I may think better of posting this now but I am going to go ahead anyway. I write this as my heart is broken. You are getting the raw uncensored thoughts and feelings. I just observed the defeat of the proposed language that I wrote about earlier. The minority report of the committee was adopted with some deleted and changed language from the current book of discipline but retains the "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." phrase. There was considerable compromise from both sides in the committees submission and admission of faithful persons disagreeing on the subject at hand. That trust was thrown out and we have moved backwards.
I watched as this was accepted by a 55% to 45% vote. I stood in solidarity as we began to sing "Jesus Loves Me". I cried as I tried to sing and nothing came out. I cried as I thought about my family and friends that are gay and continue to be condemned by a body that should be loving them. I start to lose hope and that leads me to start to lose faith.
As I said, this is raw and uncensored and I start waiting for my heart to heal.
Eric
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Working Hard
As Dave stated earlier we are working long and hard, worship starts at 8 every morning and our plenary will go to at least 11 each night, probably later as the week goes on. I share with you some evidence of how hard we are working (photo's are credited to Skyler, a new friend from South Carolina).
Dave Masland Post # 3
4.28.08
First of all, I want to give a short piece of clarification regarding my last blog. I neglected to lay out one important detail related to the decision by the Inter-jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee to recommend to the full General Conference that the number of Episcopal areas in the Northeast Jurisdiction be reduced from ten to nine. In my note yesterday I failed to say that the motion is to make this change effective in 2012. In other words, our Jurisdiction has four years to make our transition to one less Bishop… in whatever way we choose. Pending approval of our plan at Jurisdictional Conference, this will enable those of us who have a positive vision for the future to birth the new Central Pennsylvania and the new Upstate New York Conference in 2010 (as we have planned), if everyone decides that is what God is calling is to do! However, if we decide we need more time, the funding is available to buy us one or two more years.
Next, I want to tell you about the aspects of General Conference that make the 14-15 hour work days worth-while. There are three things I LOVE about being here:
First, I have enjoyed chances to make new friends from all over the world. At General Conference you can’t help but build community with the people on your Legislative Committee and the people sitting all around you on the floor of the plenary sessions. Working your way through dozens of petitions together allows you to see one another at your best, and your worst. You can not help but come to feel close to these people. You hear about their families, pray for their churches back home, and come to appreciate their spiritual insight and wisdom. Thanks to you I have new friends from Denmark, the Congo, Russia and New Jersey!
Second, the worship is consistently engaging, soul-stirring and fun! Marcia McFee and Mark Miller, worship planners, are leading us through an ever evolving Conference-long theme of Hope. Every day, the music is extraordinary, and features songs and musicians from around the world. Drama and dance and visual effects have been consistently used to allow us to experience (not just hear about) God’s grace and love for the entire world. Each day we are hearing the best preachers across our connection. We have never had more fun worshipping God!
Last, each day we are given glimpses into incredible new life breaking forth all over the world in and through the United Methodist Church. Just today (Monday, April 29th) we had a chance to hear from a woman from Bolivia whose whole community has been transformed by money given by UM churches through the Advance. She has been training women on traditional weaving machines, and they are selling their creations around the world. Their quality of life is improving, and many new people are coming to know Christ.
We also had the privilege of seeing a 30-member children’s choir from Uganda. Just 6-8 months ago, these orphaned-by-AIDS kids were living in a refuge camp. Because of the vision and generosity of the North Georgia Conference, a new school was built, and some of the neediest orphaned children were selected to come to live at the school. They are fed, clothed, and given an education, as well as introduced to the good news of Jesus Christ. Never have I seen children filled with so much exuberance! They sang and danced their way into our hearts. And suddenly, every delegate caught a glimpse of God’s future vision of hope for Africa. For each of these experiences, I thank you.
First of all, I want to give a short piece of clarification regarding my last blog. I neglected to lay out one important detail related to the decision by the Inter-jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee to recommend to the full General Conference that the number of Episcopal areas in the Northeast Jurisdiction be reduced from ten to nine. In my note yesterday I failed to say that the motion is to make this change effective in 2012. In other words, our Jurisdiction has four years to make our transition to one less Bishop… in whatever way we choose. Pending approval of our plan at Jurisdictional Conference, this will enable those of us who have a positive vision for the future to birth the new Central Pennsylvania and the new Upstate New York Conference in 2010 (as we have planned), if everyone decides that is what God is calling is to do! However, if we decide we need more time, the funding is available to buy us one or two more years.
