Seeing Gray

In the light of the cyclone that has hit Myanmar, and the tragic loss of life, General Conference seems somehow less important that it did last Friday. Before reading my final post about General Conference I would invite you to pause to pray for the people of Myanmar who have lost loved ones. Pray for their comfort and healing and for guidance for their leaders and the nations of the world for how they and we can best help the people there. I am also praying for something good to come from this tragedy for the people of Myanmar. Continued

Much of the day yesterday at General Conference was focused on petitions related to human sexuality and specifically on the church’s policies related to homosexuals. Throughout the conference demonstrators and sympathetic delegates demonstrated and rallied, asking the church to change its current prohibition against “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” being ordained, serving as pastors, and prohibitions against United Methodist pastors officiating at homosexual marriages.

The General Conference voted on various pieces of legislation related to this issue. Some called for liberalization of our rules, and others for making them more restrictive. The debate was civil, but at times gut wrenching. Delegates who are homosexual, or who have children who are homosexual spoke of their faith, experience and pain that results from the church’s current stance. Other delegates spoke of their conviction that God’s will regarding this issue is clear, that God’s design for human sexuality is heterosexual sexual intimacy within the bonds of marriage.

The result of most of the votes on the various petitions were approximately 65% in favor of retaining our current policies and 35% wishing to liberalize our policies. The African delegates, an increasing number of the delegates to our General Conference, are overwhelmingly in favor of the current policies. Apart from their presence, I estimate that the U.S. delegates are probably divided 55% to 45% in favor of the current policies. The U.S. church is deeply divided on this issue. Continued

I was so proud this morning as our choir and orchestra led worship at General Conference and then later performed in concert at General Conference.  They represented you well and were inspiring!  I’ve had so many here at the conference comment on what a blessing they were.  I felt like a proud father.

This afternoon was one of the most inspiring moments at General Conference to date as the president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, addressed the Conference.  President Johnson-Sirleaf is the first female head of state in modern Africa.  Her election two years ago marked the beginning of a turn-around in Liberia that is bringing hope to a country that has known its share of struggle and internal strife.  At one point she had been imprisoned, then driven into exile.  Her election to the presidency has been a beacon of hope, particularly to women, across Africa.

President Johnson-Sirleaf was invited to speak to the General Conference  in recognition that nearly 40% of our membership is from Africa; because the United Methodist Church is making a significant investment in mission and ministry in Africa; and because President Johnson-Sirleaf is a United Methodist who attended the College of West Africa - a Methodist high school in Liberia, prior to attending college and graduate school in the U.S.  She is a very active United Methodist laywoman and her faith has played a key role in shaping her life and her leadership.

She spoke of the hope that is unfolding in sub-Saharan Africa.  Her focus is on alleviating poverty, educating young people and strengthening democracy.  It was a joy to watch, after she spoke, the children of the East African Children’s Choir, dancing for the president.  I found myself moved to tears, knowing a little of the pain and the tragedies that have been experienced in Africa, and yet seeing such hope among these children, and in the words and expression of this courageous president.  It was an inspiring afternoon.

East Africa Children’s Choir

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Monday night a proposal was brought forward to begin the process for developing a new hymnal for the United Methodist Church. Every 30 years, give or take a few, a new hymnal has been produced for our denomination. New hymns are included, some unsung old hymns are left out, language is updated, new liturgies and worship services are written. And, over a period of four to eight years, most of the churches in the denomination buy the new hymnal. It’s been 24 years since the last hymnal was introduced, and it takes about six years to get the next one to print, so if we start now we’ll have it out by 2014.

Sounds like a pretty simple proposal, right? Except for those pesky youth and young adults at General Conference. They start raising questions on the floor of the Conference about why we would need a new hymnal. They note that they don’t use hymnals in their worship - they use video screens. They say that by the time the new hymnals come out with the “new” hymns, those new hymns will already be outdated. They wonder if a new “book” is really what’s needed to revitalize worship - or is it something else that’s really needed? And what about the 40% of United Methodists who now live in Africa and other countries - this hymnal will be useless to them.

