I’m going to update this blog post each day during the 2024 General Conference, as a way of keeping folks informed, and offering my own view as to what’s happening.
Some quick background, before we get started…
Feel free to scroll past this lenthy opening part, if you feel you already know enough about United Methodism.
But I don’t want to assume everyone reading knows this stuff. So, a little background for those interested.
After the background, you’ll find a daily entry to describe what’s happening. I’ll come back each day to update.
Background Info
What is General Conference?
An every-four-years gathering of United Methodists around the globe. It’s part Methodist family gathering, part worship service, and very much a legislative process, similar to the US Congress.
How Does It Work?
The process of General Conference is very much like the process of the American Congress…
Which isn’t too surprising, since the Methodist Church originally arose in an American context.
Delegates are elected and sent to each General Conference from Annual Conferences (These are more local geographic regions, analogous to a Catholic “Parish.”). Our region is currently called “North Texas.”
Our delegates are sent to this gathering from North Texas —equal numbers of lay and clergy delegates are elected, with the intention honoring the voices of lay folks as important as clergy.
United Methodists from all over the world gather for 2-3 weeks every four years, to consider changes to our doctrine and church structure. Again, the quick and dirty analogy for how this works is the US Congress.
The General Conference organizes itself into committees which consider proposed changes. Those committees vote out recommendations for the full General Conference to consider.
While the petitions and proposals are considered months in advance, the actual General Conference is compacted into 2-3 weeks, every four years.
This produces a very stressful, time-bound situation.
Some Methodist Beliefs General Stay the Same
Whatever else changes at General Conference, United Methodists have certain core beliefs that are historic and come to us from our founding and generally do not change.
The “Articles of Religion” come to us from our founding, and our founder, John Wesley…who adapted them from the Anglican Church.
There are a few other things that we bring forward from the time of Wesley….
The “General Rules” that he original designed for his original Methodist groups.
His sermons are considered “doctrine” as well, as are some notes he made on the New Testament. If you’re interested, find them here and here.
Social Principles
In 1972, United Methodists added another layer to our “beliefs” with the adoption of the Social Principles. These are intended to be more updated clarifications of what United Methodists believe on key social issues of the day. In a way few at the time could have predicted, the Social Principles ended up becoming the flashpoint for United Methodist conversations on Human Sexuality and the LGBTQ community.
Specifically, this early General Conference added a line that say “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
I’ve written, preached, taught…a lot about this phrase over the years. No need to rehash it here. But it’s clear that everything that happened for the next 50 years that has been harmful to LGBTQ came from that original line.
Over the years, much more has been added to the Discipline that’s been harmful, even as the United Methodist Church continued to claim that all ministries of the church were open to all people. (Article 4 of our Constitution…)
What is the Book of Discipline?
Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch, doesn’t it?
This is the book/document that gathers up all the historical doctrine I mentioned above, plus…
— Rules about how local churches should operate.
— Rules about how the United Methodist Structure should operate.
— Rules about the process and ordination of clergy.
That previous sentence is a huge gloss of what becomes a several hundred page book. If you’re interested in seeing the last one, you can find a digital copy here.
I have written many things on the long, fifty year journey of the United Methodist Church on issues of human sexuality and gender identify. Specifically, there are 80-plus entries that back years, on this blog alone.
Lots to sift through.
I might refer back to some of them in the next few weeks…we shall see.
If you are interested in this long history, find it all here.
My very long pre-General Conference blog, written last week, is here.
A daily update is indicated everytime there is a new PURPLE heading below…
Eric’s Pre-General Conference Predictions:
I projected a new 60%-40% shift in favor of Moderates/Progressives.
I predicted that even items that needed ⅔ majority could pass, with just a slight 6-7% of the international delegates.
The results are far better than this, so far…let’s get into the day-by-day
Thursday April 25: Regionalism Passes.
During their regular session, the General Conference plenary (the delegate all gathered together to vote) approved a new “Regionalism Structure” for United Methodism.
This is huge.
This proposal is mostly what was previously called “The Christmas Covenant,” and came to the General Conference from most non-US International delegates.
What this legislation will do:
— Create “Regional Conferences” in every part of the world. (Renamed from the former “Central Conference”)
— Allow those Regional Conferences certain autonomy over decisions that make sense for their cultural context.