Next, I want to tell you about the aspects of General Conference that make the 14-15 hour work days worth-while. There are three things I LOVE about being here:
First, I have enjoyed chances to make new friends from all over the world. At General Conference you can’t help but build community with the people on your Legislative Committee and the people sitting all around you on the floor of the plenary sessions. Working your way through dozens of petitions together allows you to see one another at your best, and your worst. You can not help but come to feel close to these people. You hear about their families, pray for their churches back home, and come to appreciate their spiritual insight and wisdom. Thanks to you I have new friends from Denmark, the Congo, Russia and New Jersey!
Second, the worship is consistently engaging, soul-stirring and fun! Marcia McFee and Mark Miller, worship planners, are leading us through an ever evolving Conference-long theme of Hope. Every day, the music is extraordinary, and features songs and musicians from around the world. Drama and dance and visual effects have been consistently used to allow us to experience (not just hear about) God’s grace and love for the entire world. Each day we are hearing the best preachers across our connection. We have never had more fun worshipping God!
Last, each day we are given glimpses into incredible new life breaking forth all over the world in and through the United Methodist Church. Just today (Monday, April 29th) we had a chance to hear from a woman from Bolivia whose whole community has been transformed by money given by UM churches through the Advance. She has been training women on traditional weaving machines, and they are selling their creations around the world. Their quality of life is improving, and many new people are coming to know Christ.
We also had the privilege of seeing a 30-member children’s choir from Uganda. Just 6-8 months ago, these orphaned-by-AIDS kids were living in a refuge camp. Because of the vision and generosity of the North Georgia Conference, a new school was built, and some of the neediest orphaned children were selected to come to live at the school. They are fed, clothed, and given an education, as well as introduced to the good news of Jesus Christ. Never have I seen children filled with so much exuberance! They sang and danced their way into our hearts. And suddenly, every delegate caught a glimpse of God’s future vision of hope for Africa. For each of these experiences, I thank you.
random thoughts
Hi--it's Sarah again.
This week there was a presentation celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. When I saw that on the agenda, I thought it was odd--why would we celebrate something's end? Then I learned that the Central Jurisdiction was the Methodist Church's way of segregating the African-American churches from the white churches. What?!? There was segregation INSIDE the Methodist Church? I guess I was naive. It kind of blew my mind that the church that raised me to love and forgive and do the right thing would separate people in this way. But the good news is that we turned ourselves around, and that definitely is a reason to celebrate. My hope is that we will (as a church and as individuals) be open to changes that will continue to be necessary as we seek to show Jesus' love to the world in the most effective way.
One thing that's become really apparent at this General Conference is that there are a lot the growing pains associated with becoming a world-wide church. Several petitions have been put forward about funding international programs and about how a global UMC should look.
I have been in sessions where US delegates have come to the microphone to argue about fine points about rules of order, and I look at the delegations from places in Africa, for example, where war and hunger and disease are constant everyday struggles, and I wonder if they must think we are arrogant and unconcerned.
The UMC is growing in Africa and in the Phillippines; the UMC is losing members in the United States.
In legislative committees, I saw the struggle that the English speakers had when making speeches and needed to slow down to allow for the interpreters to have time to translate to the non-English speaking delegates. Although it's hard to get used to making changes in the way things are done, I could tell that most of them genuinely wanted to do better.
I have really enjoyed hearing prayers in other languages during the worship services. It's amazing to me when a non-English speaking delegate gets up to give an opinion to the entire General Conference--that takes a lot of courage.
I have met some great people here, including friends of some of our friends from home! I have met seminary buddies of Nick Keeney and Jon Buxton and Beth Jones, and I met a friend of Ed and Betty Lou Furman's from Zimbabwe. I have really enjoyed talking with lots of different people--a fellow page from the Phillippines who's serving a church in California and hopes one day to serve in Guam, a Portuguese interpreter who told me that sometimes his brain gets squeezed when he's translating, a marshal who used to be a special education teacher and ended up adopting one of her students when she retired. Our church has some amazing, wonderful people. I am glad for the opportunity to see outside my small experience.
