A glorious journey

Twenty years ago Susan Morrison, who was director of the Council on Ministries in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, had to go buy shoes. She had, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, surprised the church by being elected a bishop.

Morrison attended the jurisdictional conference with no plans of the episcopacy. She hadn’t packed clothes appropriate for a consecration. She wasn’t even sure that this was something she really wanted.

But the wind of God had blown and started a pilgrimage journey of justice, outrageous love and audacious grace that helped shape the denomination.

At this session of the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference, Bishop Morrison is retiring. While she has spent her episcopal ministry away from Baltimore, many members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference claim her as their daughter, and mother, in faith.

On July 16, the conference honored Bishop Morrison and Bishop Violet Fisher, who is also retiring, in a worship service.

As part of the festivities, those present were encouraged to ask questions of the two retirees.

The Rev. Vicki Starnes rose and asked the bishops what wisdom they would offer to her 15 year-old-daughter, who feels she might be called to the ministry.

Bishop Fisher had soulful advice to offer. “Tell her to stay in the Word,” she said, recounting how she had started preaching at the age of 16. Reading the Bible helps one discover the joyful and sometimes difficult disciplines that accompany one on the Christian journey.

Bishop Fisher told about, as a young woman, connecting with older women pray-ers, who taught and nurtured her.

But mostly, any young woman considering the ministry should remember that “this is the day,” the bishop said. “Start preparing.”

Bishop Morrison’s advice was more concise: “Well, simply, you go girl,” she said.

She then told about a time early in her ministry when she was meeting with some of the first clergywomen to be ordained in The United Methodist Church. These were the pioneers, Morrison said. They had encountered obstacles of every kind. One woman told her story and it wasn’t an easy one. But she said, “I’d just give nothing for the journey,” Morrison remembered

That spirit is the kind Bishop Morrison encourages everyone in the church to discover and make their own.

“It been one helluva journey,” she said. “It’s a glorious journey.”

When asked what piece of music brings her joy, Morrison chose the hymn “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” and the crowd sang it along with her.

Her’s has been a glorious walk – a journey that has touched more people that she’ll ever imagine, and her legacy resounds.

 

 

 

 

 

Bishop wishing

What do we wish for in a bishop? What do we yearn for in those who lead our church?

On July 14-18, members of the Northeastern Jurisdiction will meet to discern from among 13 candidates who will be elected to serve in the ministry of the episcopacy. There are four men, two African-American and two Asian, one Hispanic and eight white bishop-hopefuls.

Before the voting, the delegates will have the opportunity to interview the candidates. I’m glad for the opportunity to learn more. Statements sent out about the delegates paint them as a pretty homogeneous bunch. Their visions appear to merge together. Methodism seems to be bred in their DNA.

They are counciliar leaders, who view themselves as “encouragers.” Only two mention the word “power.” On the whole, they seem intent on merging social justice with vital piety, and addressing church decline with discipleship. As a group, they also tend to use too many exclamation points. (Vicki Miller Brendler used five exclamation points in just her vision statement.)

My favorite candidate of the group is the Rev. Peggy Johnson, of the Baltimore-Washington Conference – just because she seems to be outside the mold of district superintendent going on to glory. She embraces the Holy Spirit in bold and surprising ways. She also expects the church to rise to God’s expectations and seems to have the courage of her convictions.

She is a United Methodist – heart and soul. But she’s a United Methodist who will surprise you by popping up in places where the church hasn’t always been comfortable, and encouraging people to learn from their disagreements.

She can be cynical when it’s called for, but her faith in possibility is so genuine that it can startle you. She is an interesting choice for bishop because she’ll allow God to help her define what it means to be the church in this place and time.

But the other candidates also expressed some interesting sentiments.

Rev. Brendler, of the exclamation points, who is from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, said she is “courageously available,” to God and believes the church “needs to find creative ways to offer Christ to those who are seeking a deep experiential knowledge of God.”

Linda Campbell-Marshall, of New England, would like to see the church stop “wasting generations of God’s precious time (and children) quarreling over who can come to ‘Common Table.’”

The Rev. Aida Irizarry-Fernandez, who was endorsed by MARCHA, envisions “a church always in movement and constantly renewing for the sake of the weak, marginalized, the poor, the immigrant and the sick.” Bishops, she said, need to be vessels that “go to the Potter’s wheel to be reshaped over again to meet the changing needs of those they serve.”