I was sitting next to the president of the United Methodist Publishing House during this vote. He’s a great guy. The vote to pursue a new hymnal passes 57% to 43% - and I suggest that this will be the last General Conference that ever votes to produce an old fashioned hymnal and this hymnal. He agrees, but hopes that there will be new ways of providing hymnals in the future.

I agree, and this gets me thinking about what the next hymnal could be. The next hymnal will come in a book form for those who have yet to embrace the 21st century. And there will be hundreds of thousands of copies of it sold. But the real “new” hymnal will not be a book at all. It will be a website, like iTunes (”iHymns”?) that will sell hymn rights on line for 99 cents per hymn. These will be downloadable pre-designed graphic files with the words to the songs to show on video screens, chord charts, orchestration and accompaniment scores for a variety of instruments. You’ll be able to listen to each hymn or praise song and download mp3 files to be played on keyboards and organs for those churches that cannot afford their own musicians (both of our organs can play mp3 files like this already). On the site you’ll be able to read the story behind each hymn, search for hymns by theme and scripture reference, and even find suggested worship “sets” depending upon the style and size of the church and the theme for the weekend. New hymns and contemporary songs will constantly be being uploaded on the site.

Wow, the more I think about this new hymnal, the more excited I get! Fortunately, for the Publishing House, it will be awhile before all 34,000 of our churches are ready for this new kind of hymnal. So they’ll get one more good run of hymnals before this market completely dries up (though don’t expect the same quantity of sales as we had in 1984!). I’m just old fashioned enough to occasionally enjoy opening up the hymnal - the old kind - and singing the words from the page. We’ll probably buy those new hymnals one last time, but we’ll really use the iHymns site when it is up and running!

What do you think? What ideas do you have for the new kind of hymnal? I’d love to pass on your thoughts to the Board of Discipleship and the United Methodist Publishing House.

The legislative committees began making their reports to the full General Conference today. This will continue through Friday morning. The most far reaching action taken today was the approval of a study that will bring to the 2012 General Conference a proposal to decentralize our denominational structure, giving greater freedom for the United Methodist Church of each nation or region around the world to order itself in ways that are most helpful for the needs of its people. Among other items approved today was the formation of a standing committee to study doctrine, the official recognition of shared communion between the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and the approval of a new hymnal (more on that in my next post!).

This evening has been devoted to approving proposals that have financial implications for the church. This process provides accountability for how the money is spent that we and all other United Methodist Churches contribute to the denomination. This includes our funds devoted to support missionaries, money used to fund seminaries, our humanitarian assistance, provisions for the cost of bishops and denominational staff, and a host of other ministries and programs of the church. About 3 cents of every dollar you give to the church supports our national and international ministries through the denomination (we give far more than this to missions, but this is our official giving through the denominational “apportionment”).

I came to appreciate today the transparency and accountability that goes into determining how funds are expended in our denomination. Each budget is first reviewed by the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration. It is then reviewed and debated by a legislative subcommittee here at General Conference. From there it is debated and voted upon by the full legislative committee. It is then presented to all 900 delegates of the General Conference for their debate and approval. Later there is a financial audit to ensure the funds were used appropriately.

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) the Church of the Resurrection choir and orchestra will be performing and leading us in worship at 8:00 a.m. and then performing in concert at 12:30 p.m. I am so excited and proud to have them here!

You can watch our choir and orchestra live on line, and also watch any of the debate, by going going to this website: http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.3989537/k.3B6D/Live_Streaming_Coverage_of_General_Conference.htm

I’m going to offer another post in a moment related to the debate about the proposal to commission a new hymnal for the United Methodist Church. You might find this debate interesting and indicative of a changing world.