Background, History, Context For Why this Matters:
Remember how I said the UMC General Conference was like the US Congress? Well, the entire General Conference structure is also very “American” too…both in terms of structure, and assumptions.
Methodism began as a “church” in America, following the American Revolution. (The “Church of England” not being super popular here after that conflict…). Methodism jumped the pond, back to Europe, and all around the globe, in the decades and century that followed. All through this period, White Americans controlled the system and the decisions.
One of my key assumptions is that Methodism has never “led” our culture, but that it has always mirrored our culture….
Here are some examples…
In the 1840s, Methodism split North/South over the Civil War. (Southern Methodist University was founded by the literal “Southern Methodists.”) Again, mirroring the culture at the time…
Those two branches of the church didn’t reunite until the 1930s, when their decision to reunify mirrored the “Separate, But Equal” attitude of the time. White Americans created a structure called the “Central Conference” which separated African-Americans into their own “Conference.” This was clearly a racist, Jim Crow compromise, to mollify Southern Whites. (The Jurisdictional system comes from this, too..) Again, mirroring the culture at the time.
In 1968? We were all about “Integration.”
Kum ba ya…We all came together, in our hometown of Dallas Texas, to form the “United Methodist Church.” The old “Separate, But Equal” structure for African-Americans was finally abolished. Just as “integration” was a huge part of the cultural conversation then…once again, Methodism mirrored the culture and finally “integrated” the American Church.
BUT! Other Central Conferences remained…In the intervening years, Central Conferences had been constructed for Europe, Africa, Asia…pretty much everywhere else in the world, except for America.
This, we would all come to see, was possible because of the on-going hubris of those White American Methodists who always assumed they’d control everything. Because a part of the rules for a Central Conference were that they could adapt the Book of Discipline to their own cultural situation and setting.
This mean that everywhere there was a “Central Conference” structure, United Methodists could add cultural relevant additions to the Book of Discipline. There was just one part of the world that could not: America.
Paradoxical, huh?
In a real sense, we American United Methodist —especially Progressives and Moderates— were victims of our own hubris and internalized White Supremacy. We just assumed we’d always be in charge.
And you know what happens when you assume…
Remembering 2008.
I’ve written a few times recently about the 2008 General Conference. That event was a huge watershed for me, personally. The church I served was deeply involved. The Conference was in Fort Worth…just down the road. So hundreds…I mean hundreds…of our members organized to host our Reconciling Ministries colleagues from around the world.
We poured our soul into the process. We audited every committee. We shuttled visitors to and from the convention center. We prayed and organized. The goal of many that year was, you’re reading this right: “Regionalization.”
It failed. In fact, it never stood a real chance.
Looking back now, I think if failed for at least four reasons:
- Progressives/Moderates who could not see the potential danger of the growing Conservative/Evangelical wing of Methodism.
- Progressive/Moderates and African-Americans who remembered the name “Central Conference” as a stand-in for Jim Crow racism and segregation. Wasn’t “Regionalism” just a stand-in for dismantling “Integration?”
- The very real, and incredibly well funded work of the Evangelical/Conservative wing of Methodism flexed its muscle.
- Many Moderates were simply conflict phobic and could not fathom that the situation was rapidly changing at both extremes.
In the end, “Regionalism” did not stand a change that year. There were too few of us Reconciling United Methodists who…imho….were the only folks really dialed in to the looming threats of the conservative wing. Everyone else was uncomfortable with conflict, uneasy about “Regionalism,” and saw any talk of it as undermining our Methodist core value of unity.
I left that conference deeply depressed. I fell into literal, clinical depression. I continued to gain lots of weight, and if I am honest, the next years following were really, really hard.
Because of my wife’s own involvement in politics, I learned to be able to “count votes” and following this Conference, I could see that we had probably missed our last real chance to affect change. I wasn’t sure where the United Methodist Church would be going.
We had already helped so many American Christians turn away from an anti-gay stance. But, if we kept going, could we ever win over enough?
As it happened, Conservative Methodists understood that they could control votes with their own minority of American votes ( about 25%) and a majority of more conservative delegates from Africa.
Again, for many years, people on the Progressive side, and Moderates, were unwilling to admit this was happening.
Conservatives knew they controlled the vote.
So, they called on there to be a split in the UMC…and I am very confident they assumed Progressives would be leaving.