Bo-Joong (BJ) Kim of New Jersey cites the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s own Rev. J. Philip Wogaman as a guiding influence and claims it is “important to participate in the making of public policy in the community we serve as a church.”

Constance Youngmi Pak of New York and Eric Stephen Park of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference, made up acronyms for their vision of the church. Pak wants to AIM with accountability, inclusiveness and membership; and Park has four pillars that make up the WORD: worship, outreach, relationship and discipleship.

Park, by the way, has his own blog, at www.pewboy.net. He believes that “the church’s people need to stop acting as though they are living in a culture that accommodates the Christian narrative and begin to focus instead on developing new and creative ways to make that narrative intelligible to a spiritually hungry people.”

And Dorothy Watson Tatem, of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, says, “We, the church, cloister in praise, worship and prayer; we go out in praise, service and personal storytelling – all for the glory of God.”

She has perhaps the best written statement. Watson Tatem says: “The Pentecost Principle is that of sustained fervent prayer to seek the Divine Mind and then a willingness to move from the pew on to the pavement, from temple to turnpike, from sacred retreat to road in order to share with the stranger in comprehensible language that which God has done in our lives and the availability of the power of the Holy Spirit to all.”

That’s United Methodism. And like our bishops it can be good, bad, beautiful and ugly all at the same time. This is indeed an opportunity for wishing and for discernment.

Go ahead, jump

“Live your life on tip-toe,” the Rev. Don Stewart once preached at a conference staff meeting.

It sounds flip until you try it. Balance on the tip of your toes and your body automatically begins to anticipate. By reflex, you open up to a sense of adventure, that something just might be about to happen.

Preaching on one’s tip-toes can give a sermon a new pitch. Traveling on tip-toe makes you hurry up and slow down all at the same time.

At a recent Baltimore-Washington Conference staff meeting at the episcopal residence, while Bishop Schol cooked everyone lunch, I asked some of the staff to “jump” as I snapped their pictures.  They let go of their inhibitions as their feet left the ground. It was like living on one’s tip-toes in the extreme. There was no room for care – just a shard of a moment that felt like life wasn’t business as usual.

Jump. You’ll feel it.

The staff surprised me. People’s personalities were reflected in their jumps. Some took a running start and leapt. Others composed their jumps to be artistic; everyone raised their arms. It was praise. There was joy. There were even grass stains.

I love that the people were not afraid to jump, that they didn’t let propriety and party manners inhibit them. The conference staff jumped – with joy and bold certainty – the same way they do their ministries.

 

 

‘God calling’ sparks reflection

 

 In 1932, two women, who chose to remain anonymous, listened to God and wrote down what they heard.

Their writings were published in the devotional book “God Calling.” 

 

In January, the Rev. Rod Miller bought this book for several people at the Conference Center. The book sits in people’s offices and occasionally it speaks to its readers in ways they feel compelled to share.

 

May 6’s entry touched a chord within me, especially the phrase “sublime audacity.” I don’t yet fully understand the implications of those words. But they delight me. The following words are also echoing: 

 

Bury every fear of the future.

Be full of Joy

Do not limit God at all.

Hope all the time.

Wonders are unfolding.

How can you be overwhelmed when God is with you?

You are pilgrims.

It is the daily strivings that count.

Be quick to learn.

Pray daily for faith. It is Gods’ gift.

Service is the word of my disciples.

Never limit God’s power.

You are making one spot of earth a holy place.

Let inspiration take the place of aspiration.

Truth is many-sided.

Live in God’s presence.

There is no room for fear in the heart in which God dwells.

Nothing is small to God.

Absorb beauty.

Reflect. Persevere.

Make God real.

Claim big, really big things, now.

I, your Lord, am not only with you on the journey – I planned, and am planning your journey.

Go forward boldly.

Learn to love discipline.

Love and rejoice on the grey days.

Put love into action.

Claim great things.

Prayer re-creates.

Joy. Joy. Joy.

 

In Zimbabwe: strength to climb the mountain

“Chabadza” — it’s one of the best words I’ve heard recently. It’s from Zimbabwe and has no English translation.

Suppose you’re walking down the road and you stop to greet someone working in his field. “Hello, how are you doing? What’s up?” all these are typical American salutations. But, in Zimbabwe they say, “Chabadza,” which roughly translated means, “Greetings. Let me stop and while and help you with what you’re doing. We’ll work together, we’ll talk a bit and and then I’ll be on my way.”

