General Conference: Week 2
Friends, the United Methodist Church is moving in unimaginable and holy ways toward justice and inclusion this week. I am writing this post to you literally minutes after a monumental item was adopted that removes all language that forbids ordained clergy from being ordained on the basis of of being a “self-avowed and practicing homosexual.” (¶304.3, 2016 Book of Discipline)
It was such an overwhelming consensus to do this at General Conference that this item ended up on something called a “consent calendar” which is a parliamentary practice of bundling motions and amendments together in such a way that they get voted on all at once based on the given rules of a gathering like General Conference. It only takes a nominal amount of signatures to take something like this off of a consent calendar—and it never was removed.
Your pastor is a big “metho-nerd” when it comes to parliamentary proceedings and the polity of our United Methodist Church.
We still have some days left in this meeting but no doubt is left in my mind that we will remove the rest of the exclusionary language in our Book of Discipline, thus ending the homophobia of our church that has been in place since before I was born.
I grew up in the south and pursued ordination in the state of Texas. I know of too many stories of queer clergy who have remained closeted for so long in order to stay in ministry and follow their call in ordained ministry. This action (and others i believe will be taken today) has completely obliterated any necessity for queer clergy in our midst from hiding fully who they are from the church and those people they serve.
Glory to God in the Highest.
I went to General Conference expecting the bare minimum of structural changes and other wonky reforms that would have created a long, winding and time-consuming path toward incrementally removing these exclusionary tenets of our church’s polity. Instead, I feel as if I have witnessed a miracle and the rushing wind of the movement of the Holy Spirit.
My entire experience as Methodist clergy for nine years has had this backdrop of exclusion. I dont know what it means to be in a church that has its doors opened to queer clergy and queer families but I eagerly look forward to experiencing this new United Methodism anew!
I look forward to returning to Lakewood UMC and will schedule a time where I can share an update with all who are interested on all of the work General Conference has done which includes a range of actions beyond what I am celebrating today.
My heart is strangely warmed!
