In a stunningly quick election the Judicial Council has been elected.
I am happy to report that you cannot buy an election at General Conference! None of the “Good News” endorsed candidates were elected.
I failed to mention yesterday that the “moderates” and “liberals” did eventually get a slate and they have all been elected.
Angela Brown for (Cal Pac? Cal Nevada?) was the first lay elected! Rubeun Reyes from the Philippines was second.
3 Clergy have also been elected. Kathi Austin Mahle, Belton Joyner, William Lawrence were elected.
It only took 3 elctions to get the clergy elected. After the many ballots for General Conference delegates at Annual Conference I was very surprised at how quickly this went.
I am very excited about this news. The “Good News” group can buy all the phones they want, they can’t buy and election!
More later . . .
Peace Y’all,
Bruce
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Quick Sunday Check In
Well, I have been wondering the halls this afternoon trying to learn what I can.
The most important piece of news that I have is that Church and Society II passed a statement that according to a couple of discussions I have had, basically says, “we agree to disagree.” I haven’t seen the statement yet so I don’t know the exact wording or what it replaces. This is a step forward, not a big one, but a step. Now lets see what the floor does with it.
The leather chairs in the hall must be pretty comfortable, one of our delegates has been asleep in one for the past hour!
I had an opportunity to say hello to Bishop Huie. She was my District Superintendent while I was on my internship in San Angelo. She recognized me but didn’t know from when or where, but I thought that was cool. It was nice to talk with her again. She is really happy with what is happening in Houston.
Looks like both Church and Society committees will be going late. I am going to try to get a full nights sleep so I am well rested for the next week.
Peace Y’all,
Bruce
The most important piece of news that I have is that Church and Society II passed a statement that according to a couple of discussions I have had, basically says, “we agree to disagree.” I haven’t seen the statement yet so I don’t know the exact wording or what it replaces. This is a step forward, not a big one, but a step. Now lets see what the floor does with it.
The leather chairs in the hall must be pretty comfortable, one of our delegates has been asleep in one for the past hour!
I had an opportunity to say hello to Bishop Huie. She was my District Superintendent while I was on my internship in San Angelo. She recognized me but didn’t know from when or where, but I thought that was cool. It was nice to talk with her again. She is really happy with what is happening in Houston.
Looks like both Church and Society committees will be going late. I am going to try to get a full nights sleep so I am well rested for the next week.
Peace Y’all,
Bruce
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Random thoughts Day 4
Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be nice, There is no such thing as a free lunch, laughter is a universal language, Robert Rules, Name Rank and Serial number, Roam if you want to, Fashion accessories of GC2008, Personal Day.
OK, here is my promised rant regarding the Judicial Council (here after called JC) process. About two weeks before General Conference I began receiving mailing for JC candidates. I had a hunch there were from “conservatives” but the mailings were pretty vague and said things about the candidates. Then a few days before GC I received a very nice looking two page full color brochure advocating for a slate of JC candidates and the brochure made it clear that this was endorsed the “Good News” group.
The process for Judicial Council is essentially this. The bishops bring a list of nominations to the floor. Then the floor is invited to add names to the list. Then 48 hours later voting begins (Monday for this year.) You can see the advantage of having and advanced slate to advocate for. Name familiarity is important in elections and getting the names out early seems like a good idea.
Well, upon arrival to GC2008 the western jurisdiction and other moderate to liberal groups had as of yet to identify their “slate.” This is totally my humble opinion but sometimes us liberals are too dang inclusive for our own good. We want everyone to have an opportunity. So we are reluctant to name our favorites in the fear we might hurt someone’s feelings. Meanwhile the organized fundamentalist group is kicking our butt!