Chabadza is the sharing of a a moment, a participation in the task at a hand and an acknowlegement that life is best when it’s shared.

Life in Zimbabwe now, as we read about it in news reports, provokes many causes for concern. Hyper-inflation, the AIDS pandemic, poverty that is denuding the country of hope, and fearful political uncertainties.

United Methodists from the Baltimore-Washington Conference share a partnership with Zimbabwe. We’ve said “chabadza” to one another.

According Ecumenical News International, outdoor prayer service have been banned in some parts of the country.

This ban has been tied directly to the balloting for president. Post-election violence is reported to have left at least 50 people dead and displaced thousands of villagers.

In May, goverment leaders and police attempted to prevent worshippers from entering Harare’s Christ Chruch. Riot police blocked the entrance of the congregation, who were attempting to attend a worship service. Civic leaders report on their blog that “the women, in their anger, broke down the fence to get in.” Up to 80 of these women were arrested. 

In the presidential elections on March 29. President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party lost its majority in parliament. According to the official results, which have been disputed, none of the four presidential candidates managed to get the majority vote required to avoid a second round.

Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, are to participate in a runoff election June 27.

The U.S. State Department has curtailed nonessential travel of Americans to Zimbabwe. In this time of hardship, our partnership will have to be heavy on prayer.

One United Methodist leader from Zimbabwe, who has visited the Baltimore-Washington Conference, looks at the challenges facing his country with eyes of faith.

“Confronting hardship head-on and finding hope has produced a new kind of disciple,” he said. “It’s no longer, ‘God remove these mountains,’ but rather, ‘Give us the strength to climb our mountain.’”

It’s a climb we should be making together.

What’s a hand for?

 

 

In Jo Chesson’s office in the Conference Center there’s a homemade check on poster board, a prop used in in a presentation by the children from Calvary UMC in Frederick, who made a donation to Nothing But Nets.

 

There’s a mistake on the check. A last minute gift was added, so white masking tape with writing on it in magic marker covers the money figures. The check is for $253.50

 

The additional donation was given by a girl who contributed money she had been saving to buy herself a Nintendo Wii. As much as this girl yearned for a Wii, something in her heart yearned to help children in Africa more.

 

She knew that every $10 she gave would buy an insecticide-treated bed net to keep mosquitos from killing children in Zimbabwe. The ideas of malaria and mosquito-born disease killing one person every 30 seconds are much more distant thoughts than the fun video games could provide. But she acted like a disciple. She gave.

 

The adults in this girl’s life would prefer that her name not be mentioned. They believe her gesture is just as meaningful as those from the other Sunday School students at Calvary. They may be right. But it’s a gesture that is being repeated in a surprising number of instances by children who want to reach out and give sacrificially to other children.

 

Chesson has seen it time and again as she travels around the conference promoting the Nothing But Nets initiative. Someone’s imagination is sparked by the lives and suffering of those they never met and they act. They give.

 

There’s an old Charlie Brown cartoon. Michael Lindvall writes about it in his book “A Geography of God.”

 

“Linus is chomping on a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and stops to observe his hands. He says to Lucy, ‘Hands are fascinating things! I like my hands … I think I have nice hands. My hands seem to have a lot of character.’

 

Waxing eloquently, he goes on, ‘These are hands which may someday do marvelous works! They may build mighty bridges or heal the sick, or hit home runs, or write soul-stirring novels! These are hands,’ he cries out to Lucy, ‘which may someday change the course of destiny!’

 

Lucy looks at Linus’s hand and says, ‘They’ve got jelly on them!’”

 

Too often, we dismiss our hands, our potential, the ability of our imaginations to reach out and change the course of destiny. Or, we hesitate to get our own hands dirty.

 

Chesson herself struggles with this. She is the project coordinator for the partnership between the Baltimore-Washington and Zimbabwe annual conferences.  Last week she got an e-mail about deteriorating conditions in Zimbabwe. Run-away inflation is causing extreme hunger and shortages of medication. Teachers at a school the conference supports have been attacked. People in that region are eating their dinners and then traveling into the woods to sleep because soldiers are burning down homes in the middle of the night.

 

Chesson hears these stories and wants to make a difference, she want to put her hands to action. And so she promotes the HOPE Fund and Nothing but Nets in her off hours.