There are hundreds of resolutions and proposals (over 1,000 if I remember correctly) that are submitted to the General Conference by laity, clergy, churches and other groups across the denomination - all asking for action by the United Methodist Church. Some relate to doctrine, others to positions on social issues, some to how we order our churches or do ministry. Some are relatively minor. Others represent very important matters. A few are so seismic that they threaten to split the denomination if approved.

In order to study each of the petitions the 900 delegates to General Conference are divided into thirteen legislative committees. These committees are further divided into subcommittees. Subcommittees are assigned as many as several dozen proposals and resolutions which they debate, vote upon, and then present their recommendations to the total committee. The issue may be debated again before the entire committee and the motion will either be approved or rejected. If they approve them these proposals are then presented to the General Conference for all 900 delegates to vote upon.

I am serving on the Faith and Order Legislative Committee which focuses on matters of doctrine and expectations for clergy conduct. We spent most of the day today discussing and debating proposals related to how we talk about the scriptures; the Christian’s obligation to obey civil authority; the formation of a standing committee on faith and order that would meet annually to discuss and clarify doctrine and practice for the denomination; whether clergy must abstain from tobacco and all alcohol or are merely encouraged to do so; and we spent time considering the church’s current teaching regarding homosexuality. We’ll be sharing the subcommittees recommendations to the entire committee Sunday afternoon.

I’ll share more about the debate regarding homosexuality in a post later this week and let you know how the debate over this issue shakes out.

Sunday is our last opportunity to debate in legislative committees. Starting Monday we’ll spend the next five days praying, studying, debating and voting in general sessions together. My hope is that most of our focus is on the kind of visions and opportunities I mentioned in my earlier posts, and not on the issues that divide us.

If you are interested in knowing more about how the votes on these issues turned out, and the rationale behind them, I’ll be hosting a special evening on Thursday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. where I’ll give a report and answering your questions. Also, if you’d like a more complete report of the daily actions of General Conference check out the official General Conference website by clicking here.

The day began today at 8:00 a.m., my legislative committee ended at 11:15 p.m. and then our delegation met until 12:20 a.m. After this I had a conversation about conference matters with one of our delegates until about 1:15 a.m. Time to head to bed!

It’s 2:00 a.m. and I’m just getting ready for bed after a long day at General Conference. The day began with in a most amazing way. Bishops and the heads of our General Agencies cast several visions for our denomination for the next four years and beyond - visions that were specific, exciting, compelling and which I believe God is calling our denomination, and our particular church, to pursue. Among these visions is a call to increase our efforts at addressing the root causes of poverty, to develop hundreds of new congregations reaching new people for Christ, addressing diseases of poverty including Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and the development of “principled Christian leaders” for the church and the world - with a special emphasis on young adults.

These may seem like self-evident goals, and they are each goals that we are already heavily engaged in at Church of the Resurrection, but for the church to name them, to put new resources behind them, and to encourage United Methodist Churches across the country to pursue these goals is exciting. There is also a specificity around these goals I found invigorating. Among the goals announced: Increase by 25% our ministry with the poor through our 102 United Methodist related ministries to the poor in the U.S. while training developing five pilot projects in other parts of the world; work with international partners to reduce by 66% the number of malaria related deaths of children under the age of 5; start 400 new United Methodist Churches outside the U.S. and 650 new churches inside the U.S. and recruit 1,000 new church planters; provide short term mission experiences for 100 young people and increase by 25% the number of clergy under age 35.

Later in the day we divided into our “legislative committees” - these are committees where we study petitions submitted by individuals and churches for consideration. I am in the Faith and Order legislative committee. There are dozens of petitions we’ll read, study, discuss and vote upon. The most controversial of these relate to homosexuality. My hope is that the exciting visions set forth this morning don’t get lost in the on-going struggle over this challenging issue.

In searching for an online photo of the conference I was surprised to see this one, of our delegation from Kansas East including former Resurrection associate pastor Eduardo Bousson on the far right.  I’ll get some better photos of the conference as a whole for a future post.