OK That was the first rant. rant number two. When I was in college one of my history professor’s loved to use the phrase, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” (He was a United Methodist layman too by the way.) Anyway, I mentioned before the controversy of the cell phones that were handed out to 150 central conference delegates. I understand they have been put in an awkward position. On one hand they have simply accepted a free gift like others of us have accepted free lunches, dinners, pedometers, water bottles, Hymnals etc. However, if the Good News group wanted to simply offer the gifts with no strings attached they certainly wouldn’t have suggested who the delegates should support for Judicial Council and they could have considered giving the gifts anonymously! (Hmmm, seems like the gospel says something about giving alms in secret . . .) I hope this one backfires on the Good News group! This obvious attempt to buy votes is just not on.
During the lunch break I sat in with David Valera on a gathering of the Filipino delegations. (Did David tell me there are 21 Annual Conferences in the Philippines? I think he did!) It was a great gathering to be a part of as they were full of laughter although I couldn’t understand most of the conversation, it seemed like a family gathering. I could also see that David has a good relationship with them. I hope that I get an opportunity in the next couple of years to go and experience the Philippines for myself.
OMG, I have been very surprised at the lack of expertise the committee chairs have shown regarding basic parliamentary procedure. One committee I was observing was in total shambles as they spent an HOUR discussing how to process the work of the sub-committee. I was going crazy in the visitor area. Eventually a parliamentarian was called, then the problem was magnified in that the chair and vice chair didn’t know how to explain the mess the committe was in. It was excruciating! I expect these sort of moments at Annual Conference but GENERAL Conference! We have over 100 Bishops hanging around. Can’t we find 13 retired bishops to sit in on the committee meetings to act as parliamentarians? When the GC plenary is in session the presiding Bishop always has two others sitting behind her or him and often they discuss what the best ruling is for the chair.
I also wanted to mention one of the interesting social aspects of General Conference. There is a clear hierarchy. Delegates have a red background on their name-tags, reserve delegates have brown, some group has green (marshals and pages?) visitors have white, I think bishops are purple but they don’t seem to wear their name-tags much (they have those cool episcopal lapel pins after all.) And there is always this fun experience when meeting someone and they stare at your name badge to learn your ranking and/or where you are from. Oh, a reserve from the PNW, you can almost see the ranking going on in the delegate’s mind.
The advantage of being a second class General Conference citizen is that you are free to observe any committee at any time. So today instead of staying with one I went to three. The disadvantage is that I didn’t get to learn many specifics (although, I can report that the sexuality committee is really dedicated to their agreement to disagree, which led to a crushing defeat of some of the most scary exclusive language petitions. ) It was good to observe more of the General Conference in action.
There are fashion statements to be made at General Conference. Actually, I have been surprised at how few suits there are. And today the Kansas delegates were all wearing Kansas Jayhawk NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion 2008 T-Shirts. Apparently Bishop Jones is a big fan and he also was wearing a T-Shirt. They have challenged the delegates of North Carolina, Cal Pac and Tennessee to beat their donations to the Nothing but Nets campaign! HOWEVER, the real fashion accessory for General Conference is what I call “The Wheelie Bag” they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors but they all have one thing in common. They are a pain to wheel through the crowded halls of General Conference. I went and bought a large computer bag with wheels and a handle to carry the many books and my computer around the conference. Apparently every other delegate had the same idea. Perhaps Marie should get video of all of us wheeling our bags around the corridors.
Well, Tonight I am not setting the alarm and I am sleeping in!!! I then intend to go to church at my friend Wes’ church. Wes and I were buddies at seminary and we went to England at the same time. So I am really looking forward to seeing him.
Peace Y’all
I am a voting delegate!
Mary and I were both invited to sit on the floor today! I really wanted to play it all cool, no big deal, but I couldn’t. Mary and I were giddy as we walked onto the floor of the General Conference. It takes two delegates to step aside for each of us so we owe our thanks to Jin Ming, Craig, Gail and Peter for giving us a few hours on the floor. Here is a time-line of the day so far.
5:45 Oh God, its already time to get up again.
6:30 Free breakfast in the hotel. Clint discovers Texas shaped waffles.
6:45 Hurry up kids its time to get in the car, where is Nico?