 

We’ve all got jelly on our hands. And we all want our own version of the Nintendo Wii. But the children at Calvary have the right idea.

 

We all need to get out the masking tape and make some changes to what we’ve intended to give or to do. That, Chesson says, is the real heart of discipleship.

 

 

 

 

 

Shards of hope

All the tribes of The United Methodist Church gathered in Fort Worth April 23 through May 2. There were 992 delegates and about 1,000 others who gathered to watch and witness as the church tried its best to create “A Future with Hope.”

Almost immediately, they adopted John Wesley’s three rules: “Do no harm. Do good. Stay in Love with God.”

Holy conferencing and conversation made all things feel possible. The young adults of the church made their first address ever and stressed the importance of “interaction over action.”

Even the dry, analytical finance report took on spirit when Bishop Swenson proclaimed: “Observe the cup. What we give, we receive. What we receive we give. We not only lift the cup. We are the cup. Let us be the cup overflowing in a thirsty world.”

It felt as if the denomination’s newly adopted four areas of focus were within its reach: eliminating poverty, improving world health, building new faith communities and developing new leaders.
And then, for me, hope crashed when Muland Aying of the North West Katanga annual conference rose to speak in the debate on homosexuality.

“There are things that exist in this world that we would rather not hear about; we would rather not see; we would rather not touch. However, we live in this world, and we have to hear, see and touch these things. However, we do not have to be influenced by those things that we hear, see and touch,” he said. “It’s very sad, Bishop, that The United Methodist Church continues to advocate things that come from the devil.”

Suddenly, the hope felt a bit hollow.

Words wound and his words cut into the heart of the church’s debate on homosexuality. Could we be the church and allow these words to be uttered about the gay men and lesbians standing next to us on the floor?

Apparently we could.

The church upheld its stance that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and it rejected, by a margin of 10 percent, the proposed statement “Faithful, thoughtful people who have grappled with this issue deeply disagree with one another; yet all seek a faithful witness.”

We couldn’t even agree to acknowledge that 45 percent of the church thought differently than Aying. It made one feel weak, and furious and battered.

In protest the next day, people witnessed to their desire for inclusion by shrouding the altar in black cloth, and gradually, piece by piece, moment by moment, shards of hope began to reappear.

Holy conversations began between all different kinds of people. But for me, it was the worship that reminded me that God’s grace can not be bound by the whims or the workings of any person or any church. That seemed a cause for hope.

Throughout the proceedings of General Conference, liturgical moments were woven in. The altar table, lectern, baptismal font and communion chalices were made of trees knocked down in Hurricane Katrina.
Broken pieces of people’s lives were collected, laid on altars throughout Mississippi and given to the delegates as they reflected on the cross in front of them, a mosaic of broken things made whole in God.
Plants, started from seeds throughout the United Methodist connection, grew throughout the convention hall.

And the bishops preached.

Bishop Minerva Carcano questioned her firm conviction that United Methodists could faithfully achieve their vision of overcoming poverty in community with the poor.

“I’m not sure we’re smart enough, disciplined enough or compassionate enough. But I don’t lose hope, because there is hope beyond ourselves,” she said. “That hope beyond ourselves is Christ Jesus.”

This hope beyond ourselves also resounded in a sermon by Bishop Joao Somane Machado of Mozambique, who told those gathered that “the church is blessed with men and women, lay and clergy, with tremendous gifts and vitality. We need to do what we say … it’s the actions we are missing,” he said.

And Bishop Ernest Lyght of the West Virginia Area preached: “Wake up, church! Get up, church! When men, women and children knock on the doors of the church, they are looking for fresh bread. They want to encounter a vibrant faith. They want to embrace hope for tomorrow. They want to experience extravagant love that includes them.”

Bishop Violet Fisher of the New York West area continued to deliver hope with her challenge: “What does it mean to open our hearts for the transformation of God’s world and be the Gospel?”

Her question was answered in a sermon by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, who lifted up those of both sides of the debate on homosexuality — those who seek hospitality and those who value holiness.

“When we concern ourselves only with holiness, we become rigid and inward-looking. We make an idol of our purity,” Jung said. “When we concern ourselves only with hospitality, however, we lose our sense of who we are. Our identity is blurred and we lose the language of our own faith.”

Jung invited United Methodists to live in the tension of those two theologies, but cautioned, “Christianity is not about being theologically correct. “It’s about following Jesus,” he said.

