General Conference 2008

Open Letter to UMC from The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

An Open Letter to my United Methodist Sisters and Brothers
Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Institute for Welcoming Resources and Faith Work Director
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

In seminary, my systematic theology professor would always admonish us to remember that any talk of the crucifixion was almost blasphemous without an understanding of resurrection and any talk of resurrection without the crucifixion wasn’t Christian.  She said this because injustice and oppression are realities in our lives and in the lives of millions around the world.  If we forget this, we participate in the oppression.  But if we live without hope, we cannot name ourselves as followers of the One who was a doer and a bearer of justice and new life.  I struggle with this, but I think she is right.

It is this intertwining reality that comes to me as I sit in Minneapolis, Minnesota (the Northland where winter’s presence is still felt) gazing out at the rain-soaked day which promises of Spring, and read all the news of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church and its machinations about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks.

Although the resurrection threatens to break through in all kinds of places, yet the crucifixion holds sway in many:

• Sue and Julie were married today with the gathered body officiating—love, long-time commitment and faithful, faithful women covenanting in the midst of the Body of Christ.  A profound moment of resurrection.
• The voting delegates of the 2008 General Conference pass, by 12 votes, language that keeps in place a pastor’s ability to bar from membership, anyone he or she deems as unworthy of membership.  The particular case that gave rise to this was a pastor who barred a gay man from membership.  A shocking moment of crucifixion.
• Rev. Drew Phoenix and other transgender pastors are in good standing as the voting delegates defeat any legislation against transgender persons.  A moment of justice and resurrection.
• The voting delegates reaffirm the Church’s assertion that it can draw the line between love that is sanctioned and love that is rejected, by keeping in place the “incompatibility” clause.  That is to say, the Church dares to say that gay and lesbian love is not compatible with Christian teaching.  Brokenness and crucifixion.
• Heterosexism and homophobia are named for the sins they are and the Church is called to stand against them, both in the US and globally.  A moment of clarity and resurrection.

It seems the United Methodist Church refuses to give up its sinful clinging to crucifixion.  It seems the United Methodist Church yet holds to fear and hatred and to the blasphemy that it gets to decide where Love can be made known and where it can’t.  It seems the United Methodist Church still has miles to go before it can honestly claim the name of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And yet…

Love is ALWAYS stronger than death.  Resurrection threatens even the strongest crucifixion, even crucifixion perpetrated by the Church itself.

And so I give thanks for Sue and Julie, for Drew and RMN, for Affirmation and MFSA and for ALL the faithful folk.  You, as voting delegates and observers, as protesters and prayers, have held fast to the resurrection that is already changing death into life. 

Your faithfulness WILL transform the Church—it may be 2012 or 2016, but God has already won the victory.

Furthermore, your faithfulness gives hope to those of us who are your ecumenical, multi-faith and secular colleagues.  Your resurrection work inspires ours.

Two concrete examples of what this looks like:

Given the General Conference’s clarity around homophobia and heterosexism, we need to hold the United Methodist Church accountable. The UMC must now speak in favor of a federal transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act in this country.  And globally, it must speak against the imprisonment, persecution and execution of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

So our shared work continues.  May God bless us with resurrection perseverance and hope.

Rev. Rebecca Voelkel
Institute for Welcoming Resources and Faith Work Director
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
810 W. 31st Street
Minneapolis, MN  55408
612.821.4397
rvoelkel@thetaskforce.org
Rebecca@welcomingresources.org
www.welcomingresources.org

MyFox Dallas: Video of Susan Laurie and Julie Bruno's wedding

A lesbian couple and their supporters, who were in Fort Worth Friday for the United Methodist Convention, protested the church's policies with a wedding. The women said they want the Methodist church to be more open and accepting of its gay and lesbian members.