We should recall and admit that Conservatives asked for a split in 2004. (They thought we Progressives should leave, back then…)
They reiterated that goal in 2008…the year I first became fully aware of their clear political organization and how challenging it would be to overcome it.
In 2012, many Moderates from my own home conference helped craft something called “Plan UMC,” which would have definitely moved us toward regionalism. For reasons we don’t have to go into, that move crashed and burned when the Judicial Council ruled it out of order, while everybody was coming home on their planes.
So…we were stuck with the status quo.
In 2016, Conservatives literally tried to leave, and the Bishops stopped them.
There are other ways to describe this, but the is the most honest.
Adam Hamilton “called bullshit” on the Bishop’s fear, and demanded that if they wouldn’t allow Conservatives to leave, then they, the Bishops, needed to forge some new, credible path.
(Again, other ways to describe what happend in 2016, but this is the most honest…)
Then came three years of encouraging the adoption of what was called “The One Church Plan.” A special 2019 General Conference was called.
Actually, there were three possible plans being debated that year. I am sure the Conservatives reacted with glee, as Progessives and Modreates were still divided amongst two options, while they put forth only one.
Again, as I said above, it just Politics 101…if your vote is split and your opponent is not, they stand a better chance of winning.
(Attention: All Progressive Americans, those tepid on Biden, and fliry with RFK…)
As with 2012, many Moderates from my own Conference were supporters of the “One Church Model.” In point of fact, our own Conference passed an incredibly positive statement urging us to begin to behave as if we were a “One Church Conference.”
Whether or not we were fully able to do so, that resolution at the Conference level became an incredibly important “weather balloon” for where our people were…allowing us to see the depth of the Progressive/Moderate agreement.
Honestly?
Every fiber of my political mind told me, “This One Church thing probably won’t pass…”
(Again: I know how to count votes…)
But every LEADER I knew kept telling me, “Eric, if you just knew what I know…you’d be excited for this plan…”
Well, I didn’t know what they knew. I had to concede that was true….maybe they really did know more than me.
Turns out, they did not know more than me.
It was a good plan, a good moral framework, honestly. It was easy to support…just the concept of everybody living together as one…conservative, moderate, liberal.
Even today, the basic guts of its assumptions…its “live and let live” framework should guide us, going forward…MY humble opinion.
But, it turned out to not have a chance. It failed miserably.
Conservatives counter-punched with their own “Traditionalist Plan” which DID pass…with their baked-in 52% coalition (25% of American voters. 75% International voters…)
And, everybody was shocked. They shouldn’t have been. (Again, taking all morality out of the situation, it was “two plans against one” going in. And: we should have been able to see how previous votes indicated how things would go.
Following the 2019 General Conference, Moderates and Progressives alike protested. Took out newspaper ads, witheld their apportionments. Pastors I never expected to rally to the defense of the LGBTQ community were suddenly speaking bluntly about their support for Queer folks.
I think Conservatives had to admit to themselves that although they could control the “vote,” of the General Conference, they couldn’t control the “hearts and minds” of the General Conference.
This Traditionalist Plan put us even more out of touch with our American “mission field” than ever before.
Most American United Methodists…even most Christians…now supported Same Sex Marriage. Most were embracing of the LGBTQ community. The United Methodist Church was now officially deeply out of step with its culture –as I had been warning we were becoming for more than a decade– because of our own structure and a conservative minority of American Methoditss…and American United Methodists were unable to craft polity to speak to our mission field.
This credibly is because of the lack of a Central Conference for the US. Any other region of the world could have crafted language to support the LGBTQ community, and that would have simultaneously cut the legs out from under the Conservative/International voting majority…their incentive to change things would have become moot.
But the United States was prevented from doing this, by our own rules..that we crafted, defended, and created to keep control.
This is a metaphor, btw, that I have found to be DEEPLY true in many areas of life:
The more we try to control, the less we WILL control….and the unintended consequences of our best efforts at control will often harm us more than they harm the “Other” we are trying to control.
So…then we had three years of disaffiliations by Conservative Churches….no doubt bitter that they could control the instituation, but not the hearts, minds, and souls of United Methodists. Lies were told about many United Methodists (including me…I didn’t take it personally…), and about what the New UMC would be.
Water under the bridge. Those who wanted to leave, left.
And now, at this General Conference, 25% of American Conservatives are gone.
A huge and deeply impressive long-term effort to reach out to International delegates has taken place…
And, low and behold…at this General Conference, regionalism has passed.