7:00 Western Jurisdictional meeting. Bishop Paup talks about some issues regarding GBGM and the “Nothing but Nets” campaign. There is some discussion about the “Nothing but Nets” and some inter-agency issues. UMComm had a major role in the campaign and some feel that it belongs in GBGM. (I don’t care who does it, I’m just thankful for the success of the campaign so far.)
7:10 We hear reports from the delegates and observers from the committees. This is a confusing time as all the committees are in or have just finished sub-committee work, and while a sub-committee may have taken a particular action it is impossible to predict what the full committee or the floor will do with that action.
Having said that: Some of the big things going on are:
1) Financing Bishops. There was a proposal to have Jurisdictions pay for Bishops. Presently this is paid from General Conference apportionments. The west would be very much hurt by this as at present giving we only pay for what one delegate said was 3.2 bishops. That would be a reduction of 2.8 of our present episcopal leadership.
2) There was a wholesale rejection of petitions placing the pastor as the sole authority for church membership. This is in response to petitions regarding a judicial council decision upholding a pastor’s decision to refuse a man membership on the basis that he was a gay man. I believe that this means that the sub committee is upholding that the church council in consultation with the pastor makes decisions about membership. Thus rejecting the Judicial Council’s ruling.
3) The sexuality sub committee has a compromise proposal that is a very small baby step toward inclusion, Mary has been observing them perhaps she will blog about it soon. As I understand it, the sub committee has created a statement that we agree to disagree, which oddly enough is a small step forward. In 2004 a similar petition was made and rejected by committee, I believe. So we still have a ways to go with that one.
7:45 Discussion about judicial council nominees. (Perhaps I will write another post to rant about this later.)
7:55 I learn that the “Good News” caucus gave cell phones to central conference delegates, primarily those from Africa. What? OMG! Rumor has it that those phones were used yesterday to inform those delegates who to support for the Judicial Council. (Yet another possible rant for later.)
8:15 worship begins with a youth drama group called “The Strangely Warmed Players.” (A reference to John Wesley’s statement that his heart was strangely warmed and he knew that he was a loved child of God.) They brought a comical and yet clear message for the church to be in mission.
The sermon from Bishop Hutchinson felt like an old tyme revival. It was great and nearly brought me to tears. It was a very moving testimony challenging us to not only have the form of religion but also the power. (A good Wesleyan reference.) We were encouraged to “Let Jesus and the Holy Spirit loose” in ourselves and our churches.
9:15 Report from the committee of Agenda. I Vote against the agenda for tomorrow! I am kind of grumpy about the agenda of a full working day on Sunday for the General Conference.
9:25 We are presented with the consent calendar items thus far to come from committee. Two of them are a bit troubling. One would change the language in paragraph 164 in the Book of Discipline deleting the sentence “Though coercion, violence, and war are presently the ultimate sanctions in international relations, we reject them as incompatible with the gospel and spirit of Christ.” In its place is a longer statement that doesn’t do much for me. The elimination of the word “incompatible” may be significant. As that word is part of the infamous “incompatible with Christian Teaching” phrase in regards to homosexuality.
On a positive note there is a consent calendar item that will require all General church agencies to “work with Annual Conferences and United Methodist Camps and Retreat Centers to develop recommendations and resources that would guide the United Methodist Church in reducing our carbon dioxide impact.” Further “The report to the 2012 General Conference should; create a plan for evaluating the current status of contributions to global warming throughout the United Methodist connection by churches, institutions and staff; create specific recommendations for reduction of contributions to global warming such as: solar panels or other renewable energies, meetings by conference call rather than driving, insulating buildings etc. Develop an ecumenical effort to support changes which reduce global warming.
9:37 Rural Life celebration.
I take this time to read that “Hero” report which is from the GCSRW and GCORR. These two groups monitor participation in all General Conference proceedings in regards to diversity of gender and race. The report proclaims that this is the most diverse General Conference in history. 56% of Legislative committee officers are Female! 36% of all Legislative committee officers are African American, 8% are Central Conference (international) delegates.
