Pray for Holy Conferencing

Well, Wednesday could be a big day.

It is likely that the Church and Society II committee will present their report on Human Sexuality. There are two reports, one from the committee and a minority report. This will be tense. The sub-committee and the full committee felt good about their work and as I said before it feels like a step forward. I have no idea if it will pass on the floor but I wanted to share it with y'all.

The petition would amend Paragraph 161 G in the 2004 Book of Discipline to read as follows.

161 G Human Sexuality. We recognize that sexuality is God's good gift to all person. We believe person may be fully human only when that gift is acknowledged and affirmed by themselves, the church, and society. we call all persons to the disciplined, responsible fulfillment of themselves, others and society in the stewardship of this gift. We also recognize our limited understanding of this complex gift and encourage the medical, theological, and social science disciplines to combine in a determined effort to understand human sexuality more completely. United Methodists, along with other Christians, have struggled to find principles for applying traditional teachings to contemporary understandings of human sexuality. We recognize that sexuality is part of the larger human mystery, to be received and acknowledged in grateful responsibility. We reject all sexual expressions that damage or destroy the humanity God has given us. we deplore all forms of the commercialization and exploitation of sexual relations, with their consequent cheapening and degradation of human personality. We call for strict global enforcement of laws prohibiting the sexual exploitation or use of children by adults and encourage efforts to hold perpetrators legally and financially responsible. We call for adequate protection, guidance, and counseling for children thus abused. we believe that the Church family should support all families in providing age-appropriate education regarding sexuality to children, youth, and adults. We challenge all members of our community of faith to commitment, integrity and fidelity in their sexual relationships. We know that all are God's children and of sacred worth. Yet we have been, and remain, divided regarding homosexual expressions of human sexuality. 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 humanity before God and our neighbors. we therefore ask the Church, United Methodist and others, and the world, to refrain from judgement regarding homosexual persons and practices until the Spirit leads us to new insight. In the meantime, let us seek to welcome, know, forgive, and love one another as Christ has accepted us, that God may be glorified through everything in our lives.

This does not replace the statement "Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" in paragraph 304 that has to do with ordination. I believe the committee has kept that phrase. Of course this is a bit ironic where in this statement we acknowledge our lack of understand and in another we condemn.

Tonight and this morning I simply ask that you pray for the Conference and all that will be before us. We do now know what will happen but we believe in a "Future with Hope."

Peace Y'all

Sleep, who needs sleep?

The General Conference experience is a wild ride.

Most delegates again had a night of 4-5 hours of sleep. We ended the plenary session around 11:20. Then two committees went until about 12:45 still trying to finish their work. Global Ministries is taking the longest amount of time. The western jurisdiction then has a 7:00 meeting that most make an attempt to attend.

I am unsure how "holy" the conferencing will be as this sleep deprivation continues.

I have been debating in my mind whether I should go back and correct errors in my previous posting. I am leaning against it as the errors are also part of the General Conference experience. The learning curve is very high. I have been full of questions for whoever is sitting near me:Who is that, why did that just happen, when will this be coming up etc. etc. I was reassured nicely by Craig when he said, "That's OK no one can keep up with all of this stuff." If Craig can't no one can.

As I am typing this, Bishop Swenson is presiding with Bishop Talbert and Bishop Tuell supporting her. A great representation of leadership that has served the PNW in a variety of ways. Sitting next to me is Sharon who came into the PNW in the same year that I attended my first Annual Conference as a page while Bishop Talbert was our resident Bishop. I love all these United Methodist connections!

Just after lunch I bumped into a friend from my seminary days. It was great to see her. She is now a D.S. in Oklahoma! Franke is so good.

WOW, David wants me on the floor! Gotta Go.

So . . . When I got to the floor there was a debate about the United Methodist Mission. It was in danger of being added onto to the point of meaninglessness. In the end we said that "The Mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples for the transformation of the world."

My first opportunity to use the voting machine . . . I vote to add Bermuda to the NE Jurisdiction!

We passed a resolution to add a minimum of 100 delegates to the Jurisdictional conference. This will increase the number for the Western Jurisdiction by nearly 20. I believe this takes effect in 2012.