This week there was a presentation celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. When I saw that on the agenda, I thought it was odd--why would we celebrate something's end? Then I learned that the Central Jurisdiction was the Methodist Church's way of segregating the African-American churches from the white churches. What?!? There was segregation INSIDE the Methodist Church? I guess I was naive. It kind of blew my mind that the church that raised me to love and forgive and do the right thing would separate people in this way. But the good news is that we turned ourselves around, and that definitely is a reason to celebrate. My hope is that we will (as a church and as individuals) be open to changes that will continue to be necessary as we seek to show Jesus' love to the world in the most effective way.
*****
One thing that's become really apparent at this General Conference is that there are a lot the growing pains associated with becoming a world-wide church. Several petitions have been put forward about funding international programs and about how a global UMC should look.
I have been in sessions where US delegates have come to the microphone to argue about fine points about rules of order, and I look at the delegations from places in Africa, for example, where war and hunger and disease are constant everyday struggles, and I wonder if they must think we are arrogant and unconcerned.
The UMC is growing in Africa and in the Phillippines; the UMC is losing members in the United States.
In legislative committees, I saw the struggle that the English speakers had when making speeches and needed to slow down to allow for the interpreters to have time to translate to the non-English speaking delegates. Although it's hard to get used to making changes in the way things are done, I could tell that most of them genuinely wanted to do better.
I have really enjoyed hearing prayers in other languages during the worship services. It's amazing to me when a non-English speaking delegate gets up to give an opinion to the entire General Conference--that takes a lot of courage.
******
I have met some great people here, including friends of some of our friends from home! I have met seminary buddies of Nick Keeney and Jon Buxton and Beth Jones, and I met a friend of Ed and Betty Lou Furman's from Zimbabwe. I have really enjoyed talking with lots of different people--a fellow page from the Phillippines who's serving a church in California and hopes one day to serve in Guam, a Portuguese interpreter who told me that sometimes his brain gets squeezed when he's translating, a marshal who used to be a special education teacher and ended up adopting one of her students when she retired. Our church has some amazing, wonderful people. I am glad for the opportunity to see outside my small experience.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Ray's Blackberry Round 3
Elections this A.M. Glad to see Bill Lawrence on judicial council. Yea for Wyoming A.C. In judicial administration we're having trouble finishing our work. Long hours ahead. Debate on matters goes on and on. This will hamper us later when we run out of time when more controversial matters are decided. Spirit still good.
Peace to all.
Peace to all.
Post #2 from Dave Masland
4.27.08
Did you know that there is a committee in the United Methodist Church called the “Inter-jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee”? If so, you knew more than I did prior to this General Conference about the process of deciding how many Episcopal Areas (and therefore, how many Bishops) there will be in each Jurisdiction. The book of Discipline lays out an highly complex formula for deciding how many Bishops each Jurisdiction should have. One key element in that formula is the number of church members that reside in any given Jurisdiction (the factors in the formula are number of clergy and missional issues). This Committee’s work is especially important for the Wyoming Conference this year, because these are the people who have the power to decide whether or not our Northeast Jurisdiction will in fact (as anticipated) lose at least one Bishop in the next Quadrenium.
Our Annual Conference has long held to the tradition of expecting the first-elected clergy, and the first-elected lay person to serve on the Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee. This automatically placed myself and Ray Hamill on this Inter-Jurisdictional Committee, which typically meets only once during the Quadrenium… at General Conference.
As expected, the main item on our agenda (after electing officers) was to respond to a request from the General Commission on Finance and Administration related to the fact that the Northeast Jurisdiction has fallen below the “minimum numbers” required by the Discipline to warrant having ten Episcopal Areas. They were asking our Committee to recommend to the entire General Conference a number of Episcopal Areas for our Jurisdiction. After hearing their presentation, this Committee which was made up of a lay person and a clergy person from every Conference across America, was faced with a decision no one was equipped or wanted to deal with. The complex realities facing this committee were these:
Most of the people sitting in the room were like me, and had all of fifteen minutes of experience serving on the committee, and were now faced with a decision that would affect 1.4 million United Methodists. Most of the more experienced folks in the room had never been faced with this particular challenge before. Our own Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee was split on the recommendation they wanted to make. No Jurisdiction wants to deal with the difficult realities of transitioning to one less Episcopal area. And, some feel there ARE good missional reasons to retain the tenth Bishop in the Northeast… since many of the largest urban areas in America are here, and we all want the church to have a significant presence in these cities. Few others, other than the representatives from Central Penn, New England, Western NY, North-central NY, Troy, and Wyoming Conferences knew what we had been working on over the past two years… that we had taken the initiative to envision a new way of aligning our Conferences that would have missional focus. We were under a time crunch to make the decisions on these matters during our two hour meeting, because all of us had to get back to our Legislative Committee meetings.
