Judicial Council Election Results (or, the day the Western Jurisdiction – and United Methodists everywhere -- got their representation back)

It’s official: the Western Jurisdiction got its representation back on the Judicial Council this morning. Angela Brown, a member of the Cal-Nevada conference (and an assistant District Attorney) was one of two lay delegates elected. The other, Ruben Reyes, is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Phillipines.

Three clergy delegates were also elected: The Revs. Kathi Austin-Mahle of Minnesota; Belton Joyner of North Carolina, and Bill Lawrence, Dean of Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas.

All five newly elected Judicial Council members were part of the 12 persons nominated by the Council of Bishops for consideration; additional candidates were nominated from the floor. In addition, they were all described by various groups within the church (Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Inter-Ethnic Strategy Group, MFSA and others) as being fair-minded, process-oriented persons who would be led by the Spirit and not by a proscribed agenda.

Interesting that of the 5 Judicial Council members whose terms were up this GC, only two people – Keith Boyette and Mary Daffin -- sought re-election. Boyette's voting numbers were never competitive; Daffin was elected as the sixth of six alternates. Dr. James Holsinger, the current Judicial Council President (and Bush’s controversial nominee for Surgeon General ) was not renominated.

From a UMNeXus posting:

Conservatives in the United Methodist Church suffered a resounding defeat April 28 as incumbent Judicial Council members were replaced by new members nominated by the Council of Bishops.

Observers termed the vote a major victory for moderate forces in the church after eight years in which candidates backed by conservative UM caucus groups have held sway on the church’s “supreme court.”

“I think we just took back the denomination,” one observer was heard to remark during a break in the proceedings.

As they say here in Texas: yee-haw!!

Come Monday....we'll be alright

No, Jimmy Buffett isn’t here……nor are there cheeseburgers in paradise...…but last night a high school group of mariachi musicians was……and their sounds filled the Convention Center.

The gathering music between sessions, and the worship experiences before the sessions at GC are amazing. There is a traditional choir (rotated among the many D/FW churches) which seats just off the platform to the right. Then there is a group of musicians – guitar, drums, bass guitar, keyboard -- and singers which lead the singing and offer special music themselves. The music director, Mark Miller from Yale, and worship leader Marcia McFee from Northern California, have worked to create thematic services which flow, inspire, and celebrate. And they do. I'm bring back lots of ideas to invigorate our worship experience at HUMC.

Go to the GC website to download Bishop Minerva Carcano’s sermon from yesterday morning, in which she talked about caring for the immigrants in our communities……and what Jesus would have us do.

Saturday Night Live

This is the cowboy hat sculpture which hands in the middle of the Fort Worth Convention Center. I pass it many times in the course of a day, going to and from observing legislative sections.

Which I did most all day today.

The legislative sections take action on petitions assigned to them. If there is 80% consensus, then the approved or rejected petitions are put on a consent calendar for approval or rejection by the entire plenary (this is the same process as our Annual Conference uses). The legislative section I am observing has a little over 250 petitions to consider.

They've gotten through about 50. Guess what they'll be doing tomorrow?

I'm not writing about the status of petitions in this blog. I will write about the outcomes of those we are most concerned about once the plenary has taken action.

Meantime I will tell you how very, very, VERY difficult it is to be a quiet observer in the visitor's gallery. Especially when the section, or a sub-group of the section, are talking in the abstract about things we know to be true...like God's love for all people regardless of orientation. That committed relationships should be blessed no matter if they are same gender or opposite gender. That reconciling churches are growing; and young; and vital BECAUSE we are diverse and welcoming.

Of course those beliefs do get expressed by other delegates.

But it's still hard to sit quietly.

Petitions, Petitions

The General Conference will be considering approximately 1,500 petitions which have been submitted by annual conferences, boards and agencies of the general church, or by individuals. To do that work, each delegate is assigned to a legislative section with a specific topic in the Discipline, such as “local church” or “church and society” or “finance and administration” or “ministry and higher education.” There are around 100 delegates per legislative section; most sections break down into sub-committees to manage the load of petitions it is assigned by the GC agenda folks.

Nuts and bolts. Details. Specifics.

Yes. And where most of the work gets done.

It is in the legislative sections that petitions are discussed and debated in-depth, and recommendations for action made. For example, in one of the church and society sections, there are 6 petitions which recommend that the church divest its assets from companies profiting from the occupation in Iraq. If the section recommends one or more of these petitions by a large margin, then it is likely (but not guaranteed) that the entire plenary will be supportive. If not, then there is floor debate……..just like in Congress. And the ultimate decision is written into the Book of Discipline for the next 4 years.

I’m sitting in on the Ministry and Higher Ed legislative section, which has the largest number of petitions to consider – everything from simplifying the ordination process to defining a pastor’s role in deciding on membership and other pastoral responsibilities.

Did I mention that the sections meet until 11 pm each night?

