General Conference 2008

Parents Reconciling Network Luncheon

The Reconciling Movement's work at the 2008 General Conference launched on April 23, 2008 with the Parents Reconciling Network (PRN) Luncheon at First Christian Church in Fort Worth, TX. Helen King was awarded the Hilton Award.

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The Hilton Award

Award Transcript:

Today the person we are honoring is Helen Brewer King. Unfortunately Helen is not able to be with us today. We all wish she could be so that we could embrace her and let her know in a personal way how much she and the work that she has done has meant to our PRN family. I would like to share a bit of that with you. When I contacted Helen and asked her to outline her work with PRN, what I thought I would receive was a resume like document. What I received was her story that documented not only the facts of her work, but the passion of her work. Since our stories are such an important part of our work at General Conference, I am going to take the liberty of quoting Helen.

"I am a native of North Carolina and a life long Methodist raised in the Wesleyan culture of love, acceptance, nurture of faith that began in the cradle. I married the son of a Methodist minister and our son is a United Methodist minister. However, when our daughter came out to us 15 years ago, I knew instinctively that the United Methodist Church would be the last place that I could go for understanding. So for a year and a half, after a lifetime of active service in the church, my husband and I stopped attending church. But in that time God never abandoned us and led us to the Reconciling United Methodists of North Carolina, a group that was forming in the Triangle area. The RUM’s saved us. We knew in our heart that our daughter, the same as our son, was compatible with Christian teaching. And here other United Methodists agreed. Very soon we were helping staff a RUM table at the North Carolina Annual Conference, offering outreach, understanding, stories and homemade cookies. Over the years that witness has grown to include informational handouts, rainbow crosses, stoles, more food and drink, and a worship service followed by lunch for the worshipers.

Then came Calvary UMC in Durham, NC. I was privileged to be part of the process when Calvary became a Reconciling Congregation. With Calvary I got to staff a booth at the North Carolina Pride parade held each year on the east campus of Duke University. It was such a joy to witness to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folks who could not believe that a church could offer love and acceptance.

Three years ago, my husband and I left the Triangle area where we lived for 33 years and made our summer home at Lake Junaluska our permanent home. That meant that we were living there when RMN held Convo there in 2005. What a joy to have been the person on the ground for RMN doing the planning. Let me add that during the whole Hearts on Fire event itself, organizing for Reconciling on the local level was very rewarding. I've been blessed as well to have served on the RMN Board as well and the PRN Steering Committee. I am very proud of two things from those years. The RMN Board hired Troy Plummer as the Executive Director and PRN started the Stole Project. Troy has brought not only direction, but vision to RMN. The Rainbow Stoles have become the way reconciling folks all across the country wear their witness. And again, let me add, they have been a motivating force beginning with General Conference in 2004. They have taken on a life of their own.

Sixteen years after our daughter said, "I am gay", we are still working and waiting for The United Methodist Church to make good on its baptismal promise. It will happen.”

I am sure that you will all agree that Helen is the most deserving of the Hilton Award. Her passion, her dauntless work, her gracious hospitality, and her sense of humor, have been an inspiration to us all.

Helen King's Acceptance Letter

It is really an honor for me to be able to accept this for Helen and to read you her acceptance.

"This most unexpected award is very meaningful to me because I have known and worked with the two people it was created to honor, Bruce and Virginia Hilton. Years before most United Methodists, the Hiltons, both ordained United Methodist Ministers, confronted the church and the world with the challenging question, “Can homophobia be cured?” Bruce's book with that title was my lifeline 16 years ago when our then 20 year old daughter came out to us when she said, "Mom I'm gay". I knew instinctively that the church was the last place where I could go for support. Bruce Hilton's book pointed me toward hope and so began the journey of inspiration, holiness, goodness and wonder. Even the events of General Conference 2000 and 2004 did not change what I know in my deepest self to be true, that God's world is wonderful and diverse. God's love is all inclusive and God is far bigger than I could have ever imagined and certainly far bigger than proclaimed by the United Methodist Church. I am humbled by this award because I know of so many more who are far more deserving than I. I accept this award in the name of those committed to making the church truly open to all, the untold number of United Methodists who work openly and many, unfortunately out of necessity, work out of sight to make God's love personal and visible. I pledge to continue my journey and to bring as many along with me as possible. Thank you."

