GC 2020 Preview

 

This morning, I had the privilege of being prayed for by my Florida pastors at Cypress Lake UMC. I’m heading to Charlotte next Sunday for two weeks as a clergy delegate from Missouri for the 2020 General Conference. And, no, “2020” wasn’t a typo.

As I’ve been preparing for this road trip, I’m discovering that packing as a retiree is wonderfully freeing. At previous General Conferences, I’d be looking for shoes that were both professional looking and comfortable. This year, I’m just planning to wear my Hokas with every outfit, just one more way in which living la vida retiree is wonderful.

So, why is this Missouri retiree who’s a full-time Florida resident headed to General Conference?

For the United Methodists that are reading, here’s a brief history and three things to watch for:

To catch you up:

In 2019, a special General Conference was held to resolve the disagreements in the UMC around sexual orientation. In spite of tempered optimism that a middle way might be found, the punitive “Traditional Plan” passed, presumably surprising the traditionalists who had been busily building a new denomination.

Quick Sidebar for a Sally Summary of the Traditional Plan: If I were to rip the Sunday morning offering out of the hands of the ushers and run off to the Bahamas to spend it in wanton living with someone other than my husband, I would be entitled to a church trial (in addition to some much-needed mental health care.) If I were, however, to officiate the marriage of two people who have demonstrated their love for each other over the years and are of the same gender, I would be placed immediately on unpaid leave for a year, and I would lose my ordination if I dared to do that again.

Reaction to the Traditional Plan was swift. One byproduct of this reaction was the election of progressive-minded delegations throughout much of the US for the 2020 General Conference. In Missouri, a group came together to create a moderate/progressive slate of delegates that was beautifully inclusive. To our happy surprise, the entire slate was elected on the first ballot, an unheard-of event, resulting in me being one of six clergy elected in Missouri, plus six laity. We all set about preparing ourselves for General Conference to be held in May 2020.

And then COVID.

The challenges of holding a gathering of people from around the globe (40% of the delegates are from outside the US) during a global pandemic were huge, especially given the waxing and waning of the virus in different countries at different times. After a couple of attempts to hold it sooner, the 2020 General Conference was finally rescheduled to April 22-May 3, 2024. Nope, it’s not the 2024 General Conference, it’s the rescheduled 2020 General Conference, and so those of us who were elected in 2019 are headed to Charlotte next week.

As for the traditionalists who “won” the 2019 General Conference, many of them have left to create their new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, or have simply left. There will still be some traditionalist delegates at General Conference. Some traditionalists, I hope, feel they still have a place in the UMC. We have much to learn from each other. Other traditionalists may be like the man who spoke on the floor of the SCJ Jurisdictional Conference, who said he intended to serve the purpose for which he had been elected, to keep the UMC from becoming too progressive. While I admire this man’s sense of higher purpose, my fear is that there are others whose sole goal is to burn down the church on their way out. Or perhaps I’m just a wee bit cynical after the General Conferences I’ve attended or observed.

So, here’s my take on the three main priorities from People Who Know These Things:

1. Regionalization: At its heart, regionalization would give the US UMCs the same privileges as UMCs outside the US, to adapt certain parts of the Discipline to the missional needs of their area. Currently, the US must abide by everything in the Discipline in ways that others don’t. Plus, delegates from around the world have to spend their time voting on US-centric legislation, such as US pension plans that conform to US laws.

One happy byproduct of Regionalization is that we’d lose the term “Central Conferences,” which is how we refer to everyone outside the US currently. When the UMC finally reunified in 1939 after dividing over slavery before the US Civil War, the Black churches and pastors in the US were placed into a Central Conference, which wasn’t our finest hour. We’ve since corrected that error, but it will be nice to lose that terminology when everyone around the world including the US will have their own region.

One important note: Regionalization alone won’t magically solve our issues around sexual orientation. There will be a limited number of decisions that can be made regionally, and our biggest documents are unchangeable by region.

What to watch for: If we’re able to have an early vote and pass Regionalization, it will be an indicator of trust around the globe in our ability to move forward together. It’s a constitutional amendment, so even if it is ratified by the General Conference by the required 2/3 vote of delegates, it would then go to all of the Annual Conferences, where 2/3 of the aggregate votes in every Annual Conference must affirm Regionalization before it becomes law. It will likely be 2025 before Annual Conferences will hold those votes if it does pass General Conference. And, one historic note: I was at the General Conference in 2008, when a similar amendment passed the General Conference and then was defeated at the Annual Conference level.

2. Revised Social Principles: This document has been years in the making, created by a committee of some of our finest minds. It’s a timely update of the heart and soul of our witness for social justice. This version does not contain the harmful language about sexual orientation.

