this at the top of their lungs. Many of our delegates in the bar of the Conference began singing and dancing. A conga line of sorts formed. Tears came to my eyes as I saw so much of what I love about the UMC in one view. God has done an amazing thing in the UMC. My tears were an emotion of appreciation for what God has done, but they were also tears of sadness of what we might lose here. There are some who believe that the worst thing that could happen here is the division of our church. I don’t think that would be the worst thing, but it would certainly a sad thing.

Today we begin “business.” The first Presiding Bishop, Bishop Christian Alsted, from the Nordic and Baltic Episcopal Area, reminded us that we are convening in what was once a football field, where teams battled one another to win. He said that we are not on a football field, we are now in a church. May God’s Spirit move in this place.

These shots were taken this (Saturday) morning of General Conference 2019 in St. Louis. We are meeting at The Dome at America’s Center, the former home of the St. Louis Rams (who are now the LA Rams). It’s pretty amazing to be meeting in such a massive facility. It makes it look like only a few people are here, though there are thousands here. We’ll see how things fill up as business sessions begin. I imagine more will be here for “business” than for worship and prayer. That’s too bad. I’m proud of our delegation. They are all here and engaged. There are also an additional 30-40 reserve delegates and members of the Alabama-West Florida Conference here. It’s a great showing.

The other pictures feature scenes from walking into the building this morning. General Conference is a magnet for protestors and those wanting to lobby the delegation. You can see some people holding up or wearing signs about human sexuality. There were also persons handing out gloves and bags of “hugs and kisses” (the Hershey variety). Inside the dome around lunchtime a large group of LGBTQ supporters sang hymns.

Much of today was devoted to reading Scriptures and singing. Representatives from the different global divisions shared about the missional opportunities and challenges they have in their parts of the world. I am struck powerfully by the global nature and reach of our church. It’s easy to get so focused on my own local mission context and community that I lose sight of the vastness of God’s work. I’m reminded of the many times I’ve looked around Jordan-Hare Stadium during an Auburn University football game and looked around at the 85,000+ people and thought, “Wow, God knows all these people as well as he knows me AND he loves them just as much as he loves me.” Of course, the world is a lot bigger than Jordan- Hare Stadium. God knows and loves every person on earth just as well as he knows and loves me. That is at the same time both inspiring and humbling.

As I look around this dome at all the different people, I see a dome with lots of people all known and loved deeply by God. We just experienced that love at the close of worship as we gathered for Holy Communion. This final picture is of the Bishops who served me communion. Two from The United States and another from The Philippines who anointed me with oil. A reminder of the vastness of God’s church and world.