“The One Who Began a Good Work” based on…

May 29, 2016February 15, 2020
by Sara Baron

A week ago I returned from a 2 week trip to Portland Oregon, where I was a progressive organizer for the General Conference of The United Methodist Church. General Conference meets only every 4 years, and is a global gathering of delegates who have the power to change the church’s position on ANYTHING they want. I went with the “Love Your Neighbor Coalition” to help the church do less harm.¹

Things started getting really interesting for that work, 8 days before General Conference officially began. That was when 15 Clergy from the New York Annual Conference published an open letter in which they came out as LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and/or Intersexed).² A week later, the day before General Conference began, 111 Clergy around the country joined their voices together in “A Love Letter to Our Church From Your LGBTQI Religious Leaders.”³ (So, they came out too.) That letter just about broke the Internet. The traffic actually broke the Reconciling Ministries Network’s web-page.

The following day, when General Conference started, a letter signed by “hundreds of moms” came out in support of the LGBTQI clergy.⁴ Two days after that, more than 500 LGBTQI Christian Leaders from other denominations signed a letter in solidarity with the UM Clergy who had come out.⁵ From the grandstands outside the plenary floor I looked through the list of names to see friends and colleagues from this area had signed it, and it felt like the Spirit had whispered hope and love right into our General Conference. Words of love came from a lot of directions. There were love letters from the UCC National Office⁶, the New England Quakers⁷, and the Episcopal of the Portland Diocese full of encouragement and hope.⁸

General Conference started on Tuesday, May 10^th. On Saturday there was a letter signed by more than 5000 UM laity declaring their support of LGBTQI clergy⁹, which now has more than 6200 signatures and counting. On Monday the 16^th, there was a letter signed by more than 2300 UM Allies in support of OUR LGBTQI colleagues.¹⁰ (Yes, “our.” It was long time before I got to sign anything.) Reading through the lists of signers of those letters was also a source of comfort and joy.

Finally, on the second Tuesday of General Conference, 16 days after the first public letter was released with 15 Clergy coming out, a response came from some of The United Methodist Bishops.¹¹ If you were wondering, two of your former Bishops signed it: Bishops Susan Morrison and Susan Hassinger. 29 Bishops signed in all. They wrote in response to the SECOND letter, the one from 111 LGBTQI clergy. Among the words they wrote were:

We write our letter now to say to these sacred children of God and members of our United Methodist family that we love them and have been blessed by the many spiritual gifts that God has given them and that they have shared with us. … While they could have left, day by day they choose to stay because of their love for the church that baptized, nurtured and called them to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and to love their neighbor as they love themselves. Even while marginalized and rejected by their mother church they love her back. … God have mercy upon us!

When shall we United Methodists have the courage of Peter to stand and say that nothing that God has made is unclean? When shall we believe that the love of God is truly for all? When shall we learn to live in faith and humility before our God of love?

We call The United Methodist Church to repentance for its lack of love for all God’s children, and for its arrogance in believing that we establish the boundaries of God’s love.

Now, the timing of the Bishop’s letter was quite interesting! It came out on Tuesday of the second week. The night before, news was intentionally leaked that the Bishops were looking at a plan for schism. On Tuesday morning they denied it in a speech to the whole body and then in a press conference. Soon thereafter a motion was made on the floor requesting that the Bishops come up with a plan to find a way forward for the denomination given our disagreement about whether or not ALL people are really God’s people. (The opposition likes to say that we discuss “human sexuality.”) The motion from the floor was a very helpful way to make things happen without the Bishops’ claiming it was their idea.

The following day the Bishops came back with their proposal. That was the day we, the progressives, were ready to shut everything down. I suspect that would have resulted in mass arrest. As we waited to hear the Bishop’s plan and the body’s response to it, I took note of how calm we all were. We, the progressives, were gathered in a clump ready to “break the bar” and shut down the General Conference. We were in rainbow stoles (some short, some long), some of us were in collars. But the Peace of Christ was with all of us. We were ready to do God’s work. We held our breaths, and instead of arrests a Commission got created.

This was the Bishop’s proposal – the creation of a special Commission.¹² The Commission is to be named by the Council of Bishops, and rather than acting on ANY of the petitions about LGBTQI exclusion, they were all referred to the Commission. The Commission is to come up with a plan to move forward. It is possible that they might rewrite large portions of the Book of Discipline, for the better. More likely the Commission will come back letting the denomination know that we are not of one mind, and we cannot continue to function as we’ve functioned. What I don’t know is if there suggestion will be: a schism, a restructuring, or both. We also don’t know that General Conference will take their suggestions. That happens a lot that General Conference sends an idea to a special group and then refuses their suggestions when they’re returned.

This was a step to the side, rather than forward or backward. When it happened, it felt like a victory, because we KNEW that if those petitions got to the floor, it would have been a bloodbath. It was also a victory because the denomination was pushed to a breaking point, but it isn’t worth trusting quite yet that the breaking point will lead to greater inclusion or safety for God’s people.

