General Conference Begins!!!

For the next several days, I will be posting daily discussing my experiences at General Conference as a reserve delegate. I am also a young person and a seminary student, so this will be quite an interesting ten days! For the next ten days, we will be discussing (or listening to the discussion) of the various proposals to the business of the church. The General Conference meets quarterly and is the only body that may speak for the United Methodist Church. The work of these days will revise the Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions. Over the next several days, we will be discussing several hot button issues, which I will discuss here as they come up.

This has been quite an exciting day! It started with the briefing for young delegates. It was a lot of fun to both meet new people and to see all the people who I recognize either from Berlin, various committees, internships, and more. In small group discussions we were asked to think about two things. We were first asked to discuss where we have seen the UMC at its best. We discussed connectionalism, mission, world wide nature of the church, nurturing of calling and more. We were also asked to discuss where we would love to see the UMC in ten years if this General Conference went the best that it possibly could. People talked about inclusiveness, young people, and more. I explained that I would love the UMC to be a denomination that I do not have to worry about. That means, in part, that I can look over a meeting and see people under 50 and the majority under 60. That means, also, understanding our doctrine and standing for what we believe, rather than acting as if we believe nothing in particular. We have beliefs, but there is not always understanding of them.

Next, I went to hear about the opportunities for seminary students. I met students from Drew, Duke, Candler, and more. Many of them are here solely for a class. Most of them were shocked to hear that my school, the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, does not have a class, just individual study, and few of us came to Tampa. We learned that for the next two weeks, we will meet at 7 AM to hear from a large variety of speakers. We will hear from the exiting and entering President of the Council of Bishops. We will hear from all ends of the spectrum, from Good News to Reconciling Ministries. We will hear from many others, who I cannot remember. I think I will do my best to get up often and go to these talks. We were also invited to two dinners for seminary students over the course of conference. It is great to be making connections to other seminary students. This evening, we are at a legislative session. I was sitting near our delegation, but some of the Drew students walked by and invited me to join them. It is nice to make these connections.

After lunch and before dinner, we engaged in truly passionate worship. The opening service was a service of communion. I sat in midst of people who I did not know. As we sang Lord I Lift Your Name on High, I taught a lady the hand motions and we worshipped together. We heard a wonderful sermon about James and John leaving their nets to follow Jesus. One of my favorite parts of any global church experience is just that, we are a global church. We all prayed or sang, sometimes in one language and sometimes in our own languages. We heard readings and liturgy in a variety of languages, including sign language. Well, I guess we didn't hear the sign language! Liturgical dancing was a must in that worship service. Wonderful music, from new to old imbued the service. I did notice, though, during this service, I had no idea that we had so many bishops!

The last part of our day is the legislative session. In this session, the main goal is to adopt the rules for General Conference. The rules are being proposed in relatively small sections. At the moment we are on section 4, and only one section of the rules has been approved. All the rest had motions to amend, and based on the existing rules, any amendment on the rules must go to the committee. They must respond in less than 24 hours with a recommendation or report. Because so many sections have sparked motions, we are spending quite a lot of time in clarification, point of orders, and speeches. I must say, it is rather tedious to sit and listen to debates about a topic that is vitally important but very very boring. The only topic more boring is pensions!!

Signing off today, tune in tomorrow to hear about the first full day of legislation!