We had a fantastic time with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from Liberia. She called us to address the world needs around the issues of poverty. It was an especially powerful witness as she is a United Methodist lay person and was educated in a United Methodist high school in Africa.

I had a fun dinner with a group of guys with RMN ties. One was from a large downtown church in Atlanta that he described as a "gay" church, but hasn't joined the RMN. It was great to talk with a SE Jurisdiction person about the issues of inclusion.

After dinner the vote on the Episcopacy Study was brought to the floor agian. After much confusion (and much is still fuzzy to me) we voted to reduce the number of Bishops in each Jurisdiction (except the SE) by one. I believe this takes effect September 1, 2012. So that should add some fun to Jurisdictional conference.

I might actually get to bed by 10:oo tonight! Yippee!!!

Some events from yesterday

Hey Y'all,

Just wanted to insert a few of the other significant items that passed the floor.

We are now in full communion with the ELCA. Which, until a few years ago I would have assumed we already were. So now Lutherans and United Methodist fully recognize each others orders and sacramental authority.

We are going to be "revising" the hymnal. This will end up being a new hymnal to be presented to the General Conference in 2012 and published around 2013.

Bishops can now retire at age 68 instead of 66.

We are having some trouble with the PNW blog, well at least I am having trouble logging in so that I can post over there.

Some things I am fuzzy on (well almost everything now that I have had yet another day of 4 hours sleep.)

I believe we have delayed the change to regional conferences and established a task force to come with a more comprehensive proposal in 2012.

I believe we have established that we are sticking with the same number of bishops, so we will be voting for 2 at Jurisdictional this year.

Peace Y'all

Timeline

It is Day 6 isn’t it?
Anyway a time-line of the day so far:
5;45 Here we go again
6;40 Where’s Nico? Oh wait he’s sitting right behind me. What? All the young adults are ready to go?
7:00 Western Jurisdiction meeting
7:02 6 committees have finished their work. Finance and Administration spent 3.5 hours on a discussion about pensions. Committee on Higher Education voted for minimum time of probationary relationship toward full clergy membership to be 2 years instead of the current 3. There is more work coming on the orders. Superintendency rejected a reduction of bishops (If it passes the floor this is very important for large geographical areas like the PNW.) Also it is being recommended to raise the episcopal retirement age to 68 instead of the current 66.
7:23 We talked about the Judicial Council slate
8:00 Worship “Building Hope.”
9:05 call to order
9:11 Committee on Agenda and Calendar reports that there are 6 committees still meeting. Three will meet during lunch, two at dinner and Church and Society II will meet in the afternoon until they have finished.
9:30 Katrina Report. We are reminded that help is still needed. In a moving testimony one pastor recalled that when he came to the remains of his church building the hymnbook he say was open to page 707 “The Hymn of Promise.” He said, “I knew there would continue to be a church here.”
9:45 Election process begins. The floor spends a half hour working out issues with the electronic voting devices. Once again to test the system they vote for their favorite apostle. John is elected on the first ballot.
10:15 Voting begins
10:22 Both Lay members of the Judicial Council are elected
10:40 Three clergy members are elected completing a sweep for the alternate slate to the “Good News”, “IRD”, “Confessing Movement” slate.
10:40 I begin writing a blog about the elections
11:10 More plenary session fun, motions, amendments, defeating amendments.
12:05 It takes 35 minutes on ONE MOTION!
12:10 Report of the 60th Anniversary of “The Advance.” This is money donated for particular designated funds around the world.
12:30 Lunch Break Begins, Where is David?
1:00 David tells me about $25 robes at Cokesbury. I buy one for a mission effort.
1:30 Still in the Cokesbury store, I decide today is the dayto buy gifts
1:50 I visit the Philippine delegation. Meet an associate director of Church and Society and have a good conversation.
2:30Plenary is begining again.
4:00 Time to write a blog.
5:00 Time to get ready to go to the Bishop's dinner.
5:30 Hey Jenny, do you know where the Bishop's dinner is?


Peace Y’all,
Bruce

Judicial Council Elections

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

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

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