What to watch for: If the Revised Social Principles remain intact and pass early, many of the resolutions that have been submitted to remove harmful language will be blessedly moot.

3. Remove Harmful Language: Beyond the Revised Social Principles, there are other areas to remove harmful language. And, if the Social Principles don’t pass, we’ll work on removing the harmful language line by line through the legislative committee process.

What to watch for: Surely we can get this one done. She says hopefully.

4. One More Thing: Did you notice what isn’t there? The greatest hopes for this General Conference are to get rid of the negative stuff, not to add positive, permissive language yet. We won’t magically fix everything in Charlotte this year. If we can get the three things above done, however, we will be well on our way to our new future. The Council of Bishops has already called another General Conference for 2026. I assume their thinking is that we’ll build on the foundation that we set in Charlotte.

So, there’s your scorecard to keep track of how things are going at General Conference. I’ll post updates periodically through General Conference. And, even if you’re not playing along, please join me in praying along for this important moment in our denomination.

 

 

 

My Apportionment Dollars at Work

About a decade ago, a Congolese woman fresh to our country from a refugee camp in Tanzania walked into Central UMC. It turns out that when a refugee gets a “golden ticket” to leave their refugee camp and come to the US, the refugee doesn’t get to choose where they end up. Mama Riziki ended up in Kansas City. Although she didn’t know much of the language or the culture, she knew she needed to find a United Methodist Church. She is the daughter of a United Methodist pastor who was martyred in the Congo when he refused to leave after local insurgents threatened him and his family. He sent his family away to safety, and insurgents made good on their promise to murder him. In his church. While he was leading worship. Truly, he was a martyr.

Mama Riziki’s first visit to worship at Central a decade ago has blossomed into a standalone 150+ member congregation, Kuomba UMC, made up primarily of African immigrants under her leadership.

Our apportionment dollars have supported this church every step of the way. When this new congregation outgrew Central rapidly, the Missouri Annual Conference gave them use of a building from a closed congregation. Since then, they have paid Mama Riziki’s salary. They have trained her through licensing school and course of study. When the disrepair of their building made it borderline uninhabitable, the Missouri Conference found them another place to worship in the interim while providing $300,000 worth of repairs to their building.

Conference and District staff, whose salaries are paid by our apportionment dollars, have gotten to know this congregation. They realize that these first-generation Americans have minimum-wage jobs and extremely large families. Knowing that this congregation has a very low likelihood of becoming financially self-sufficient anytime soon has not deterred the Missouri Conference from offering them continued support. The generosity of every church in Missouri that pays their apportionments has changed the lives of this group of people. If you’re ever in Kansas City, I’d be happy to introduce you to some of these folks whose lives you have touched.

All of the above goes to explain why I take such personal umbrage when I hear that the head of the GMC has directed UM churches that want to align with the GMC in the future to withhold their apportionments from the UMC.(You can read Jay Therrel's blog post here.)  Jay Therrell may think of apportionments as some sort of tax that supports an evil empire from which he wants to separate. The reality is much more important than he would lead his followers to believe. Apportionments in Missouri created Kuomba UMC. Apportionments across the nation provide the support for over 95% of the United Methodist budget in Africa. Apportionments give over $2 million to Africa University each year. (You can read the report on Africa University here.) Every dollar that a church withholds at the behest of the new leader of the GMC is money taken from United Methodist Christians in Africa.

Apportionments do much further good than Africa, but my gaze is on Africa today. I remember when I was a General Conference delegate in 2008. That year, the conservatives loaned cell phones, not yet universally owned, to all of the African delegates for their use while in the US. (You can read the story of the cell phones written at the time here.) The phones were useless for trying to call home to Africa. However, they were a great communication tool to guide the African delegates in their voting on issues related to sexual orientation. The US contingent of the UMC was growing more progressive on these issues, mirroring a nation which would soon legalize same-sex marriage. The conservatives relied on the African votes to pass their platform.

Way back then, someone more cynical than I told me, “You just watch, the conservatives will cut the Africans loose as soon as they get what they want from them. They don’t want to pay to support the African church.” Being much more innocent back then, I told that person, politely, that I simply didn’t believe them.

All these years later, I owe that person the opportunity to say to me, “I told you so.”

Trying to change the GMC’s position is not my job, although I’m taking time now to point out the effects of their actions on African United Methodists. And since I can’t change that other denomination, I’ll do what I can do.  The best thing that I can do at the moment is to get back to celebrating Kuomba’s ongoing success.