And then Bishop Gregory Palmer, the new president of the Council of Bishops, from the Iowa Area, closed the 2008 General Conference with the words, It is “incumbent on you and me as people of Christian faith that we not become stingy with the blessings—stingy with what we have received from God.”

Then the people left Fort Worth, returning to their ranks among the 11.4 million United Methodists in their 48,000 churches around the world. They became a living benediction. And hope was released.

 

A day of division and hope - thoughts from Mike McCurry

On April 30 General Conference voted on issues of homosexuality, even as the church continued to pursue opportunities for mission and ministry across the globe. It was an emotion-filled day, punctuated by a refrain of “Yes, Jesus Loves Me.” Mike McCurry, of St. Paul’s UMC in Kensington, writes about it in an e-mail home to his pastor.

We had a difficult and emotionally draining day here at General Conference.  For all the good work we have been doing to focus on the priority areas that our church has identified (leadership, church growth, poverty, health and diseases of poverty), sooner or later we knew we would face the issue of homosexuality.

Every General Conference since 1972 has wrestled with the issue and the result has remained largely unchanged. That topic dominated debate today and will likely be the thing (alas, maybe the only thing) that gets reported in the mainstream secular media about General Conference.  And the headline will likely be: “Methodists Maintain Opposition to Homosexuality.”

Here’s what happened: the legislative committee responsible for this topic reported a petition to the entire General Conference that would have dropped the current language in our church law, The Book of Discipline, which says “The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider (sic) this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Instead, the committee proposed new language which said: “Faithful, thoughtful people who have grappled with this issue deeply disagree with one another; yet all seek a faithful witness… We therefore ask the Church, United Methodists and others, and the world, to refrain from judgment regarding homosexual persons and practices as the Spirit leads us to new insight.”

The General Conference rejected this new language by a vote of 501-417 (55%-45%) and went on to uphold the current “incompatible” language with some slight modifications.  We reaffirmed that “all persons are individuals of sacred worth created in the image of God” and that “families and churches should not reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends.”  Late tonight, we also upheld (by a slightly larger margin) the prohibition on “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” from serving as clergy or candidates for clergy in the UMC.

Those with good memory will recall this is almost exactly the same result – substance and vote – that occurred at the General Conference four years ago in Pittsburgh.  But it was no less painful for all sides of the debate.  Those who deeply believe that homosexuality is a sin and contrary to our Christian teaching feel they would lack integrity if they did not stand up and say so when defending church law.  Those who believe that God is guiding us to a new understanding of Scripture feel equally compelled to speak the truth that our church is deeply divided on this issue.

This was the first time in seven days of deliberation here in Ft Worth that I felt we failed to measure up to John Wesley’s three rules for holy living: “Do Good, Do No Harm, Stay in Love With God.”  We have done much good here.  Our debate today was truly done in a spirit of “holy conferencing” and I felt the tone and tenor of the debate was far less polarized, angry, and close-minded than four years ago in Pittsburgh.  But it is inevitable – on this issue that almost divides the church in half – that great harm is done when one side or the other is required to prevail in debate. 

There were many tears and sad faces as the consequences of the vote sunk in.  Many delegates and visitors stood in silent protest as the business of the General Conference concluded before a dinner break.  A soft chorus of “Jesus Loves Me (Us), This I Know” echoed around the Hall as the formal business of the plenary session droned on.  Ours is a merciful God and my guess is that God shed a tear or two for our brokenness, too.

But here’s one bright spot in the day: Delegates and friends from the Baltimore-Washington Conference met on the main stage/altar of the General Conference at lunchtime today with our brothers and sisters from the Zimbabwe conferences of the Methodist Church and reaffirmed our special relationship with that country and the church and people there. 

We had heard an amazing report this morning about Africa University – a gem in the rolling hills of northeast Zimbabwe where students from 18 countries across sub-Saharan Africa attend classes at a modern, well-equipped institution of higher-learning that the United Methodist Church with the grace of God willed into existence nearly two decades ago.  Africa University has managed to thrive and continue its wonderful work despite the political and economic meltdown in the country since the early 2000s.  

The hope our brothers and sisters from Zimbabwe have for their country and the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe – amidst such awful hardships and deprivation – was wonderful tonic.  God helps us through all our hardships and trials and is waiting for us there “on the other side” to renew God’s covenant with us anew.  We will keep marching to Zion, weary though we are at the end of a tough, tough day.