After some sharing about the processes we have undertaken over the past two years, and some speeches from the Jurisdictional Committee on the history that had brought us to this point, there was some silence in the room. It was an awkward moment, with everyone expecting someone else to make the fateful motion. Thankfully, as was the case in 2004, Ray Hamill, rose to the occasion!
Over at our table, Ray and I and a member of the NE Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee whispered a word of agreement that it was wrong to expect anyone from another Jurisdiction to make a motion related to our future. Ray stood at the microphone and moved the reduction of Episcopal Areas in our Jurisdiction from ten to nine. As he put it, “It is unfair for us to expect anyone else to make this motion.”
It was an action that created a palpable shift in the room. A gentleman from Florida stood and expressed his stunned gratefulness that Ray had offered this gift to the body. Very quickly (it would have been nice to have more conversation, but the tyranny of the clock weighed heavily upon us) the question was called. And, though the vote was closer than it might have been, because many felt more discussion was called for, the motion was passed to reduce the number of Bishops in our Jurisdiction by one. After the vote, Henry Frueh (from Troy Conference) stood to share that he believes that the vision-driven contingency plan we have been crafting together has the potential to bring about positive growth in our area. After we adjourned, I spent time with some upset delegates from elsewhere in the Jurisdiction to reassure them that the people of Wyoming Conference feel God has been working through this whole process to bring good.
What does all this mean? The recommendation of the Inter-jurisdictional Committee will be brought before the entire General Conference early this week (Monday?) for their consideration. Barring a radical and unexpected turn of events, it seems clear that our Jurisdictional Conference (in Harrisburg in July) will be charged with electing at least one new bishop to make it possible to fill nine Episcopal areas for the 2008-2012 Quadrenium. Please pray for all of us as we move ahead.
Dave Masland
Did you know that there is a committee in the United Methodist Church called the “Inter-jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee”? If so, you knew more than I did prior to this General Conference about the process of deciding how many Episcopal Areas (and therefore, how many Bishops) there will be in each Jurisdiction. The book of Discipline lays out an highly complex formula for deciding how many Bishops each Jurisdiction should have. One key element in that formula is the number of church members that reside in any given Jurisdiction (the factors in the formula are number of clergy and missional issues). This Committee’s work is especially important for the Wyoming Conference this year, because these are the people who have the power to decide whether or not our Northeast Jurisdiction will in fact (as anticipated) lose at least one Bishop in the next Quadrenium.
Our Annual Conference has long held to the tradition of expecting the first-elected clergy, and the first-elected lay person to serve on the Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee. This automatically placed myself and Ray Hamill on this Inter-Jurisdictional Committee, which typically meets only once during the Quadrenium… at General Conference.
As expected, the main item on our agenda (after electing officers) was to respond to a request from the General Commission on Finance and Administration related to the fact that the Northeast Jurisdiction has fallen below the “minimum numbers” required by the Discipline to warrant having ten Episcopal Areas. They were asking our Committee to recommend to the entire General Conference a number of Episcopal Areas for our Jurisdiction. After hearing their presentation, this Committee which was made up of a lay person and a clergy person from every Conference across America, was faced with a decision no one was equipped or wanted to deal with. The complex realities facing this committee were these:
Most of the people sitting in the room were like me, and had all of fifteen minutes of experience serving on the committee, and were now faced with a decision that would affect 1.4 million United Methodists. Most of the more experienced folks in the room had never been faced with this particular challenge before. Our own Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee was split on the recommendation they wanted to make. No Jurisdiction wants to deal with the difficult realities of transitioning to one less Episcopal area. And, some feel there ARE good missional reasons to retain the tenth Bishop in the Northeast… since many of the largest urban areas in America are here, and we all want the church to have a significant presence in these cities. Few others, other than the representatives from Central Penn, New England, Western NY, North-central NY, Troy, and Wyoming Conferences knew what we had been working on over the past two years… that we had taken the initiative to envision a new way of aligning our Conferences that would have missional focus. We were under a time crunch to make the decisions on these matters during our two hour meeting, because all of us had to get back to our Legislative Committee meetings.