10:40 We take a break. Clint and I arrange for another BBQ exploration in Ft. Worth.
11:00 The presiding Bishop tries to bring us back to order. Mary and I are the only PNW delegates at our chairs on time.
11:02 A video begins reminding us of the difficulties for retired clergy in the Central Conferences. (We must do more to support our international clergy!)
11:17 Motion for 2012 to have an Ethics Committee. My brain gets lost in the wording. I vote because Amory did, later I find out we voted to refer. This comes from the Cell Phone issue.
11:21 A report from from the Episcopacy Study.
11:40 A report from the Study committee on the relationship between the UMC and the Autonomous Methodist Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean. Bishop Galvan is part of the presentation.
12:15 We recess and Mary and I hand in our passes for the floor. :(
5:45 Oh God, its already time to get up again.
6:30 Free breakfast in the hotel. Clint discovers Texas shaped waffles.
6:45 Hurry up kids its time to get in the car, where is Nico?
7:00 Western Jurisdictional meeting. Bishop Paup talks about some issues regarding GBGM and the “Nothing but Nets” campaign. There is some discussion about the “Nothing but Nets” and some inter-agency issues. UMComm had a major role in the campaign and some feel that it belongs in GBGM. (I don’t care who does it, I’m just thankful for the success of the campaign so far.)
7:10 We hear reports from the delegates and observers from the committees. This is a confusing time as all the committees are in or have just finished sub-committee work, and while a sub-committee may have taken a particular action it is impossible to predict what the full committee or the floor will do with that action.
Having said that: Some of the big things going on are:
1) Financing Bishops. There was a proposal to have Jurisdictions pay for Bishops. Presently this is paid from General Conference apportionments. The west would be very much hurt by this as at present giving we only pay for what one delegate said was 3.2 bishops. That would be a reduction of 2.8 of our present episcopal leadership.
2) There was a wholesale rejection of petitions placing the pastor as the sole authority for church membership. This is in response to petitions regarding a judicial council decision upholding a pastor’s decision to refuse a man membership on the basis that he was a gay man. I believe that this means that the sub committee is upholding that the church council in consultation with the pastor makes decisions about membership. Thus rejecting the Judicial Council’s ruling.
3) The sexuality sub committee has a compromise proposal that is a very small baby step toward inclusion, Mary has been observing them perhaps she will blog about it soon. As I understand it, the sub committee has created a statement that we agree to disagree, which oddly enough is a small step forward. In 2004 a similar petition was made and rejected by committee, I believe. So we still have a ways to go with that one.
7:45 Discussion about judicial council nominees. (Perhaps I will write another post to rant about this later.)
7:55 I learn that the “Good News” caucus gave cell phones to central conference delegates, primarily those from Africa. What? OMG! Rumor has it that those phones were used yesterday to inform those delegates who to support for the Judicial Council. (Yet another possible rant for later.)
8:15 worship begins with a youth drama group called “The Strangely Warmed Players.” (A reference to John Wesley’s statement that his heart was strangely warmed and he knew that he was a loved child of God.) They brought a comical and yet clear message for the church to be in mission.
The sermon from Bishop Hutchinson felt like an old tyme revival. It was great and nearly brought me to tears. It was a very moving testimony challenging us to not only have the form of religion but also the power. (A good Wesleyan reference.) We were encouraged to “Let Jesus and the Holy Spirit loose” in ourselves and our churches.
9:15 Report from the committee of Agenda. I Vote against the agenda for tomorrow! I am kind of grumpy about the agenda of a full working day on Sunday for the General Conference.