In a couple of weeks, Central and Kuomba UMCs will worship together, rejoicing in all that God has done through our partnership. Mama Riziki and I will co-celebrate communion with our congregations that day, and we’ll share the bread and cup in Christian unity. One of the wonderfully surprising things about our alliance is that Central is proudly Reconciling, and Kuomba is proudly African. The last time we spoke about such things, I asked if Kuomba had a problem with Central being Reconciling. “No,” came the answer, “as long as we don’t have to do weddings between two men ourselves, we are happy for you to do what you want.” These words are a beautiful microcosm of the hopes for the renewed UMC.

After worship, we’ll all share ice cream a together on the lawn. I know already that as I look around and see all of our faces on that day, the sweetness of the ice cream will be eclipsed by the sweetness of that moment, with brothers and sisters in Christ dwelling together in unity despite their many differences.

Those precious moments are my apportionment dollars at work. Why would I withhold such goodness from God’s people? Thanks be to God for all the Missouri churches, from small to large, whose faithful generosity creates these moments, and for every UM church that gives towards this same vision of faith, hope, and love around the world.

 

 

 

 

Midsummer Night's Dream

 

Thirty-nine years ago today, I was in Helsinki with a group of United Methodist college students from the Western North Carolina Conference. We were visiting churches throughout Scandinavia through a bi-annual student exchange. As part of the program, we were put up in people’s homes.

In Helsinki, the young woman who housed me and my roommate met us at the entrance to her ancient-yet-stately apartment building. She explained, apologetically, that she had to be out of town during our stay. Since it was the summer solstice that day and the sun would never fully set, she instructed us how to work the blackout shades on the windows. Her parting words were to remind us of the folktale that if you slept with seven different flowers under your pillow on Midsummer’s night, you would dream of the man you would marry. With that, she handed us the key to her apartment and left.

After getting settled, we rejoined our group at the local Methodist church for an evening’s worth of programming. Although it was late at night when we returned to the apartment, the sky felt magical, still bright with perhaps a trace of dusk. We had pulled the blackout shades in the apartment and gotten ready for bed when I remembered the tale of the seven flowers. Even though we were in our jammies, we got back in the birdcage elevator and went down to the building’s enclosed courtyard so that we could pick seven different types of flowers.

My roommate was a southern Methodist, too religious to believe in such tales. I was a southern Methodist also, too religious not to believe that there is more to this world than can be seen. Fearful for her soul, she quickly stopped picking flowers. Fearful of getting caught, I kept picking flowers anyway and put them carefully under my pillow when we slipped back into our apartment.

I don’t remember what I dreamt that night. I do know that I met Andy less than a week after I got back to the US, and he’s been the man of my dreams ever since. Happy Midsummer’s, everyone, and may you dream sweet dreams tonight!

Missing Limbs Restored

 

As I was reading Scripture this morning, I came across something I hadn’t noticed before. Matthew 15:30 describes Jesus on a mountain, where people are flocking to him for healing. Among those who sought healing were, as described in Wilda Gafney’s beautiful translation, “people missing body parts.” Missing body parts? That’s a pretty big ask in terms of healing. Although it seems impossible, sure enough, v. 31 assures us that “people missing body parts (were) made whole.”

Now that must have made for some interesting conversations back in the neighborhood. “Hey, have you seen Vern lately?” “Not really. Always felt sorry for him, losing that arm in the war and everything.” “It’s back.” “Vern’s back?” “No, his arm. His arm grew back.” “Yeah, riiiiight. Let’s get you out of the sun.” “No, really, it’s back. Here’s Vern, you can see for yourself.” Vern smiles and waves with both arms from a distance. Thud as the disbelieving neighbor keels over in shock.

Our body, the United Methodist Church that is, is in the process of being severed. We’re losing limbs from our make and model of the body of Christ. As with any amputation, it’s painful. It’s getting messier by the minute, as voices are being raised, lawsuits are being filed, falsehoods are being spread. This moment in United Methodist history does not feel like Christ’s finest hour. And, I’ve got to confess that it’s getting to me. Yesterday, I exited a UMC clergy FB group that had made the decision to be open to clergy who have amputated themselves from the UMC to join the GMC. Usually I’m not quite that rash, and I somewhat regret leaving the group so abruptly. Somewhat. I’m also okay with taking a break from folks who are part of a group that seems to be trying to burn down my denomination on their way out.

And then this morning’s Scripture. It turns out that Jesus specializes in taking bodies that are missing parts and making them whole again. Doing that to a physical body is pretty darn amazing. Doing that to a spiritual body? Based on how we UMCs are treating each other these days, that seems even harder. And yet there is Jesus, on a mountaintop and doing the hard work of healing while the world rages on around him.

As I think about where my hope lies this morning, it isn’t that we’re all going to suddenly start playing nice with each other. While that would be a good thing, I’m not holding my breath. Instead, my hope lies in the one who can heal severed limbs. As we are torn asunder, may we keep our eyes focused on Christ as we pray and work for healing and restoration to a body that is whole.