After some sharing about the processes we have undertaken over the past two years, and some speeches from the Jurisdictional Committee on the history that had brought us to this point, there was some silence in the room. It was an awkward moment, with everyone expecting someone else to make the fateful motion. Thankfully, as was the case in 2004, Ray Hamill, rose to the occasion!
Over at our table, Ray and I and a member of the NE Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee whispered a word of agreement that it was wrong to expect anyone from another Jurisdiction to make a motion related to our future. Ray stood at the microphone and moved the reduction of Episcopal Areas in our Jurisdiction from ten to nine. As he put it, “It is unfair for us to expect anyone else to make this motion.”
It was an action that created a palpable shift in the room. A gentleman from Florida stood and expressed his stunned gratefulness that Ray had offered this gift to the body. Very quickly (it would have been nice to have more conversation, but the tyranny of the clock weighed heavily upon us) the question was called. And, though the vote was closer than it might have been, because many felt more discussion was called for, the motion was passed to reduce the number of Bishops in our Jurisdiction by one. After the vote, Henry Frueh (from Troy Conference) stood to share that he believes that the vision-driven contingency plan we have been crafting together has the potential to bring about positive growth in our area. After we adjourned, I spent time with some upset delegates from elsewhere in the Jurisdiction to reassure them that the people of Wyoming Conference feel God has been working through this whole process to bring good.
What does all this mean? The recommendation of the Inter-jurisdictional Committee will be brought before the entire General Conference early this week (Monday?) for their consideration. Barring a radical and unexpected turn of events, it seems clear that our Jurisdictional Conference (in Harrisburg in July) will be charged with electing at least one new bishop to make it possible to fill nine Episcopal areas for the 2008-2012 Quadrenium. Please pray for all of us as we move ahead.
Dave Masland
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Hot Button
I hesitate to write this as I understand the multitude of news on the issue of homosexuality in the church. While I feel that it is crucial to be fully inclusive in our church, I am frustrated when people on both sides of the issue devote so much time to tearing each other down when we can put our energy into mission and ministry. I do not want the only time when our church makes national news to be when we arguing instead of doing good works. With that taken into consideration I know many are interested in what is happening and I will give you the news I am aware of on the issue of homosexuality.
I have attended (as an observer) portions of the committee and subcommittee working on some of those petitions. (Boy, it's hard to get those seats!) What they did was to take all of the petitions looking at paragraph 161G of the Book of Discipline and to create a new document with all of their suggestions. Through holy conferencing the group has produced this document and it is my understanding that this has been approved by the human sexuality subcommittee as well as the church and society 2 committee and will come before the full plenary sometime this week.
I have heard people on both sides of the issue pleased with the document, there was trust in the subcommittee when all of the petitions whose wording contributed to the above document as well as other admittedly "backup" resolutions were rejected unanimously.
I have hope for the future of the United Methodist Church.
Eric
I have attended (as an observer) portions of the committee and subcommittee working on some of those petitions. (Boy, it's hard to get those seats!) What they did was to take all of the petitions looking at paragraph 161G of the Book of Discipline and to create a new document with all of their suggestions. Through holy conferencing the group has produced this document and it is my understanding that this has been approved by the human sexuality subcommittee as well as the church and society 2 committee and will come before the full plenary sometime this week.
I have heard people on both sides of the issue pleased with the document, there was trust in the subcommittee when all of the petitions whose wording contributed to the above document as well as other admittedly "backup" resolutions were rejected unanimously.
I have hope for the future of the United Methodist Church.
Eric
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Ray's Blackberry Round 2
Things have slowed a bit this morning as reports are the order of the day. Controversy today over an interest group giving cell phones to select delegates in order to suggest how delegates should vote on certain issues. See UMNS article for more info. Committee work this p.m. always good to hear from folks at home!
Peace!
Ray
Peace!
Ray
A Post From Dave Masland
April 26, 2008
In addition to wonderful worship and listening to reports, much of our time during the first 4-5 days of General Conference is spent in Legislative Committees. There were 1500+ petitions sent from individuals, churches, conferences and agencies around the world for the General Conference to consider. Thankfully, every delegate does not have to consider each of them! Instead, we have been split into thirteen legislative committees which consider petitions relevant to different sections of the Book of Discipline. Your four elected delegates each volunteered for a Committee that we were most interested in. I am serving on the Faith and Order Committee, which consider all of the petitions related to the first section of the Book of Discipline… the 100’s paragraphs, as well as some of the early 300’s.