The breaking point came not just after a bunch of people signed a bunch of letters (although those helped). Rather it came after months, years, and decades of faithful resistance and ecclesial disobedience. The breaking point was created intentionally. It came because of a long term progressive strategy. The “Biblical Obedience” movement named by Bishop Talbert 4 years ago whereby he instructed us to preside over same-sex marriages in the “regular course of our pastoral duties” was also a part of it. Faithful witnesses at General Conferences and Annual Conferences were a part of it. There were many components. The strategy has been “to increase pressure and tension on the institutional United Methodist Church. The purpose has been to force it to look clearly at the harm and ugliness and evil that it commits against LGBTQI persons. The purpose of that has been to force the Church to look at itself, to confront the ugliness of what it has, what it has made itself, what it does, until it can no longer tolerate what it is and must decide to be something else.”¹³

Pushing the church to a breaking point and the creation of the special Commission was a success of this strategy. So was the conservative push for schism at this General Conference. Apparently, the most conservative wing of The United Methodist Church is SICK AND TIRED of people who refuse to obey unjust laws (*shrugs). They don’t want to be in a denomination with LGBTQI clergy, they don’t want to be in a denomination where clergy perform same-sex marriages, and they don’t want to be in denomination where laity as well as clergy are willing to protest for the rights of all of God’s children. They want to leave. They want to split the denomination so that they can exit. They want to take their marbles and go home, even though they have the votes to win on the floor. The most conservative 10-15% of the denomination want to leave.

Many of us think that the Commission will bring forward a plan for schism. Going into General Conference I stood firmly against schism. When the news had been leaked about the Bishop’s plan for schism I was both horrified and relieved. Eventually I found I was a bit excited.

As progressive organizers, General Conference was horrible. The majority of the delegates were conservative. The odds were stacked against us, and despite our best work, a lot went very badly. Of particular note was the resolution that passed which removed the UMC from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice. There were also good petitions that did not pass, including: petitions to pull our retirement benefits out of the Palestinian occupation, petitions to pull our retirement benefits out of companies that profit from fossil fuels, petitions to end overly invasive medical forms for clergy, petitions to support “responsible parenthood”, and petitions to restructure the Church for equity.

As progressive organizers, terrible things almost happened, and we were able to help stop them. (Bad things happened, but we were usually able to stop the TERRIBLE things.) In one case we had a hand in stopping the creation of a $20,000,000 “slush fund.” Unfortunately, we were mostly unable to make good things happen. We WERE able to secure church’s support for the concerns of our racial/ethnic caucus partners, which was grand. We were able to maintain our stance as a pro-choice denomination. No horrible transphobic legislation got passed. Those are weak successes.

We did hard work, and we got very little for it. We lost, over and over and over again despite having done our work well. By the start of the second week, I was exhausted with fighting, and with losing. I am not interested in giving up on The United Methodist Church, but I’m also tired of being in a church that excludes God’s beloved people. The idea of spending the rest of my career working for this justice AND FAILING fills me with dread. Also, being in a denomination that has NO trust in each other is exhausting. At this point, as far as I’m concerned, if the most conservative faction wants to leave, and free the rest of us to be a healthy Body of Christ together, I have lost all interest in stopping them.

This is more than just about our denomination. It is the human condition. Sometimes things are too broken to be fixed. When there is no trust, there is not truly a shared Body. This is true of denominations and non-profits, of marriages and relationships, and even of friendships. Some things aren’t fixable. We are an Easter People, and we follow a God who can make a way out of no way. Sometimes though, the path of hope, love, and justice – that is the path of God – requires letting something die to make space for a different sort of life. Being an Easter people can mean letting God find the way forward to life, and letting go of defining how that that will happen. I don’t know yet if it is time for The United Methodist Church as it has been since 1968 to die, but I suspect it cannot live as it is.

Yet, for today I choose a scripture of gratitude. General Conference was not ONLY horrible. There were too many great people to reconnect with, to work with, and to get to know for it to be exclusively horrible. Being with the Love Your Neighbor Coalition meant spending a lot of time with amazing people who care about God’s justice and love. I am thankful to God every time I think of them, and I trust that the good work that has been done will not be lost but that God will find a way to complete it. I also trust that those who have been working on this progressive strategy for decades will not stop. It is the work that God has begun, and it isn’t stoppable.

As a whole, General Conference was about 20% as bad as I thought it would be. Where I expected to have NO hope at this point, I have some very hesitant considerations that maybe someday things might be OK. That’s a big change. 😉 I sort of hate it when the words of Paul ring true, he and I are still struggling with each other. Yet he puts words to where I am after this 2016 General Conference. These are my words for you, for those who play along at home, for my many partners in the Love Your Neighbor Coalition, and even for the church at large: “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best.” May it be so. Amen

1 http://lyncoalition.org/about/

2 http://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/call-to-declare-we-are/

3 http://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/calledout/

4 http://www.mindny.org/2016/05/more-than-1000-christian-moms-support-lgbtqi-clergy/

5 http://www.believeoutloud.com/latest/500-lgbtqi-christian-leaders-stand-solidarity-our-united-methodist-colleagues

6 http://www.ucc.org/open_letter_to_our_brothers_and_sisters_in_the_united_methodist_church_05142016

7 http://neym.org/sites/default/files/UMCepistle_5_2016_0.pdf

8 http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2016/05/17/13421849/STATEMENT-OF-SUPPORT-FOR-THE-UNITED-METHODIST-GENERAL-CONFERENCE.pdf

9 https://org.salsalabs.com/o/2507/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19747

10 http://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/over-1500-united-methodist-clergy-pledge-their-support-of-lgbtq-colleagues/

11 http://westernjurisdictionumc.org/a-pastoral-response-to-a-love-letter-to-our-church-from-lgbtqi-religious-leaders/

12 http://www.pnwumc.org/news/an-offering-for-a-way-forward-umcgc/