Full story:
MyFox Dallas

the sunday after...

i have to admit, it was hard to put on a happy face and get back up in front of the church to lead worship this morning.  it was first sunday, which means communion, which i normally love.... but as the senior minister was reading the liturgy and reminding the congregation that "we do not understand this table to be St. Mark UMC's table nor the United Methodist Church's table, but God's table, welcome and open to all who would seek to encounter Christ"....i felt a knot in the pit of my stomach and tears well up in my eyes... this was going to be difficult to get through today, i thought to myself.  i sure didn't feel welcome in the church that i was born, bapitsed, confirmed and ordained into after seeing what happened at general conference.  nontheless, i knew that if i could just get through the service i'd be able to expres my grief later when no one else was around. 

my job as the deacon on first sundays is to set the communion table and then step over to the side of the chancel area with some oil for anointing and to offer intercessory prayer to anyone who wants it.  it has become a beautiful part of our communion tradition that i look forward to all month.  its one of my favorite things that i get to do at St. Mark. people come up and share their burdens with me and I get to anoint them with oil and offer blessings and prayers for them.  it is always an honor to serve in this way, but today i didn't feel like i had many blessings to give... 

general conference really has me devastated and i've been on the verge of tears off and on since wednesday.  here i was, standing as a minister in the UMC which had just smacked me and all of the people in my local congregation across the face with yet another rejection (despite sound, well organized, well articulated arguments and intentional relationship building with delgates prior to conference).  what did i as a minister in this denomination really have to offer them today?  we began the Lord's Supper and a few people came over to ask for prayers for illnesses and troubled relationships.  i did my best to focus on the anointing and offer a heart-felt prayer.  then one of my parishoners who had participated in the "called to witness" training, came over to me. at first i thought he wanted an anointing and prayer, but he stopped me and said that he came over to offer prayer for me...he said he was so proud of me for going to general conference and being a voice and presence for him and his partner of 34 years.  he said he could see on my face how wounded i was but he wanted me to know how much it meant to him and so many others that we all went to general conference and fought the good fight for them.  as i looked into his eyes i couldnt hold back the tears any longer.  in the midst of my pain and anger, he planted a flicker of hope that soon began to turn the tears of anger and hurt into tears of confidence and peace and i just let them roll down and cleanse my soul.  i continue to grieve for our beloved church, but not from a place of helplessness.  there is a certain confidence and peace that comes from knowing the truth about something.  the truth that i re-caught a glimpse of in that moment was that we are right about this, and that no vote at general conference can take away the ministry that is done at this church for and by LGBT people and their friends and allies.  this is just as much our church as it is anyone elses...and we are not going away...

i know this is the case in hundreds of churches all across the country and i'm so proud to be fighting this fight with all of you.  thanks for including me, guiding me, supporting me, and befriending me.  i hope i have offered the same to you thus far.  you are my heros...  thank God for you.

Devotion for May 5, 2008

1 Peter 8-9.  Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.  Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.  It is for this that you were called – that you might inherit a blessing.

“A life defined by love will not seek to protect itself or to justify itself.

It will be content simply to be itself and to give itself away with abandon.

If denied, love embraces the denier.

If betrayed, love embraces the betrayer.

If forsaken, love embraces the forsaker.

Love never judges.

Love simply announces that neither the person you are nor the deeds you have done have erected a barrier which the power of this invincible presence cannot overcome.

If life is holy and if love creates and enhances life, then love is also holy.

…Love and God cannot be separated and that to share love is nothing less than sharing God.”

John Shelby Spong.  A New Christianity for a New World, (San Francisco:  HaperCollins Publishers Inc., 2001) p. 140.

Dave Smith
Hennepin Ave UMC

A Future with Hope

A while ago Jayson posted about membership, and his experience of joining a UM congregation. That post has stayed with me for a while. Tonight I had the honor of being the sponsor of my best friend as she took the membership vows of the United Methodist Church. Miriam has joined the church after faithfully witnessing at General Conference 2008 for full inclusion.

I remembered when she first began to think about joining. It was at the Voices of Faith event in Washington DC. Late at night in our hotel room she asked me, “Is it ok to join a church for the community?” She found in UMC and on our college campus a people committed to a faith that was active; a faith that worked for justice in the world. In that community she met a people who held that belief. In the UMC she found her church home.

I was even more honored to know that before she joined the UMC, about a year before, she started working with MOSAIC (Methodist Students, Seminarians, and Young Adults for an All Inclusive Church). She even knowing the hate that is produced by the UMC, she decided to join anyway. She decided that she would be committed to working to change the church. That is because what drew her to Methodism was a commitment to justice in the world, to love and grace, and to following Jesus.