I must admit to some anxiety in anticipation of my work on this Legislative Committee. We have relatively few petitions to consider (dozens rather than hundreds, like some of the other committees). However, many of the ones before us relate to some of the most divisive issues confronting the church. I feared a frustrating week of turf battles, high anxiety debates and angry interchanges. Thus far, I have been pleasing surprised to experience a process of “holy conferencing” that has been transformational.
Our Legislative Committee elected leaders that are highly skilled in leading large groups through meaningful process. We have spent significant time in trust building. We have practiced prayerful discernment-based decision making on less divisive issues. We have done good work in perfecting some resolutions that we did not have consensus on at first. Most of all, in two days of work together, we have already developed deep sense of appreciation for one another. We have discovered that we share SO MUCH in terms of our commitments to Christ and the church. We have laughed a lot together. We have listened well… including listening to six or seven persons for whom English is not well known. We have prayed for God’s guidance throughout. And, thus far, God’s the sense of God’s spirit and love for one another has pervaded everything we have done.
The most potentially divisive petitions are still before us. However, we have developed such a deep level of trust with one another, I believe we will be able to speak the truth to one another in love, and listen well to one another. I am excited to see where the process leads us. I believe with all of my heart that together we will be able to listen for God’s leading in our midst. And I have a strong sense that we will be able to bring to the full General Conference some resolutions that MIGHT move our church to a new place.
I will report more in the days to come.
Dave Masland
In addition to wonderful worship and listening to reports, much of our time during the first 4-5 days of General Conference is spent in Legislative Committees. There were 1500+ petitions sent from individuals, churches, conferences and agencies around the world for the General Conference to consider. Thankfully, every delegate does not have to consider each of them! Instead, we have been split into thirteen legislative committees which consider petitions relevant to different sections of the Book of Discipline. Your four elected delegates each volunteered for a Committee that we were most interested in. I am serving on the Faith and Order Committee, which consider all of the petitions related to the first section of the Book of Discipline… the 100’s paragraphs, as well as some of the early 300’s.
I must admit to some anxiety in anticipation of my work on this Legislative Committee. We have relatively few petitions to consider (dozens rather than hundreds, like some of the other committees). However, many of the ones before us relate to some of the most divisive issues confronting the church. I feared a frustrating week of turf battles, high anxiety debates and angry interchanges. Thus far, I have been pleasing surprised to experience a process of “holy conferencing” that has been transformational.
Our Legislative Committee elected leaders that are highly skilled in leading large groups through meaningful process. We have spent significant time in trust building. We have practiced prayerful discernment-based decision making on less divisive issues. We have done good work in perfecting some resolutions that we did not have consensus on at first. Most of all, in two days of work together, we have already developed deep sense of appreciation for one another. We have discovered that we share SO MUCH in terms of our commitments to Christ and the church. We have laughed a lot together. We have listened well… including listening to six or seven persons for whom English is not well known. We have prayed for God’s guidance throughout. And, thus far, God’s the sense of God’s spirit and love for one another has pervaded everything we have done.
The most potentially divisive petitions are still before us. However, we have developed such a deep level of trust with one another, I believe we will be able to speak the truth to one another in love, and listen well to one another. I am excited to see where the process leads us. I believe with all of my heart that together we will be able to listen for God’s leading in our midst. And I have a strong sense that we will be able to bring to the full General Conference some resolutions that MIGHT move our church to a new place.
I will report more in the days to come.
Dave Masland
Friday, April 25, 2008
more notes from a page
Hello--it's Sarah the page again!
Today I'm enjoying the opportunity to serve the GC Legislative Committee on Conferences. The committee is broken into three subcommittees to discuss the petitions and resolutions that have been submitted in the Conferences category. The subcommittees cover these three areas: General Conference, Annual and Jurisdictional Conferences, and Global Conference Issues (those may not be their exact names, but those are the topics covered). I was closest to the General and Global subcommittees, and it was very interesting to see how they worked. Since the General Conference subcommittee dealt first with several petitions/resolutions that were relatively simple, they were able to go accept or reject about five of them in the hour and a half that they had before lunch.
The Global Conference subcommittee, however, has to deal with the petitions that talk about whether the international UM conferences should have equal influence to the UMC in the US. This is one of the weightiest issues at General Conference this year, and it needs much discussion. I was happy to see that there were several members of this subcommittee from conferences in Africa, and there were a couple from the Phillippines, too, I believe. Members of all types took the opportunity to share their opinions, and so I was able to see a couple of the translators in action. I am so impressed by their ability to be the bridge between languages and cultures!
