Many Cultures

Guten Tag!

Well, the first full day of the conference has taken place. Last night’s worship was a lot of fun and quite an experience for me. Five different languages are being spoken at this conference. Primarily, it is being conducted in English, but enough happens in other languages at we all have to wear head phones with translations. Last night, I was privileged to read the scripture in English, followed by those reading in Russian, German, French, and Portuguese. The band was a lot of fun, and they sang contemporary songs WITHOUT blowing our eardrums (quite a concept!).

This morning began with worship and communion. The preacher preached in Russian, so I listened through the headphones. The funny thing about this is that when he told a joke or when somebody wanted to shout Amen, the laughter or Amen would come about 15 seconds after he finished speaking because our translations were slightly delayed. The communion liturgy was read in German, and we all said the responses in our own languages. Even though the liturgy was not on the screen, everybody could easily say their responses due to their many years growing up with the liturgy. We also sang some songs this morning in Russian and in German last night. German was fine, because they use the Latin alphabet, but Russian does not so we all clapped along and listened. Both days, we had a liturgical dance presentation by one woman. The first was an American, and the second Portuguese. It is fascinating to see the difference in liturgical dancing styles between countries/people. Both were worshipful and beautiful. It is such an experience to see so many different cultures in one place, and to be one of those who does not understand the speaker or songs. It was also wonderful to begin the day with communion and the affirmation that we all are united in this, down to the words of the liturgy and up to what it means to us under Christ.

One thing that I have been making an effort to do is meet people from different countries. One of my methods for doing so is to sit alone at meals or with one other person and see who joins me. Every time, somebody has joined me, and every time I have had interesting conversations. This morning I ate with a guy from Zimbabwe. We talked about what our churches are like in our countries and the difficulties they face. In his country, they face the difficulty that young people leave to attend the Pentecostal church, the UMC is too stuck on tradition and the Pentecostals are considered to be more open to the Holy Spirit. I mentioned that in the large mega-churches, it is easy to hide, and he said that in the UMC the members need to contribute. I found the similarities in difficulties with a church in such a different country to be fascinating. So far I have had fascinating discussions with a guy from Uganda, a guy from Russia who studies English and German, and a woman from the Philippines who is descended from the first United Methodist convert in her village. The latter is my roommate.

This afternoon, we had legislative group meetings. My group was Health and Wellness. We had five resolutions to consider. They spoke about abortion, sexuality, and homosexuality. The final resolution, which included some very hateful language, was declared out of order based on its last point. Since no person who put forth the resolution made an amendment to strike the last paragraph, the entire resolution is gone from the docket. The first resolution was written by our own Chris Roberts. It spoke about the church working strongly (with existing and new programs) to promote alternatives to abortion. I actually spoke 3 times during the discussion of this resolution. First, was because somebody asked a question so I read from the Discipline. As I walked up with it, people were gasping in surprise or laughing because I had the book of Discipline. Another time, I spoke against and amendment, and then I spoke to the actual resolution. This resolution passed, as did one about lowering abortion rates and one affirming a majority report from the last general conference on human sexuality.

This evening we have a ministry fair to see the ministries being done across the world. Well, I am going to go take a walk now, so…

Auf Wiedershein!