While we worry about people leaving, or not joining until we change our position on LGBT person ability to be fully included in our church.  I fear that all the young people will leave, and that our church will die. I offer up that story, as a reminder.   When we are the only reconciling Methodist, community, or church we offer people something they have never seen before. Something that inspires them, appeals to them, and welcomes them.

As we live out radical inclusion we offer to young people a place to call home. There are those who are committed to fighting for inclusion and staying who are young.  When Miriam joined the church tonight I saw a future with hope.

A Soulforce Open Letter to Members of the United Methodist Church

On April 30, 2008, delegates to your General Conference meeting in Ft. Worth, Texas, voted to keep these words in their Book of Discipline: "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching." Since 1972 United Methodists have used these words to deny lesbian and gay Methodists the rights of ordination and of marriage. As I write clergy can even use these words to deny lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christian the rights of membership in a local church.

For 36 years lesbian and gay United Methodists and their allies have worked tirelessly to replace these words with words of affirmation and acceptance. Once again a UMC General Conference has decided to keep those words in place even though they lead to intolerance, discrimination, suffering and even death. In his book "Why We Can't Wait," Martin Luther King, Jr. describes the 1963 struggle for civil rights that climaxed with legislation that ended segregation in the United States. Dr. King's book might have been titled, "Why We Didn't Wait," for he describes the "disappointments" that drove African-Americans into the streets - "disappointments" that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans know all too well.

We lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are also disappointed in the Congress and the courts; disappointed in both political parties and their leadership; disappointed in the lack of change in the United States when European nations are granting their gay and lesbian citizens the full rights of citizenship; but especially we are disappointed in our churches for ignoring the empirical and biblical data that homosexuality is not a sickness to be cured nor a sin to be forgiven.

We, too, are tired of slow change and token changes, tired of defending ourselves against the claims of moral inferiority, tired of being victims of public laws and private humiliations, tired of intolerance and inequality, tired of suffering and dying just because we are different. The historic civil rights legislation of 1964 came just eight years after Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. It's been almost 40 years since the Stonewall protest in New York City and 36 years since the United Methodists decided that they "...do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching."

With all the changes we can celebrate, the real problem remains the same: the antigay religious teachings and actions that support intolerance and discrimination are still powerfully in place in the United Methodist Church and in most other Protestant and Catholic Churches. These antigay, religion-based teachings and actions have become the primary source of misinformation against sexual and gender minorities.

Most antigay initiatives and antigay court decisions (local, statewide and national) flow out of those same religious teachings. They give license for gay bashers to harass and harm us and motive for God's gay children to kill ourselves. Instead of changing minds and hearts, the 36 year war of words by leaders of the United Methodist Church has seen those antigay religious teachings harden into place. When will we realize that the antigay teachings cannot be "studied" or "debated" away? It will take another civil rights revolution to end them.

In "Why We Can't Wait" Dr. King makes it clear: "The ultimate tragedy of Birmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people." It is not the Institute for Religion and Democracy who have kept these tragic words in place. We can't condemn the Confessing Movement for this current dilemma. It is the silence of the good people of the United Methodist Church that is to blame.

But there is a way to end that silence without anger, hatred or violence. Guided by Gandhi's soul force principles, the principles of relentless nonviolent resistance, Dr. King led the people of Birmingham on a journey into justice that "stirred the conscience of the nation." We don't have to wait for a consensus at the next general conference. We can stand for justice now in ways that will empower us and change minds and hearts in the process.

We call on the United Methodist Bishops who know the tragic consequences of those words to refuse to enforce them or to resign in protest. Gandhi said "It is as much our obligation not to cooperate with evil as it is to cooperate with good." Every day a Bishop remains a Bishop he or she gives tacit support to the teachings that are killing us.

We call on the United Methodist clergy who know the tragic consequences of those words to take their stand against them. Welcome us. Marry us. Ordain us. Confront and condemn your fellow clergy who dare to use those words to deny membership to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians. We ask you to take steps immediately to join the Reconciling Ministries Network and to make it known to your community that you are an Open and Affirming Congregation.