9:25 We are presented with the consent calendar items thus far to come from committee. Two of them are a bit troubling. One would change the language in paragraph 164 in the Book of Discipline deleting the sentence “Though coercion, violence, and war are presently the ultimate sanctions in international relations, we reject them as incompatible with the gospel and spirit of Christ.” In its place is a longer statement that doesn’t do much for me. The elimination of the word “incompatible” may be significant. As that word is part of the infamous “incompatible with Christian Teaching” phrase in regards to homosexuality.
On a positive note there is a consent calendar item that will require all General church agencies to “work with Annual Conferences and United Methodist Camps and Retreat Centers to develop recommendations and resources that would guide the United Methodist Church in reducing our carbon dioxide impact.” Further “The report to the 2012 General Conference should; create a plan for evaluating the current status of contributions to global warming throughout the United Methodist connection by churches, institutions and staff; create specific recommendations for reduction of contributions to global warming such as: solar panels or other renewable energies, meetings by conference call rather than driving, insulating buildings etc. Develop an ecumenical effort to support changes which reduce global warming.
9:37 Rural Life celebration.
I take this time to read that “Hero” report which is from the GCSRW and GCORR. These two groups monitor participation in all General Conference proceedings in regards to diversity of gender and race. The report proclaims that this is the most diverse General Conference in history. 56% of Legislative committee officers are Female! 36% of all Legislative committee officers are African American, 8% are Central Conference (international) delegates.
10:40 We take a break. Clint and I arrange for another BBQ exploration in Ft. Worth.
11:00 The presiding Bishop tries to bring us back to order. Mary and I are the only PNW delegates at our chairs on time.
11:02 A video begins reminding us of the difficulties for retired clergy in the Central Conferences. (We must do more to support our international clergy!)
11:17 Motion for 2012 to have an Ethics Committee. My brain gets lost in the wording. I vote because Amory did, later I find out we voted to refer. This comes from the Cell Phone issue.
11:21 A report from from the Episcopacy Study.
11:40 A report from the Study committee on the relationship between the UMC and the Autonomous Methodist Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean. Bishop Galvan is part of the presentation.
12:15 We recess and Mary and I hand in our passes for the floor. :(
Friday, April 25, 2008
An "Early" Night
Our "First Elected" Clergy relaxes with one of the free massage chairs. She was so relaxed she agreed to give me time on the floor tomorrow!I don't anticipate that there will be anything to vote about tomorrow it is very considerate of Jin Ming and Craig to give me an opportunity to be on the floor and I am looking forward to participating in worship from the floor. Our delegation is seated very close to the front and it must be a good view!
The only issue for the floor today was nominations for Judicial Council and University Senate. Those names will be available for the delegates for 48 hours with voting for those influential groups on Monday. That will be something I will try to blog about with more information in the next couple of days.
I imagine the Western Jurisdiction meeting in the morning will have a lot to add for the candidates the west will support. The "DCA" (Daily Christian Advocate, the daily publication of the General Conference with reports and eventually legislation from the committees) will have profiles of each of the Judicial nominees.
Any questions? Send an e-mail or write a comment.
Peace Y'all
Hymnals
Quick notes on the day.
Trying to sleep during worship. Fun and games with Robert's rules. Mmmmm mudbugs. Hymnal?
I'm tired. Two nights with 4 hours of sleep. I tried to catch up with some sleep during the sermon in morning worship. I know I shouldn't admit it but there it is the horrible truth. It didn't work, but I tried.
We arrived to the committee to discover they had put the "bar" back up so that the whole committee could work on petitions that would effect the budget. There was the usual parliamentary confusion that happens when church committees get together whether it is the PNW Annual Conference. All too boring to go into here but I found amusement with the process. I know I have an illness, I enjoy the machinations of parliamentary procedure.
I had lunch at a fun "Cajun Cafe" called "Razzoos." Apparently you are a "Razzoo" if:
Trying to sleep during worship. Fun and games with Robert's rules. Mmmmm mudbugs. Hymnal?
I'm tired. Two nights with 4 hours of sleep. I tried to catch up with some sleep during the sermon in morning worship. I know I shouldn't admit it but there it is the horrible truth. It didn't work, but I tried.