At long last…what I’d started hoping for in 2008…it happened.
The positive vote yesterday was by an overwhelming 78% margin in favor.
THAT. IS. HUGE.
That is jaw dropping.
That means that even if every eligible voter had been in the room (including all those who couldn’t attend for whatever reason…) it STILL would have passed by 2/3rds.
How did this swing happen?
Well, you start with a now 60% margin among American delegates I mentioned earlier….
Then, you add in the many International delegates who were always in favor (many of these ideas came from the “Central Conferences”)….
Then, you add in the impressive outreach that’s been happening to other international delegates….
Factor in the Conservatives who are no longer here, and no longer causing fear and anxiety behind the scenes….
And finally, sprinkle in a few folks who probably switched sides because “Game Theory” suggests they will want to vote with winners…
And that’s how you get to 78%.
I can account for roughly 71% based on what we knew ahead of time.
It seems about 7% just switched teams for reasons we can’t discernably know.
There are additional pieces of legislation that still must be passed with respect to regionalism…but these early votes?
They seem to tell us the result is pretty much baked in now.
So, now, one last look back.
In 2012, I wrote several pieces pushing us to regionalism.
Here, I slammed us for pretending to be a “Global Church.”
It;s an interesting read to look at now…the end also has a video I made four years later, in 2016.
Friends, I am here to say: If regionalism passes, we will finally be a Global Church.
Every region of United Methodism will come alongside every other region, in a Global Unity that respects each mission field.
It still must be voted on by 2/3rds of all United Methodists Annual Conferences, over the next 18-months. But this vote, and the votes we’re seeing in American Juridictional Conferneces, make that doable. (much more on that, later…)
Friday, April 26: Parts New Social Creed Go on the Consent Calendar
This is also huge.
In preparation for a new United Methodist Church, we are hopfully voting in a new version of the Social Principles.
Paragraphs 164-165 are on the “Consent Calendar” for tomorrow. This means that unless 20 delegates object, and demand it get debated on the floor, it will pass without object. It got ON the Consent Calendar, because it passed with overwhelming support of the committee.
This new section, which sould be adopted by consent tomorrow, can be found online here. The section that should be approved by consent starts on page 151, and is titled “The Political Community.”
Of relevance for all of us who support the LGBTQ community is this section:
- Also today, a committee approved the remaining parts of the “Regionalization” plan, which passed by wide enough margins to be included on the Consent Calendar.
- And, a committee has approved removing the prohibition on LGBTQ clergy, by a vote of 53-9. As with many of the other items, this is a broad enough margin for it to on the Consent Calendar…likely for Tuesday’s consent calendar.
Friends: What a HUGE step this is. I am thinking of so many talented and gifted persons who left our denomination to be ordained in other traditions, or who were defrocked…or who were not offered appointments. I’m so happy to see this news, but also holding space for those who have been caused so much pain by 304.3 over many years.
April 27, 2024: New Statement of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Passes
This morning, the “new” Paragraphs 194-195 were approved on the Consent Calendar. (Look back up the thread to learn what “consent calendar” is…)
For review, this is a relevant passage related to LGBTQ issues:
I posted this yesterday. I just like reading it again. 🙂
Several social media friends are asking: “Well, is the harmful language gone yet?”
And the answer is: It’s coming…
The reality is that the original “Incompatability Clause,” passed in 1972, worked its tentacles into many other places (rules on marriage, ordination, etc…). And each of those also has to now be removed. If this seems tedious, I’m not going to disagree with you.
But, look at this way: It’s unwinding church law that like an invasive Kudzu, wound its way through our Disicpline over 50 years. None of these harmful changes happened at once. So, yes, it takes a little time to unwind.
For those looking ahead, here is summary that I am monitoring, what’s coming next week:
“I’ve been trying to track down the status of legislation striking the various pieces of the Discipline that restricted LGTBQIAA+ participation in the church. The short answer is that four the pieces have passed their committees but below is a breakdown of each paragraph.
161 – striking the incompatibility clause
Passed Church and Society 2 as part of its work on the Revised Social Principles 45 to 15304.3 – striking the “self avowed and practicing homosexual” language from ordination
Passed its committee 49 to 3613 – striking a ban on UMC funds going to support LGTBQIAA+ causes
Passed Finance and Administration 54 to 6806.9 – striking the requirement for GCFA to ensure that UMC fund aren’t going to support LGTBQIAA+ causes
Passed its committee 55 to 9″ (Trey)
To clarify: Unless somebody pulls these items OFF the “Consent Agenda” they will all pass through the consent process and without debate. I think everyone assumes some of them WILL get pulled off…but we shall see…stay tuned.