This evening, I will be able to spend more time with this committee, so we'll see if anything exciting happens while I'm there!
On another topic, tomorrow morning, the entire General Conference will celebrate together the value of ministry and churches in rural areas and small towns. This holds a special place in my heart, since Eric and I both grew up in small rural churches. I will be carrying a banner to represent Henderson Settlement, and Eric will be carrying a pole covered with paper butterflies (each butterfly represents a rural church--25,000 in all!). If you're interested, you can try and find us on the streaming video from GC (the link on the right). The service starts around 9:30am.
As Eric mentioned earlier, we would be happy to try our best to answer any questions you might have about General Conference, so feel free to leave them as comments.
Today I'm enjoying the opportunity to serve the GC Legislative Committee on Conferences. The committee is broken into three subcommittees to discuss the petitions and resolutions that have been submitted in the Conferences category. The subcommittees cover these three areas: General Conference, Annual and Jurisdictional Conferences, and Global Conference Issues (those may not be their exact names, but those are the topics covered). I was closest to the General and Global subcommittees, and it was very interesting to see how they worked. Since the General Conference subcommittee dealt first with several petitions/resolutions that were relatively simple, they were able to go accept or reject about five of them in the hour and a half that they had before lunch.
The Global Conference subcommittee, however, has to deal with the petitions that talk about whether the international UM conferences should have equal influence to the UMC in the US. This is one of the weightiest issues at General Conference this year, and it needs much discussion. I was happy to see that there were several members of this subcommittee from conferences in Africa, and there were a couple from the Phillippines, too, I believe. Members of all types took the opportunity to share their opinions, and so I was able to see a couple of the translators in action. I am so impressed by their ability to be the bridge between languages and cultures!
This evening, I will be able to spend more time with this committee, so we'll see if anything exciting happens while I'm there!
On another topic, tomorrow morning, the entire General Conference will celebrate together the value of ministry and churches in rural areas and small towns. This holds a special place in my heart, since Eric and I both grew up in small rural churches. I will be carrying a banner to represent Henderson Settlement, and Eric will be carrying a pole covered with paper butterflies (each butterfly represents a rural church--25,000 in all!). If you're interested, you can try and find us on the streaming video from GC (the link on the right). The service starts around 9:30am.
As Eric mentioned earlier, we would be happy to try our best to answer any questions you might have about General Conference, so feel free to leave them as comments.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
From Ray Hamill's Blackberry
This has been the most spiritual, uplifting start of a General Conference in 16 yrs. Hope is the message and the worship and messaging have been inspiring. Wyoming A. C. has reason to be proud of it's delegates. We are being faithful in all that we do and thank you for this opportunity to serve.
Peace!
Ray
Peace!
Ray
Questions
I would like to solicit questions you may have about General Conference and our time here. We will do our best try to answer them for you. Are there certain resolutions that you are interested in knowing about? As an alternate delegate I will have some opportunity to track this information down for you.
From Eric
From Eric
Young People's Address
I was able to be seated on the floor for last evening's opening plenary and this morning's worship and address from young people (if you visit this link, scroll down to get video). There were six young people from youth to young adult, clergy and lay, a diverse group. They spoke from different areas of the stage and audience telling their stories and their hope for the church. I don't believe that I can properly convey the hope / pride / excitement that I felt as I heard them, I was choked up, (I know this happens when I can't sing). They acknowledged being regarded as the future of the church and contended that we are the present of the church if there is to be a future of the church.
This group as well as others have set a tone of unity for our church. Our delegation chair Ray Hamill who has attended at least the two previous General Conferences, stated something to the fact of feeling more of one mind to do the work of God and the Church. My hope is that we sustain this unity as we go forward into legislative committee's.
The morning worship included a version the song sanctuary to the tune of Crash by the Dave Matthews Band, simply amazing!
From Eric
This group as well as others have set a tone of unity for our church. Our delegation chair Ray Hamill who has attended at least the two previous General Conferences, stated something to the fact of feeling more of one mind to do the work of God and the Church. My hope is that we sustain this unity as we go forward into legislative committee's.
The morning worship included a version the song sanctuary to the tune of Crash by the Dave Matthews Band, simply amazing!
From Eric
Day 1 in a Nutshell
Hello!
