The purpose of the blog today is to bring you up to speed as much as I can about the tension in the United Methodist Church over human sexuality. If any of you have corrections or anything to add, please help me get it right.
Annual conference is a yearly meeting of your Methodist group. Missouri has an annual conference. Florida has one. Etc. Then there is what is called General Conference which meets every 4 years. It is the world wide gathering of Methodists and it alone speaks for the church.
I went to my first Annual conference in Tulsa in 1982. I have been every year since except for one. At that conference in 1982 and at every General Conf since, the issue of Homosexuality has come up. The current stance of the UMC is that "homosexuality is not compatible with Christian teaching." We are not allowed as clergy to perform same sex marriages and our buildings are not allowed to be used for them. Many clergy and congregations around the country ignore these Methodist laws.
Just as the country is divided, the church is divided over these issues. As a general rule, the northeast and the northwest are more liberal or progressive and as a general rule the south and the African Methodists are more traditional. That is a generalization of course.
The tension between these groups came to a head at the 2016 General Conf in Portland. At that conference, it was decided that the Bishops would come up with a plan to resolve this. The Bishops appointed a group of people to a commission called "The Way Forward." After some months of meeting, the Way Forward group came up with three proposals. You can read about them here.
click here to read about the three plans
In my opinion, many church leaders are speaking with naive optimism that the church will stay together. My Missouri Bishop Robert Farr gave a wonderful talk at annual conference and he is concerned that we may lose 1/3 of our churches. I am concerned too. I do not think that any of the proposals will satisfy the traditional group, except the traditional plan. I fear that we will be facing
some difficult days ahead as a denomination.
Here is an illustration of how polarized the situation is: Rev. Rob Renfroe is the president of Good News, an unofficial advocacy group that seeks to strengthen enforcement of church laws on homosexuality. [keep and enforce the ban] At a luncheon with likeminded United Methodists in the Texas Conference, He urged liberal/progressive Bishops to “Admit you no longer have the moral authority to lead this church,” he said. “And if you want to lead others out to something other than The United Methodist Church, we will bless you as you go.”
The report of The Way Forward commission will be voted on at a special general conference to be held in February in St. Louis. I was going to go to this meeting, but I understand that it is closed.
I wish that we could all just get along and love each other, but it isn't looking promising.
However, it is still a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
Send replies to jsbrink57@gmail.com
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I am leading some trips this year and next. If you are interested in reading about them, or joining in, the links are below.....
4 Night cruise from Port Canaveral to Key West and Havana, Cuba.
August 13-17, 2018
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/cc18081318h17768#eotours
Wesley's Ireland with optional London Extension
October 8-17, 2018
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/wesley-in-ireland-2018-with-rev-jeff-brinkman#.WqHrI7puLIU
Holy Land Tour - includes my favorite spots
with optional Jerusalem extension
March 4-13, 2019
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/hl19030419g17768#.Wt84h7lRHcs
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