Blessings to all my St Paulsters –
Mike

 

Being the Gospel

The theme of this General Conference is “a hope for the future.” On April 28, that hope walked onto the stage and danced.

The children of the Hope for Africa Children’s Choir are defining what can happen when the church acts.

These children are from Uganda. Twenty years of civil war has left their nation devastated and created 2 million orphans. But United Methodists in Uganda, with the assistance of people from the South Georgia Annual Conference, plucked 23 children from refugee camps, fed and clothed them and taught them English. The singing just came naturally.

The children were formed into a choir.  These children come from the Humble United Methodist School in Mukono, Uganda, which takes in more than 200 children.

Singing and dancing about how Jesus is their music and their song, the children’s faces were illuminated with sheer joy.

Their performance brought tears to some delegates and delight to all.

Because of God’s presence in us, they have hope; and because God’s presence in them, we have hope, said Bishop Mike Watson, of the South Georgia Conference. “These children are the manifestation of the work of the United Methodist Church.”

Watching the church transcend the boundaries of its traditional liberal-conservative debate and make a tangible difference in the lives of children warmed the heart of the Rev. Tony Hunt, superintendent of the Baltimore-Harford District.

When the church chooses not to speak, it is speaking; and when the church chooses not to act, it is acting, said Hunt.

It is Hunt’s prayer that, after listening to each other, the church will “speak with a prophetic voice and act to address the real hurts and hopes of the world today.”

For him, church is not just talking about Gospel. It’s about being the Gospel, for children in Uganda, people on the streets of Baltimore, and each of God’s children throughout the world.

Mike McCurry sends insights home

Many Baltimore-Washington Conference delegates at General Conference are communicating with their churches back home. The Rev. Joseph Daniels of Emory UMC in Washington, D.C., delivered news of the event live by phone during worship last Sunday. Mike McCurry, of St. Paul’s UMC in Kensington, shared his insights in an e-mail to his pastor, the Rev. Adam Snell.

Subject: Greetings from Cowtown!

Pastor Adam—
A big Texas howdy in the name of our risen Savior!

Our General Conference is off to a great start. The first two days were filled with great music, powerful preaching, and very moving worship. Seems like most delegates, alternatives, friends, observers and visitors arrived safe and sound.

We were treated to an opening worship service Wednesday night punctuated by great booms of thunder (at mostly the right places) and a good Texas gully-washer while we were safely inside the Fort Worth Convention Center. Seemed like God wanted a say in the proceedings from the beginning.

The themes emerging from the first two days are clear. The United Methodist Church needs to get very serious about transforming itself so we can do a better job of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

To transform the church we need to focus on two things: training and inspiring strong, spiritually gifted leaders; and second, to strengthen, grow, and start effective local congregations. And to transform the world, we need to focus on John Wesley’s inspired example of service in the world: we have to be with and among the poor and fight to curb the conditions that leave so many people in poverty and second, we need to stamp out killer diseases of poverty like malaria and AIDS.

These four focus areas: leadership, church strength and growth, poverty, and health have really been at the center of the reports, presentations, and discussion.

We have also been influenced by the three major presentations made so far – especially by the first-ever Youth Address given at a General Conference which got the longest sustained standing ovation of anything so far.

The Youth Address, Episcopal Address and Laity Address all admonished the church to do its work following three simple rules devised by Wesley for the church: Do No Harm, Do Good, Stay in Love with God.

In our committees and debates so far, when someone gets a little over-excited a fellow delegate will gently admonish, “Brother (or sister), stay with God, stay on the good side and not the harm side.” It seems to be working to create the right mood for deliberations and Holy Conferencing.

As of late yesterday, we are now working in committees to wrestle with over 1,600 petitions and resolutions submitted to the Conference. It’s pretty slow going at times – in my committee last night we had a 45 minute debate on the right words to use to introduce the concept of prevenient grace to the various ecumenical committees we maintain for dialogue with other denominations.

We also debated for an hour whether or not to add “Open Bibles” to the church motto, “Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.” We finally decided that our goal was to get new folks into the “open doors” and we could get them excited by the open Bible after we got them inside.

So it goes. I am sure it will get more testy and zesty as the more controversial matters arise. But so far we have done no harm and we might have even done some good. And there is much love of God here and that sustains us through the 15-hour day.

With love to all my St. Paul’s brothers and sisters,
Mike