Bishop Ray Chamberlain

Bishop Ray Chamberlain was one of two featured speakers at the Parents Reconciling Network Luncheon at the 2008 General Conference. In Bishop Chamberlain's address, he spoke of his daughter Marsha who happens to be lesbian and provides an important historical and theological framework for the full acceptance of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in The United Methodist Church.

Bishop Ray Chamberlain from Reconciling Ministries Network on Vimeo.

Rev. Bill Taylor

Rev. Bill Taylor was one of two featured speakers at the Parents Reconciling Network Luncheon at the 2008 General Conference. In Rev. Bill Taylor's address, he spoke of being forced to leave his church after refusing to condemn his gay son Dawson. You can read more about Rev. Bill Taylor, Roxanne and Dawson in the 3/19/2008 Flashnet.

Rev. Bill Taylor from Reconciling Ministries Network on Vimeo.

Parents Press Conference

Three reconciling parents discuss support for LGBT children.

YouTube: Bishop Ray Chamberlain

YouTube: Joy Watts

Click here

YouTube: Betty Dorr

Click here

I Was Cast Out Because I Support Our Gay Son

UM NeXus published an article about Rev. Bill Taylor, the featured speaker at next week's Parents Reconciling Luncheon in Fort Worth, TX (details below):

In 2001, as I was finishing my tenure on the bishop’s cabinet, where I had served as the Texarkana District Superintendent, I was thrilled to be appointed to First United Methodist Church in Conroe, Texas. My wife Roxanne was hired to teach Government and Economics at Conroe High School.

We were well received into the Conroe community and into the church. For the first five years at Conroe First I had a magnificent ministry. The church grew from about 2400 to about 3100, while the budget doubled from just over $1 million to just over $2 million.

And then the wheels came off. My eldest child, Dawson, is gay. When I went to Conroe I didn’t know that. On a tearful night in the den of the parsonage Dawson told us that he was different. Even though I had suspected this, when he shared his sexual orientation with his mother and me, my world caved in. For a year I prayed fervently that God would change Dawson and make him “normal” — a heterosexual like his parents — or I asked God to change me to be fully accepting of him, his sexuality, and his life. My prayers were answered. Slowly, not even realizing that I was changing, I began to be accepting not only of Dawson, but of all who are a part of the LGBT community.

Full story:
I Was Cast Out Because I Support Our Gay Son
Click here

Parents Reconciling Luncheon

The Parents Reconciling Network invites you to the Opening Celebration of the reconciling witness for the 2008 General Conference. Join us Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at the First Christian Church, 612 Throckmorton Street, Fort Worth, Texas, (4 blocks NW of the Convention Center).

The celebration starts at 11:30 with a luncheon. Following lunch the Reverend William Taylor, of Houston, TX, a pastor who recently was forced to leave his church after refusing to condemn his gay son, will address the gathering.

The HILTON AWARD will then be presented to one of our recent nominees. Selection of the recipient is based on “giving significant support to other parents and increased hope for a more inclusive denomination."

An RMN commissioning service for volunteers serving at General Conference will follow.

Justice

My name is Stephen.  This is my first ever effort as a blogger.  I have never even read another person's blog, but I think i get the idea.  I am the father of two sons and one daughter in law.  My wife, Leigh, and I are anxiously awaiting our first grandchild.  We are also awaiting the events of General Conference 2008, hoping that our church's Open Hearts, Open Doors, Open Minds refrain is real.

One of my sons is a Deacon in the United Methodist Church.  He has always fought injustice and bigotry.  I have always admired that about him.  He and I stand together in opposition to the current U Methodist position which discriminates against people on the basis of their sexuality. 

I believe that our sexuality is part of who we are and not something that we choose.  I do not pretend to understand all of the reasons for the spectrum of sexuality and I think it is arrogant of others to presume that they do.  Exclusion is not the way of Jesus.  He did not suggest that anyone should be excluded for any reason. I'll take my cue from Him.

I'll have more to say.......