Day 3 Heal

During the legislative groups today, we began with a short time of morning prayer. Then they had the delegates go around and introduce themselve and tell a joy. It was great to hear from people from all around the world in a variety of languages. People had many varieties of joys, but one in particular caught my attention. A man from Sierra Leon explained that his joy was particularly because some people in Indiana supported the ministry he does through Operation Classroom, chipping in to provide a vehicle. Isn't it great to see where mission from our conference makes a great difference to somebody!!

After introductions and a break, we broke into subcommittees. I chose to follow the subcommittee that is focusing on the Commission on Ministry report. Among some of the items in this report are 1) eliminating commissioning, moving ordination forward to immediately after seminary, and following ordination with a probabtionary period, 2) requiring a ministry orientation for all future pastors of all kinds at certification, and 3) a clear definition of our various types of pastors: elders, deacons, and local pastors.

The subcommittee began by breaking into even smaller groups. These were to discuss the legislation under the subcommittee and make recommendations for the subcommittee. The subcommittee will in turn make recomendations to the full legislative committee. The legislative committee will make recommendations next week to the entire general conference. They have 5 choices. 1) they can create a consent calendar, 2) they can recommend a yes (perhaps with amendments), 3) they can recommend a no, and 4) they can refer legislation to an agency or board. 5) There is also a way they can reject one in favor of another.

This afternoon, the sub-subcommittees reported to the subcommittee. One of the discussions particularly of interest to me is the one regarding commissioning and ordination. When one person asked the committee who prepared the report what would happen to an ordained person who decides not to continue to full membership, he explained that ordination is an act of the church and can be taken away. This is very interesting, because the Ordinal says that ordination is an act of the Holy Spirit and the church, and it cannot be taken away. Passing legislation allowing the removal of ordination would change our theology of ordination. This can be done at General Conference, but it is not a change that I am in favor of. I believe ordination is an act of God as well as the church, just as is stated in the Ordinal. I look forward to hearing the full discussion later!

At dinner time tonight, I went to dinner with many of the other seminarians here at General Conference. They only made reservations for 60, and we ran out of space! One of the people I ended up sitting with was a seminarian from Candler. He is a year older than me but a year behind me in school. Sometime during the meal, we got into a rather involved conversation regarding homosexuality, church splits, following ordination vows, and when to leave or not to leave. We actually landed on different sides of the issue. (and no I will not tell you where I am on the issue, make your own assumptions. Some of you reading this already know, but I do not want people to stop reading because they disagree with me) Even though we disagreed, we were able to have a respectful conversation that I believe is exactly what we mean by Christian Conferencing. We each heard the other out, acknowledged where the other was coming from, and recognized the difficulty or pain caused by each position. At one point we discussed how nasty people in the church can get in these disagreements when we forget that the person with whom we are speaking is a person. This moved to what we have heard about previous General Conferences and how often “holy conferencing” is not so holy. We talked all the way back to the convention center, when I realized that I left my phone at the restaurant and had to go back and get it. When I got back, I discovered it had been given to the professor who organized the dinner. So, I hiked back to the convention center (at least I walked off my pizza!). Eventually, I got my phone back, but by the time I got back into the plenary session, it was already 15 minutes in.

I ended up sitting right behind the professor who had had my phone and a young woman (another seminarian) who I have sat with multiple times. While the session was electing people to judicial council, I was mostly in conversation with the professor. She was inviting me to lunch tomorrow to hear a speaker she invited for her class about one of the pieces of legislation. As we were talking, and I was looking through my phone for messages, I noticed that something strange was going on. Where we had been listening to nominations for elections, there was suddenly somebody speaking very emotionally from one of the microphones on the floor. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, because I missed most of it because of distractions. Basically, what I finally figured out, was that in yesterday’s Holy Conferencing about homosexuality (which I skipped because I could not participate nor observe well), he had felt bullied because of his sexuality. He asked people to stand with him (in solidarity maybe? This was the moment when I started listening so I missed the reason.) Many people stood, and he continued to speak as the presiding bishop interrupted him and told him that this was out of order. The bishop explained that he had granted him a point of order and this was not a point of order. He also explained that there would be another time when it would be appropriate to discuss this issue. After a few seconds of the man continuing to talk and the bishop telling him to stop, the man asked for the bishop to at least say a prayer. The bishop agreed and prayed. The man sat down and the business continued followed by a worship service. After the service, many people went outside the conference and lined to doors and the paths to the stairs to stand for this man.

I would be interested to hear what was said and what actually happened. I almost wish that I had gone, in the off chance that I could have actually heard some of the discussion. People on both sides are often guilty of bullying, name calling, and hateful speech. It is sad that this is the case in the church. But it is true that it happens. I don't know what happened to him, what was said to him. Think what you will, I will not tell you what to think.

By the way, I'm famous! Read my last blog post at http://umonfire.blogspot.com. Well I guess I'm not exactly famous, but I was asked to share some of my blog with them.