Listen

Every morning during this week of General Conference, we begin the day at the legislative committees. The day is to start with morning prayer, and a basic format is included in our conference programs. The leaders have flexibility in how they choose to use this liturgy, but for the most part, the committee I follow has been staying close to this liturgy. Today, it occurred to me as we listened to the reading of Scripture how well steeped in Scripture this General Conference is. For a person who attends every worship service in a day, they will hear the same passage in the morning during the prayer service, at lunch time during the Communion service, and in the evening during the large worship service. The effect is that each day is ideally effectively centered around one Scripture that is reinforced time and again.

This morning in the legislative committee, the subcommittees did not meet. Instead, each subcommittee reported on its actions during the previous day, debate took place, and petitions were accepted or rejected. Any that are rejected will not go to the full plenary session, unless somebody gets 20 signatures.

Among the hot button topics this morning were 1) a petition to allow homosexual marriages in UM churches and chapels and 2) a petition to remove Claremont from our list of approved seminaries. Both elicited quite a lot of debate.

Obviously homosexuality was quite the topic. Many of the commonly heard arguments were made, and some were made that were new to me. On the side that supports the petition, most were from the US. We heard from people who believe there will be no young people left in the church if this is not passed. Others appealed to their inability to care for homosexual couples in the same way as the heterosexual couples. On the side against the amendment, the most vocal voices were from Africa, though many also spoke from this country. The ones from Africa explained that if homosexuality was to be allowed, they have been told not to bother coming back to Africa. They also explained that in Africa polygamy is very much a part of the culture. It is accepted and considered good, often. However, the church does not accept it, even though it can cause pastoral care issues. Most people who spoke appealed to the Biblical passages also. Another person spoke about procreation.

During the homosexuality debate, both sides were prone to verbosity. A person would speak and make a point. The next person would stand and basically repeat what the first person said. The third person would stand and say "I would like to reiterate..." and would repeat what was just said. It almost seemed as if each side believed that having the last word, even if it was repeating what had been said at least 5 times, would result in a victory. It was rather exhausting.

In the petition to remove Claremont, a person rose to propose an amendment adding Iliff, Boston, and Gammon to that list. This is because all four added together produce 33 elders per year on average. That is less than 10 per school. He argued that this was a poor use of our funds. His motion was voted down. He then proposed an amendment where every seminary must use 33% of the money given to them by the UMC must be used for indigenous seminary training in Central Conferences. This was voted down because the President of one of the seminaries stood and said that they already give from their budget and this would be limiting.

A great joy of the day took place during the lunch time communion service. The communion service takes place outside on the riverfront. Apparently, as we were receiving communion, somebody had come up on her bike. She must have been invited to stay, because she celebrated Communion with us before biking away. I love that even in the midst of a conference where we assume the people around us are Christian, somebody was witnessing. She felt comfortable enough to join us, and that is wonderful.

In the afternoon, the legislative committee broke into subcommittees. Quite a lot of discussion happened in the one I observed regarding security of appointments. With amendments, the subcommittee did overwhelmingly move to adopt the petition to get rid of guaranteed appointments.

This evening was exciting for me, because I got to sit in the bar of the conference! As a fourth reserve, I was wondering if I would make it onto the floor. Tonight, I was able to go in! Granted, this was a plenary session with no voting. Instead it was a worship service centered around repentance for acts committed against indigenous peoples of this country. I must admit, I wondered the relevancy during most of the service for our delegates from outside the United States. Eventually, the idea was tied into acts of repentance for acts committed against all indigenous peoples around the world, but the majority of the service was regarding Native Americans. In the end, I was just thrilled to be on the floor. It was fun to be down there and see some things up close that I could no see from the observer section.

Well, I am getting very tired. Tomorrow is a full day of only legislative committees. It is also the last day of legislative groups. Any petition not acted on tomorrow will be dead.

Good night all!