We call on members of the United Methodist Church to support your local congregation if it is (or is rapidly becoming) a Reconciling Congregation. But we call upon you to leave your church if your pastor continues to enforce the words that "...do not condone." At least refuse to pay your tithes and offerings until your church opens their doors to all people as Christ commands.

We call on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender United Methodists, their families and friends, to refuse to finance your own oppression by giving your tithes and offerings to a church that refuses to see you as fully human. How can we continue to support a local congregation where the pastor insists that our relationships are impure or unholy and thus refuses to marry us or insists that we are not really called by God to serve the church and thus refuses to ordain us? How can we even think of staying in a congregation that denies membership to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons? And as you leave, take down that sign or banner that reads "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." Store it until the United Methodist Church earns the right to use it once again.

Whatever you do to take your stand against those words in the UMC Book of Discipline, do something. We cannot wait for the next General Conference. While those words remain in place lives are being ruined, talents are being wasted, families are being divided and whole generations are being lost to the United Methodist Church. Even worse, how many people have given up their faith in Christ because His church has become a primary source of intolerance and discrimination? Don't wait for a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead us out of this wilderness. Whatever you decide to do, your simple act of conscience will make a difference.

One Sunday an African-American pastor was proclaiming those tragic words from the pulpit. "We do not condone..." "...Incompatible with Christian teaching..." "Sick and sinful..." Having heard enough, the gay organist stood up and said loudly, "There will be no more music today." With that he gathered up his music and walked out of the church. After a moment of breathtaking silence, one by one the choir followed. Just seven words and a brief walk down the aisle and a choir was empowered to do justice and a congregation was changed forever.

Rev. Dr. Mel White
President of the Board

Jeff Lutes
Executive Director

Full story:
A Soulforce Open Letter to Members of the United Methodist Church
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Home at last

I have possibly never been so happy to be home in my own place.  My own bed felt so good!

I decided this morning to post here a piece of an email I sent some friends while I was still in Fort Worth.  I understand that everyone had his or her own reaction to the events of General Conference, and I don't post this with the intention of speaking for everyone.  This is where I am, at the present time:

"On a personal note--besides the fact that I caught a cold (inevitable, I think), I am doing just fine.  I knew coming into this mess that it would hurt, that it would be difficult, and that we would experience some measure of pain and rejection.  I also knew that I would be surrounded by new and old friends, a sense of community, and a church to which I would continue to belong.  Also, and this might be the most critical part, I know that this is a marathon and not a sprint.  Things WILL change someday.  We will be accepted, welcomed, loved by our church.  I know it is coming.  I also know that the General Conference does not change the fact that we are still the church and I am still God's beloved daughter.

The pain is that not everyone who is at our table today will be here tomorrow.  The casualties are huge.  The spiritual violence we have experienced here at the hands of our church is horrible.  GLBT folks were disparaged and called names by the very church we love so much.  I mourn the sisters and brothers who will go somewhere else--to a different denomination or out of the church entirely.

But I am still here.  It means something to me to be a United Methodist.  It is the only place I can be.  I've committed myself to this struggle and I appreciate the love and support I've received from you on my journey."

Peace and blessings to all of you, and a special hug for those of you with whom I just spent the last ten days.  I miss you already.

Devotion for May 4, 2008

But Yhwh said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to appearances and height; I have rejected (this one).  Yhwh does not see as mortals see; mortals see only appearances but Yhwh sees into the heart.                                                                           
                                                                       I Samuel 16: 7, From the Inclusive Bible.

A friend of mine told a story of spending time with someone who “knew it all” and had no use for anyone else’s opinion or actions.  She talks about working hard to see God in that person as she spent time with him, praying for God to reveal a side of that person that showed The Light in him.  And she worked really hard at believing that person was a child of God.

It is hard sometimes to understand that God sees, not as we see, but into the heart; that God knows us and “those others,” and loves the heart of all of us.  God’s plans depend on us, and on those we just can’t understand; even those we can’t stand to be around.