We arrived to the committee to discover they had put the "bar" back up so that the whole committee could work on petitions that would effect the budget. There was the usual parliamentary confusion that happens when church committees get together whether it is the PNW Annual Conference. All too boring to go into here but I found amusement with the process. I know I have an illness, I enjoy the machinations of parliamentary procedure.
I had lunch at a fun "Cajun Cafe" called "Razzoos." Apparently you are a "Razzoo" if:
- You have more bowlin, hotrod or karate trophies than books.
- You have more than 10 garage sales a year.
- You miss all weddings, kids recitals and funerals because "Its Dove season."
- You think a styrofoam cooler is personal luggage.
- You know more than 5 NASCAR driver or car sponsor names.
I had the "Cajun Etoufee" (et-two-fay) with "mudbugs" (crawfish.) Mmmm cajun cooking, its been a while since I have had crawfish and mmmm it was good.
I had my first experience of "observer discrimination." The sub committee was given a gift from the publishing house, General Conference commemorative Hymnals. I was kind of bummed about that. Then of course the sub committee began a discussion about the "Hymnal Revision Committee."
I came to the discussion on the fence about the need for a new hymnal. I haven't encouraged my church to purchase the "Faith We Sing" book because we were able to use the money saved from buying those to put up video projection instead. However, the discussion in subcommittee has turned me in favor of a new hymnal. Some key points that were raised:
- 96% of United Methodist Churches use the current hymnbook in worship. (While many churches are using video projection to some degree the hymnbook is still a vital resource for ministry.)
- The hymnal is a uniting resource for the United Methodist Church
- A new hymnal would represent a diversity of music but surely not be the only music resource for local churches.
- The hymnal is more than a music book, it is a worship resource as well.
Those are some of the arguments that won me over. I know, it didn't take much. I wish I could collect my thoughts better but I'm tired. The sub committee seems fairly diverse and many of my questions were asked by others and I have been satisfied by the responses I have received. The publishing house seems plenty aware of the needs for multi media and the likely hood that they will not sell as many of this hymnbook as they have with the last one.
Time for dinner, I wonder if Clint is up for some Texas BBQ?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thank God for Blue Bell
Spent some time after committee meeting today with the young adults. All our committees got out early (10:00 P.M.) so after returning to the hotel we made an ice cream run and I knew exactly what I had to have, “Blue Bell, brown rim, natural vanilla bean.” We took an adventure to find a Wal Mart that was open (I know, I know but it was the only grocery store we could get to at 10:40 at night, and I had a real craving for that ice cream! I’m sure God will understand, Its Blue Bell!) Mmmm, Blue Bell. Seriously, it is the best thing about Texas. If you haven’t had Blue Bell you just don’t know. Blue Bell makes everything better.
Oh ya, General Conference stuff.
I am observing the “Ordinal and Hymnal sub committee.” It should be a fairly painless group. The sub committee is about 20 people with about 5 or 6 observers. I did share a funny moment when I sat at a group that I thought was the Hymnal subcommitee (turns out it was another sub commitee) and a women sits down next to me and says “Hello Bruce Smith” and I look at her for a minitue and say “well hello Jenny!” So I have found one of our PNW related people. Jenny as many of you know, helped run the Indianola campaign a few years ago in our annual conference and is currently living in New York state.
I also met a man my age from the NW Texas Annual Conference. We sat next to each other and talked about sports and our families. I was impressed that he knew who Drew Bledsoe was. He is a big college football fan. We shared photos of our children and it was fun to connect with someone from Texas. He shared that he is an Asbury grad and I know that probably means we have some serious theological differences but frankly the primary thing for me right now was to connect with another person. We can disagree about theology later. It is good to be making some connections with people.
OK so now it is 12:53 and I am falling asleep at the computer. Western Delegation meets at 7:00 A.M. again and then its off to the usual plenary worship, committees etc, etc.
Peace Y’all
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