Greetings all! After a day of rest yesterday we are back at it today. The Sabbath was definitely needed by all. Now the real work begins as all the legislative proposals come to the floor this week.
Began the morning with worship, Bishop Cynthia Harvey from Lousiana preaching. I serve on the Jurisdictional Missions Council with her and have always appreciated her leadership. She was elected Bishop 4 years ago in OK City. Her text was Matthew 22:1-14, the parable of the wedding banquet. I was rather fearful that Bishop Harvey would follow the rest of the bishops who had implicitly or explicitly politicized the pulpit. She did speak of those on each side of the aisle (Jew and Gentiles) who had been invited to the banquet and thought they were the only ones who should be present at the table. Thankfully she did not go down the road of making this a straight/gay invitation where only certain ones should be included, while the others are excluded. It appeared that it might be heading down that path. However, she emphasized that all are to put on the robe of righteousness that all might enter and sit at the table. Several times she emphasized that we are invited to come as we are but not stay that way. It's only when we reject the robe of righteousness, the covering of God's grace, that we sit at the table. In doing so, we can experience transformation. The robe is ready so come to the party and truly celebrate. (Prayerfully this is a positive sign for our work this week.)
During the noon hour our delegation gathered to discuss some possibilities that are before us. It's clear the general conference is at a stalemate mostly because it seems everything seems to be filtered through the sexuality filter. There was good and honest discussion about the realities or possibilities as it relates to us being a "United" Methodist Church. After good discussion and the talk of possibilities I was saddened to enter the plenary to a protest. There was a large group who broke the bar shouting "Black Lives Matter" and "Ho, ho, ho, Homophobes must go." These, as well as other things were shouted and sung for about 20 - 30 minutes. FYI, it costs $180,000 per hour to hold this conference so we threw out $90,000. The protest was allowed. I heard that the bishops were aware, which says to me this was the path of least resistance. I anticipate more protests to come. In fact, the leader of the protests promised more were to come. Stay tuned.
The day also included voting on persons to fill the judicial committee, the General Conference Council, and other positions. For the most part, there was a good representation of more traditional orthodox persons voted into those positions. Reports were also given along the way from the UMW and also Africa University, as well as others. You can read more about them on the GC website.
These next few days will be critical as it relates to any semblance of unity at all. Will it purely be a stalemate with nothing accomplished like GC 2012 in Tampa? Will there be some decisions to "go your (our) own way"? What decisions, if any, will be made to get us off dead center? Is God pruning the vine? I don't know but we can't keep doing this and expect to be salt and light in a world that needs to taste and see that God is good. Friends, we need to pray. We can't keep doing this! Jesus help us!
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