GC. Week 2 Tuesday

Well, good morning, afternoon, or evening depending upon when you are looking at this.  Things continue to be exciting here in Portland.  Received a text before 6:00 wanting to know "what's going on?"as rumors were flying about a split or separation that was being proposed to the GC today.  So yes, lots of anxiety when I arrived at the convention center.  I knew there were some behind the scenes discussions taking place.

First, morning worship - awesome music.  Sermon by Bishop Ivan Abrahams from the World Methodist Council who called us to follow the Jesus of Palestine as opposed to the Jesus of Constantine.  He contrasted the way that the church turned when following the empire versus the church who reached out to the least, last, and lost prior to Constantine's declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the land.  He preached from the parable where Jesus left the 99 to go after the 1 lost sheep and reminded us we are called to go to those who are the poor, the down and out, the outcast, etc.  He reminded us to engage the empire, not be a part of it, lest we overlook the lost in light of favoring the haves, the rich, the powerful.

We then went to break and were told we had an hour.  Strange, as we normally are given 20 minutes which suggested to me that something was going on behind the scenes.  And yes, upon return, Bishop Ough, the chair of the Council of Bishops, was granted a moment to share a statement from the council.  He addressed the rumors of the day and shared that he/they were not supporting any type of separation.  He went on to acknowledge the great division in the body as well as acknowledging even they were not in agreement, especially on the issue of human sexuality.  Unfortunately it revealed the unwillingness of the bishops to lead us to some type of plan or proposal.  No wonder the chaos and confusion amongst our congregations.

Just so you know, later in the day, a motion led by two Great Plains clergy calling on the bishops to lead and to come up with a plan tomorrow was approved by the body.  There was much discussion and now we wait to hear from them.  (As I was writing this there was a person who wanted to make a motion to postpone this plan until Advent.  It was out of order and the original motion stands).  Now we wait and see.

After lunch we came back into the center to a "silent protest" by the lgbtq constituency.  They were singing "Blest be the tie that binds" with their hands bound which is ironic that they sang loudly while marching around the hall and disrupting our time together.  That is not the tie that binds but the untying that disrupts.  Bishop Huiey (sp) did a good job of keeping things going.  She is a pro at this stuff.  Yes, she could have chastised them but this by far was the lesser of two evils.  I imagine we'll see another protest tomorrow.

Other work on the floor:
Voted to refer time limits of bishops to the judicial council.
Approved sacramental privileges for Deacons
Miscellaneous petitions regarding special recognition Sunday's throughout the year
Other low hanging fruit petitions.

By the way, the last hour and a half I sat in for Adam Hamilton so I was able to do some of the work on the plenary floor.  What made it rather fun was the presiding bishop spoke in French so it was translated through a headset.  Pretty cool
Closed in a short time of worship

Finished the evening at an Garrett Alumni Banquet - caught up with a few friends
Bishops are working into the night to craft a proposal to move us forward.  We'll see. Pray!!