A Future With Hope

Yesterday morning Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher gave the Episcopal Address, or the state of the church report, to the entire plenary. It was well done – for the first time, multimedia was used. We got to see snippets of United Methodists in action – from El Paso to Africa. And there was much rejoicing – at the $18 million Ums have raised for Nothing But Nets, to provide bednets for children in Africa as a means of preventing malaria nothingbutnets.net At the four emphases of the general church:

1) Engage in ministry with the poor
2) Stamp out killer diseases among the poor, such as malaria, globally
3) Create new places of ministry for new people, and revitalize existing congregations
4) Develop principled Christian leaders for the church and the world.

While I like them all (and they aren’t exclusive – peacemaking, for example, isn’t listed out but is clearly a focus of ministry), one of the sub-goals of #4 rang true for me personally: increase the percentage of women clergy serving large membership churches. Worldwide that’s a pitifully small number. Of the 45,000 UM clergy just a little over 10,000 are women – and most serve small and mid-sized churches.

It’s clear that we as the church must do things differently, and quickly. In 1968 there were 11 million UMs in the United States; today there are 7.9 million. The number of elders (ordained clergy) has dropped by 24% in the past 30 years; the number of elders under age 45 has dropped from 9100 in 1985 to just 3300 in 2008. Churches are reporting 21.5% fewer baptisms.

So where is our future with hope?

I found it in the first-ever young people’s address at noon yesterday. Six young people, from ages 15-25, shared their visions, their hurts, their dreams and their hopes. Go online and see it – it’s worth the 30 minutes.

And 4 of these young people mentioned, for the first time, that the inclusiveness and diversity of the United Methodist Church, which we all hold so dear, MUST include sexual orientation. It’s not enough just to be accepting of racial/ethnic/gender diversity. They named it. None of the other speakers, including ones leading us on sensitivity training the night before, had.

There is hope for the church. I saw it in the faces of these six. And I see it in the faces of all of us at Hollywood UMC.

Methodists Meeting

That was the title of a news segment yesterday morning on the local NBC affiliate here in Fort Worth.

Methodists meeting. Indeed!

Last night 6,500 United Methodists gathered for worship at the Fort Worth Convention Center. It was a powerful service of word with preaching by Council of Bishops President Janice Huie; song (choirs and instrumentalists from churches around the Dallas/Fort Worth area; visual arts --dance, drama, multimedia; and holy communion.

All this on the 40th birthday of the United Methodist Church. It was on April 23, 1968, just 30 miles away in Dallas, that the Methodists and the EUB joined together to form the United Methodist Church. It was also at that time that the separation of African-American and Latino churches were ended, and conferences were established by geographic lines only.

Bishop Swenson, in her comments to the plenary session this morning, reminded us that the founding conference took place just 19 days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She also reminded us of the words of Dr. Albert Outler at that founding conference, referencing the turbulent times of the 1960s: we are in the midst of anxious times, discontent and uncertainty. In such times, business as usual simply will not get our business done.

Our business? The three general rules of Wesley. Do no harm. Do good. Love God.

Or, in the words of Jesus: love God, love each other.

Pre-Conference

Tuesday I spent most of the day in briefings in preparation for the start of General Conference tonight.

Rene, who leaves Texas for LAX this morning, attended "Lighten the Burden II" at First UMC Forth Worth yesterday. When I figure out how to post the pictures he took, I will. Meantime he said it was an amazing day. Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) was the keynote speaker.

But the most touching moment came when retired Bishop Fritz Mutti was talking about the death of his sons to AIDS. He spoke about one of the first churchwide conferences on AIDS which was held in San Francisco back in 1987. At that gathering he shared his pain with others, and he was comforted by a young man who said he, too had AIDS; but his faith was stronger than any affliction.

That young man? Lyle Loder, of Hollywood UMC.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Monday morning: on the way to Fort Worth.

Getting Ready

Every four years our worldwide legislative assembly, the General Conference, meets to set direction for the denomination for the following four years.

General Conference is the only body that officially speaks for the church.

During the nine-day session, 992 delegates meet in "holy conferencing," and will revise the Book of Discipline, which is the book of rules setting forth how local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are organized. The book also sets policies regarding church membership, ordination, administration, property and judicial procedures.

The delegates also revise the Book of Resolutions, which compiles the church's position on a wide variety of social justice issues.

More details and a primer on General Conference can be found at http://www.umc.org/

From our California-Pacific Annual Conference, 5 clergy and 5 lay delegates, plus 4 alternates, will be our representatives.

I am not a delegate. So why am I going, you ask?

To represent the members and friends of Hollywood UMC alongside Common Witness: the caucuses of the Reconciling Ministries Network and Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA). We will be present, praying, serving, and telling stories to help transform the green tree of the General Conference to one of many colors; recognizing that we are all are rooted in the Body of Christ, and are all indeed one family of God.

Beginning next Wednesday: if you want to stream the worship services and other plenary sessions, log onto GC2008.umc.org

You can track all the latest information about legislation at the Reconciling Ministries Network blog, http://www.generalconference2008.org/

And you can keep up with me on this blog. I'll try to post every evening.

Meantime keep all the Bishops and delegates in your prayers. May God's spirit guide us to truly be one family tree, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.