When our hearts -- the seat of our values and our will -- are well formed, we can see much more clearly, too.  When we accept that each person is a child of the Light, and look for their Light, our eyes are open to their hearts.

God, open our hearts to see as you see; to accept ourselves and those around us as Your chosen ones; to see not just appearances, but into the heart of each of Your children.  Amen.

Monica Swink
RMN Board Chair

LG cell phone box obtained

Cell phones were provided to Central Conference delegates by the Renewal and Reform Coalition (The Confessing Movement, Good News, IRD/UMAction among others). Each cell phone box included a post-it note with the number of the cell phone and the name of the delegate that took the cell phone. This box was found in the Fort Worth Convention center after delegates had concluded business. This cell phone box contains a post-it note with the name of Dion B. Rombaoa, a Central Conference delegate from Central Luzon Phil.

Prior Coverage:
Click here

Washington Post: Methodists Struggle To Reflect Diversity

The Washington Post reports:

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Once the epitome of Main Street, U.S.A., the United Methodist Church is rapidly becoming an increasingly international family.

Put another way: The church of President Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is also the church of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

And as the Liberian president stood before thousands of fellow Methodists here Tuesday, she presented herself as the personification of the church's global missions and urged a renewed effort to fight poverty in Africa.

Sirleaf, who in 2006 became Africa's first democratically elected female head of state, pointed to Methodists' centuries-old health and education ministries in her West African nation. Methodists built the first secondary school in Liberia, the College of West Africa, of which Sirleaf called herself a proud alumna.

"For more than 175 years, you, the Methodist Church, has stood by and with the Liberian nation," Sirleaf said. "The church must continue to work to assist us meet the challenges for the people of Liberia."

Challenges are abundant across the world, Sirleaf said. A widening gap between rich and poor nations threatens regional stability; climate change threatens natural resources; and rising food prices threaten to unleash a tide of hunger across the world.

"You are meeting at a critical moment in the history of the Christian church and the human family," she told the almost 4,000 Methodists gathered here at their quadrennial General Conference.

Indeed, they find themselves in the middle of an intense debate about exactly how their church can reflect its increasingly international membership and its sexual diversity at home.

While Methodist congregations are shrinking in America, they're booming in Africa and Asia -- 30 percent of the 11.5 million-member church lives outside the United States. Sirleaf's Liberia has 168,000 Methodists; this week, delegates formally received its West African neighbor, Ivory Coast, into the church. With 700,000 members, it's now the church's largest regional conference.

More than 275 of the almost 1,000 delegates gathered here to draw up church policy are from Africa, an increase of 100 from the last General Conference.

Still, Methodists have yet to decide how to fully reflect their diversity in church governance. On Monday, delegates scuttled a plan that might have given more influence to churches in Africa, Asia and Europe, instead deciding to study the matter further and report back in four years.

The meeting here, which ended yesterday, also reflects a wider struggle for the soul of America's mainline churches, as conservatives and liberals increasingly cross national and hemispheric lines in search of allies.

Several delegates warned that actions taken here directly affect Methodists in Africa and Asia, many of whom are conservative.

Delegates held to traditional Methodist rules on homosexuality, refusing to support or celebrate same-sex unions and maintaining language that calls homosexual activity "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Yet, efforts to remove a transgender pastor from ministry in Baltimore died quietly. The failure to enact a ban most likely means the Rev. Drew Phoenix, who entered the ministry as the Rev. Ann Gordon, cannot be defrocked solely because he is a transgender man before the next General Conference in 2012.

Liberal Methodists say a conservative coalition crossed ethical lines when it handed out more than 200 free cellphones to delegates from Africa and the Philippines. The giveaway sparked charges of racism, neo-colonialism and old-fashioned graft.

Conservative activist Mark Tooley of UMAction, a member of the coalition, called the cellphone brouhaha "very silly."

But the Rev. Troy Plummer of the gay-friendly Reconciling Ministries Network noted that the fliers advertising the giveaway called on delegates to elect a slate of conservative candidates to the church's supreme court.

Those candidates lost. Delegates elected church moderates and liberals instead.

Click here
Methodists Struggle To Reflect Diversity
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