For those who mostly pay attention to “The Incompatability Clause,” that vote is likely MONDAY. And yes, I am likely to livestream at Kessler Park for any Dallas area folks who wish to watch together.
April 30, 2024
As you can see, I didn’t post an updates the past few days. That’s beasue they mostly took Sunday off, and much of what happened yesterday didn’t directly concern issues of human sexuality or the LGBTQ community. Instead, there was debate about things like how many bishops will service in which areas; and discussion of our new pension plan.
This morning, several items passed on the consent calendar that are of interest.
Shandon Klein is a lay delegate from our Annual Conference, North Texas, and she posted this update of just one example of something that just passed perhaps an hour ago, by consent:
Note the margins, here. This passed the committee 43-6. And it passed the floor by 636-36 (92% of all international delegates…)
Please note the incredibly positive language here. The General Conference is not just removing harm, but they are also making some incredibly positive and hopeful statements like this.
I cannot be more proud of the work of Shandon, her committee, and our entire delegation. Her work is but one example of the new generation I see rising in the New United Methodist Church, that gives me great hope for the future.
In my view, this the heart of Article 4 of the UMC Constitution…the portion of our Discipline that I’ve always maintains compels us to full ministry to/with the LGBTQ community. This kind of statement –especially the first and last sentences– goes a long way toward suggesting that this view is, in fact, how the New United Methodist Church will also see its ministry.
It’s incredibly gratifying to see the church law I have always appealed to be so overwhelmingly affirmed by General Conference.
There were several other items that passed by consent this morning. The “minimum penalties” for performing a Same Sex Wedding that were imposed by the “Traditionalist Plan” of 2019 were stripped out, as was language that forbade bishops from ordaining “self avowed practicing homosexuals,” which was also put in with that same plan.
Ever since 2019, I’ve told the good folks at Kesser Park UMC that it seemed to me that the “Traditionalists” had gone a step too far…that they had “poked the bear” one too many times…and that their “Traditionalist Plan” (much of which was passed, but never went into effect…) was the step that finally woke up the Moderates.
I called my good friend, Rev. Sid Hall yesterday. For the first ten years of my mininstry in Reconciling Churches, Sid and I were one of only FIVE pastors who were honored to serve Reconciling Churches in our state. (We now have almost double that number, just in Dallas County…). So, we’ve seen a lot together, although neither of us is at General Conference, for similar reasons.
Sid gave me a gret analogy for what happened in 2019, and it’s from the classic film “Field of Dreams.” In that movie, Timothy Bussfield plays the brother of the lead character (Kevin Costner), but he cannot see the ballplayers out on the field. Something prevents him.
At a key moment, though, when a child is choking a near death, one of the ghost players breaks the plane of division between the two worlds, and the brother can finally see.
He says, “Hey….what are all these ball players doing here?”
This was, in a sense, the reaction of Moderates in the United Methodist Church to the Traditionalist Plan. After 2019, Sid and I both noticed how they somehow WOKE UP…they saw the harm being done, they saw the full strategy of the Conservative/Evangelical wing of Methodism. And, FINALLY, they stepped up, en mass. Sure, there were always some Moderates very engaged all along.
But they definity woke up out of some kind of horrible slumber then….and clearly decided that they’d rather connect with Progressives than with these Traditionalists.
Much of what passed today is the New United Methodist Church, undoing that harmful traditionalist plan.
OK…so what’s left?
Some biggies.
The big Kahuna is the still remaining Original Sin of United Methodist polity on LGBTQ persons. The “Incompatability Clause.” As I noted the other day, it did NOT make the Consent Calendar. Which means that it will be debated from the floor at some point. Shandon Klein, from North Texas, will bring the petition and speak FOR removal.
As I write this, we still do not have a firm time for when this will happen. It could be this afternoon. The last update I saw from Shandon, she expects it tomorrow.
I will definitely plan to livestream this moment and this debate.
This is the end of the 50-year fight, and I want to see it live. All are welcome to join us. I will post notice on Facebook and through the text notification group.
This needs to happen.
