Still Breathing

[Note: for a blow-by-blow of this legislation day - and plenary tomorrow - you can visit my Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/minimar7]

It's sad to feel like there have to be "winners" and "losers" in the United Methodist Church. It's sad that some feel that their denomination is being taken from them. Some feel this way because the church will not be inclusive enough: the church will not allow LGBTQ individuals to be ordained; the church will not allow same-sex marriage. Some feel this way because the church will not be restrictive enough: the church will not refuse to allow LGBTQ individuals to be members, Boards of Ordained Ministry are not required to determined if people are self-avowed, practicing homosexuals.

Long security lines at the Convention Center with amazingly cheerful security personnel.

Since 1972, the United Methodist Church has allowed the topic of homosexuality to pull our focus away from the mission of our movement. Prior to that, perhaps the Methodist Church was too caught up in keeping blacks and whites segregated. When the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church united in 1968, the EUB church required the dissolution of the Central Conference, which was the Methodist church's way of keeping blacks separate from whites. Once that matter was settled, homosexuality took the forefront as something we wanted to legislate against.

Presence over protest is how most LGBTQ members have been presenting
their hope that the UMC will change its position.

Knowing that the church could not continue to fight about this issue, in 2016, our Council of Bishops sought a way for the church to remain united but allow differing theological understandings (not just on one issue) and different expressions to co-exist within the UMC. This, of course, has been the reality in our churches for a long time. In one city, there is a charismatic church where members raise their hands in the air when they sing and pray and regularly conclude services with an altar call. The church across the freeway has traditional "high church" services, where hands never come above the waist. In one Sunday school class, a man objects to studying Adam Hamilton's Confronting the Controversies. "I don't come to church to have my faith challenged," he says. "I come to hear what the Bible says." In the class next door, a lay member, fresh off of Laity Week at the nearby seminary, is sharing Marcus Borg's Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. "You don't have to agree with Borg," he says. "But isn't it interesting to think about your own faith and how it fits or doesn't fit with what Borg is saying?" One member of the UMW has attended Bible Study Fellowship for years. Another is enjoying her fourth year of Disciple Bible Study. These members interpret scripture differently from one another while working together to further the mission of the UMC.

We've been a "big tent" church for a long time. But there are core tenets that bind us together and make us Methodist: an open Communion table, infant baptism, prevenient grace, emphasis on social justice, the movement of the Holy Spirit today, a belief that everyone is a beloved child of God, itinerancy, ordination of women, the Quadrilateral, an outward focus on the mission field...the list goes on. Even with differing understandings and different expressions, even in vastly different mission fields, together, we are United Methodist.

This truth is certainly under threat tonight. The Bishops have urged us to agree on a way that we can continue to exist with diversity while not hindering our mission due to rules and punishments. We have failed to do this. It's not clear what we will, in fact, succeed in doing.

Bishop Lowry joined us "off the floor" of General Conference for part of the morning.

Tomorrow, we head into plenary having not "perfected" the Traditional Plan, which means that it goes forward (vote was 461/359 or 56% to 44%) with a number of petitions that the Judicial Council has already deemed unconstitutional. The "Modified" Traditional Plan was not discussed at all by the legislative committee, since two of the petitions were previously referred to the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, which reviews legislation related to Central Conferences, which are outside of the U.S. This committee met late last night to look at this plan, which will surely re-surface tomorrow. (It wasn't discussed today at all by the legislative committee.)

And the One Church Plan, which did not receive the simple majority needed to "pass" out of the legislative committee (386/436 or 47% to 53%), will also make an appearance tomorrow. It will be resurrected by those who signed a "minority report" to have it considered in Plenary (requires 20 signatures to be properly on file by a particular deadline).

Some of my favorite people! Mark Holland, Susan & Tim Bruster, and Sid Hall.

Tomorrow will be somewhat different, although it will look very similar to today. The presiding Chair will be a Bishop (who does not vote), and the rules will be slightly different. The work of the plenary is to work through the petitions that passed out of the legislative committee (and Committee on Central Conference Matters), as well as any petitions that are given new life through a minority report. This means that we will re-visit Wespath petitions covered yesterday, two petitions related to "disaffiliation" that were passed today, and two or three plans for moving forward. 

And it feels, yes, it feels very much, like there will be winners and there will be losers, both in the church and in the mission field.

Some possible outcomes include:

• Some form of the Traditional Plan passes, and it is strong enough to pass Judicial Council scrutiny. Restrictions are tightened, punishments are meted out, and churches and conferences who do not want to be subject to this will begin to make their plans to leave the UMC. Some individuals, also, who do not want to be in a denomination that says LGBTQ people are "less than" others, will choose to leave. 
• Some form of the Traditional Plan passes, but it is a watered-down version of this plan that doesn't do enough to enforce the rules, as the original plan required. While it is able to pass muster with the Judicial Council, the plan isn't strong enough to satisfy those who wanted the original version of the plan. Some traditionalist individuals, churches and conferences choose to separate from the UMC. Others, who supported the One Church Plan, also choose to leave, as the Discipline will retain exclusive language.
• Some form of the Traditional Plan passes, but tomorrow, or later, it is ruled unconstitutional by the Judicial Council. We effectively find ourselves with no plan. Traditional Plan backers leave.
• Nothing passes. The Traditional Plan gets "watered down" so much that it is not acceptable to those who originally wanted it, and those who didn't want it continue to vote against it. There aren't enough votes to support the One Church Plan, so nothing passes.
• The Traditional Plan becomes so watered down in plenary that some who favored the plan feel that their separation from the church is inevitable and shift their votes to the One Church Plan, effectively handing the church over to those who support the inclusive plan.

Or....I know that almost anything can happen on the floor of General Conference. So, we'll see tomorrow what, if anything, gives our denomination a Way Forward.

In the meantime, there are many people who are hurting this evening. Members of the Commission on a Way Forward gave days of their lives over 18 months to meet together to come up with plans to hold the church together. The plans they worked on did not even make it out of legislative committee, and there is some real grief evident among members of this Commission. Certainly, LGBTQ laity and clergy, and those who love them, are grieving that the UMC does not accept them on equal terms. Many Methodists believe without any doubt that young adults and future generations will see the UMC as a place of judgment, not grace. "This is not the church of grace and love that I grew up in" is a common conversational theme. 

Prayers continue, and I hope you are adding yours. Tomorrow is our last day, and we have much to decide.