This is Eric's wife, Sarah. I'm serving as a page at General Conference, and since Eric hasn't had time to sit down and write a post yet, I thought I'd fill you in on what's happened so far from the perspective of someone who's volunteering instead of voting.
Yesterday was the first official day of the meeting. There were all kinds of orientations going on during the day--for marshals and pages, for younger delegates, for racial and ethnic minority delegates, etc.--and the conference itself got underway with opening worship at 6pm. It was a great service, with Bishop Janice Huie (the president of the Council of Bishops--the UMC pope) giving a message about how the church needs hope--not marshmallowy hope that melts at the first sign of trouble, but real solid hope that takes us in a direction of growth. The music was led by Mark Miller, who did the music for the Wyoming Annual Conference a few years ago.
Then there were several things that needed to be done to get started. The delegates tested the wireless voting machines, discussed and adopted the rules for the conference proceedings, heard reports from the Commission on the General Conference Report and the Committee on Agenda, set the calendar for the conference, and participated in sensitivity training by the Committee on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW--but they really deal with more minorities than just women).
Since I was assigned as a runner yesterday evening, I was able to be on the floor while all of this was happening. I didn't think it'd be very exciting, since there wasn't anything huge to go over, but there were points where I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off--delivering notes to delegates and motions to the secretary of the conference. It was great!
Since I was running around, I didn't get to pay attention to all of what was said, but I did notice a couple of things. There were several discussions on different points of the rules of order,which I didn't expect! Also, the Committee on the Agenda (I believe that's the name of the committee--I'll fix it later if I'm wrong) recommended that the size of General Conference in the future be reduced to 600 delegates instead of 1,000. They feel like it would provide for better fellowship among the delegates, and they are concerned about the amount of money the church is spending on General Conference (this particular GC is costing the church over $6 million).
So, that's been my experience in a nutshell!
I have two links for you that I think you'll be interested in:
Bob Kolvik-Campbell's Blog - Bob is a Wyoming Conference pastor who's serving as a marshal at General Conference
Live Streaming Coverage of General Conference - here you can see what's going on as it happens...and maybe you'll see someone you know!
And thank you to those of you who are praying for General Conference--those prayers are needed!
This is Eric's wife, Sarah. I'm serving as a page at General Conference, and since Eric hasn't had time to sit down and write a post yet, I thought I'd fill you in on what's happened so far from the perspective of someone who's volunteering instead of voting.
Yesterday was the first official day of the meeting. There were all kinds of orientations going on during the day--for marshals and pages, for younger delegates, for racial and ethnic minority delegates, etc.--and the conference itself got underway with opening worship at 6pm. It was a great service, with Bishop Janice Huie (the president of the Council of Bishops--the UMC pope) giving a message about how the church needs hope--not marshmallowy hope that melts at the first sign of trouble, but real solid hope that takes us in a direction of growth. The music was led by Mark Miller, who did the music for the Wyoming Annual Conference a few years ago.
Then there were several things that needed to be done to get started. The delegates tested the wireless voting machines, discussed and adopted the rules for the conference proceedings, heard reports from the Commission on the General Conference Report and the Committee on Agenda, set the calendar for the conference, and participated in sensitivity training by the Committee on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW--but they really deal with more minorities than just women).
Since I was assigned as a runner yesterday evening, I was able to be on the floor while all of this was happening. I didn't think it'd be very exciting, since there wasn't anything huge to go over, but there were points where I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off--delivering notes to delegates and motions to the secretary of the conference. It was great!
Since I was running around, I didn't get to pay attention to all of what was said, but I did notice a couple of things. There were several discussions on different points of the rules of order,which I didn't expect! Also, the Committee on the Agenda (I believe that's the name of the committee--I'll fix it later if I'm wrong) recommended that the size of General Conference in the future be reduced to 600 delegates instead of 1,000. They feel like it would provide for better fellowship among the delegates, and they are concerned about the amount of money the church is spending on General Conference (this particular GC is costing the church over $6 million).
So, that's been my experience in a nutshell!
I have two links for you that I think you'll be interested in:
Bob Kolvik-Campbell's Blog - Bob is a Wyoming Conference pastor who's serving as a marshal at General Conference
Live Streaming Coverage of General Conference - here you can see what's going on as it happens...and maybe you'll see someone you know!
And thank you to those of you who are praying for General Conference--those prayers are needed!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
General Conference
A place for news, notes and thoughts direct from your Wyoming Annual Conference delegation to your computer screen.
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