This is our Original Sin. This is the original weed, from which all the other legislation and harm grew. It will not do to just cut back the weeds. It’s time to remove it.
It’s past time…
More soon.
May 1, 2024: This Could Be the Big Day
It’s not every day that you wake up and think, “Today, a legitimate 20-year-plus goal of ministry could happen…”
But that’s what today is.
Today is the likely day that the original “Incompatability Clause” should be up for debate from the floor.
And it “should” pass.
It was pulled from the consent calendar, unlike many of the other items, and I keep hearing it will likely be debated this afternoon. (Might be late afternoon…)
WE WILL LIVESTREAM THIS AT KESSLER PARK FOR THOSE IN DALLAS…all are welcome join us.
1215 Turner Ave
Dallas. Tx 75208
Especally if you’re arriving anywhere from 1-3 pm, please come to the “alley-side” doors…up the right side of the building if you’ve parked the main parking lot behind the building.
You can PM me if the doors are locked and we’ll let you in.
We’ll be up on the top floor, in the youth room.
It’s already been a good day!! Of note, item 304.3 passed by consent!
This was one many folks feared would get pulled off.
This is the final and most important step in removing the restrictions on LGBTQ clergy.
Also passed by Consent: 419 which says that clergy cannot be punished for performing a Same Sex Wedding, nor can a church be prohibited from holding one.
So, already a big day.
But the “OG” Incompatability Clause still looms, and we expect it to be taken up this afternoon.
Based on what I’m hearing it should be late afternoon.
More later….
11 am Update!
The Restrictions on LGBTQ clergy passed the consent calendar…as with other items, by 93%!!
It’s a remarkable moment.
There was an incredible rally and celebration by all the Queer clergy outside, just after. Here are pics from Greg Neal.
Why this Matters:
Through the years, the Evangelical/Conservative Caucus pushed the General Confernece to “jump the shark” with the compatability language. A phrase that was never intended to have the force of church law became just that….moving from “instructive” to theoretically mandatory.
That ends today, as it is stripped out of the church law related to the ordination of Queer clergy. Again, this is HUGE.
My thoughts are with all those locally who did not live to see this moment…
My closested gay colleagues at HPUMC…
Ed Upton…
Ann Cubbage and Alicia Dean and Sara Smith…and Dawson Taylor…
All the talent our United Methodist Church wasted, ignored, or shunned.
Nationally:
Jeanne Knepper…and Gene Leggit…and so many more.
Much more to write on all of this…
Also passed by consent: Churches allowed to host Same Sex Weddings and forbids a District Superintendent from punishing anyone for doing one.
More later…
7 pm Update
OK, well things both speed up and slowed down…
General Conference stirred things up a bit this afternoon, by basically created a NEW “Consent Calendar.” They voted to change their rules and allow items that passed committee with fewer than 20 votes to be voted in in bulk. It was a huge list. I THINK it contained stripping out Same Sex Wedding from Chargeable offenses.
I know it included all of the following…posted as a summary of good stuff so far.
Shandon Klein from North Texas Conference will be presenting the “Revised Social Principles” tomorrow morning.
This is what we THOUGHT would happen this afternoon. It got pushed, but it was nothing nefarious.
We believe this will happen beginning at 8 am, Dallas time on Thursday.
You are welcome to join us then. I will be at KPUMC at 7:50 am
Because of that early hour, I likely won’t post anything else until it’s done.
May 3, 2024
Well, the joy of the day got away from me!
“Incompatibility” is GONE…officially, finally, a mercifully, removed from our polity.
The joy is intense…as is the feeling of relief, tinged with regret and sorrow for the lives lost, and the folks no longer here.
But the joy….it’s dawning in a new and beautiful way.
Here is what I wrote just befor the voting yesterday.
And these are my thoughts, immediately following.
Finally, late last night, I added this, which pretty much sums up the joy of the moment:
Happy Rebirth Day to Us.
After several hours to reflect, that’s what it feels like.
There will be more trauma for many of us to process about our past. Much to not forget.
But today feels akin to the hopeful creation of the UMC in 1968.
Our church law now means it when we say “All Means All.”
It’s no longer “aspirational.”
It’s our new normal.
We won’t be perfect.
We won’t always agree.
But that was always the Big Tent church I always wanted to serve.
So Happy Rebirth Day, The United Methodist Church.
WhenEFTalks 