Last Updated: Thursday, 14 March 2019 15:38

Published: Thursday, 14 March 2019 05:40

Western Methodist
Justice Movement

"A Home for All "
WJ Leadership Statement

At the 2019 Special Called Session of the General Conference, Rev. Donna Pritchard, chair of the Western Jurisdiction Leadership Team made this statement on behalf of Western Jurisdiction Leadership:

We have long appreciated the richness of the global diversity of our United Methodist Church and have embraced opportunities to join with you all in the work of making disciples for the transformation of the world.

We also understand the purpose of the Church to be in mission and ministry. Consequently, we in the West have been functioning for years as One Church committed to full inclusion, seeking to be a home for all God’s people.

Today we acknowledge the fracture of this body, yet we worship a God who tells us that the body of Christ has many parts, all equally valued. Rooted in Wesleyan tradition, grounded in Scripture and committed to mission and ministry, the Western Jurisdiction intends to continue to be one church, fully inclusive and open to all God’s children, across the theological and social spectrum.

We know from experience we are stronger when we live together as progressives, traditionalists, and centrists in our Church. Many times during this Conference we have sung or prayed or blessed each other with the reminder that we need each other.

We also know there are others who feel the same way today, so we invite you to be in dialogue with us as we move forward together into a future with hope.

May God continue to bless us for the sake of the world. Thank you.

"What was GC2019 like?" 
By Ben Roe

The venue where the Conference was held was intimidatingly vast. Imagine a football field surrounded by stands which can seat 82,624 people! Now imagine the field surrounded by a one-story wall, with the first level of spectators on top of that. The spectators were so far from the folks seated around 168 round tables on the main floor that without binoculars or a small telescope you couldn't see who was who in the possible 864 delegates from six continents, speaking over five languages.
It was a field and an arena designed for security: you entered the building through security stations with metal detectors, where all bags were inspected.

At the front of the meeting space was a very tall cloth curtain, dividing the space into a 60-yard main space and a 40-yard utility space (where translators were housed). The stage was set with multiple levels of chairs and tables where all the bishops were to sit. In front of them was the presider's table on one side and the musicians on the other, with a podium in the center.

There were giant video monitors which gave visibility to the delegates of who was speaking. The sound system was good, so everyone could be heard who spoke at microphones.

I am mobile in a scooter, and was surprised when volunteers at the venue on the first day didn't have a clue how to get me to the spectator's gallery. They later said they'd been asking for 3 days for those plans. That first day I was escorted on a circuitous route to an elevator which stopped on the right floor. After that, I decided to get a press credential (as an editor for WMJM communications and web site), and had a much easier time getting to the right place.

The task ahead of the bishops and delegates was to decide what to do about sexuality, and most specifically "homosexuality" (an out-moded term that science has rendered obsolete).

Just imagine a 864-member family dinner table discussing "homosexuality" with strongly held, diametrically-opposed opinions, each claiming the authority of God. And at the end of dinner, someone was going to win and someone was going to lose. That's the way Robert's Rules of Order is set up.

There were passionate speeches, many, many "points of order" which were supposed to keep watch over whether the rules were followed. Some were genuine, a few were more like speeches.

There were speeches pointing out the hypocrisy of singling out LGBTQI people when the scriptures speaking approvingly about polygamy (think King David) and against divorce and adultery are so much more clear. There were speeches saying we would be losing a whole generation of young people if the traditionalist plan passed. As well as a young adult who spoke for it.

By the end of the Conference, they had:

• adopted the flawed and at least partially unconstitutional Traditional(ist) Plan, 438-384 (53.28%);
• adopted a new and temporary way for churches to leave the denomination (which may be unconstitutional as well);
• adopted a timeline for GC2019 changes to be effective for Central Conferences: a year after 2020 GC;
• adopted recommendations to handle pensions for pastors and churches who leave the denomination;
• adopted a request for a declaratory decision by the Judicial Council on the constitutionality of the Traditional Plan. (UMNS Photo)

The Judicial Council meets April 23-26 and will decide how much of what passed was constitutional. If the Traditional(ist) Plan is taken as a whole, which is how the chair ruled it had to be, then it will be unconstitutional. If it is taken in pieces, the most discriminatory parts will be unconstitutional, because they single out one group for special, punitive handling. 
(Photos by Ben Roe)

  "I Am Not Defeated"
Jan Nelson - Delegate, Oregon-Idaho

I am disappointed and grieving. I am not shocked, although I had hoped for a very different outcome.

I am exhausted. It’s so good to be home. But it’s the kind of exhausted that comes from giving this session everything I had physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m grieved that it wasn’t enough.

I am puzzled. I expected what came from the usual conservative leaders. But I hoped for better from our siblings in the central conferences, and it didn’t happen. There are a few from Africa and the Philippines who are with us, but it seemed that all the relationship building and organizing we have done yielded little result this week. I am fearful for those few and will continue to pray for them. I will continue to contemplate the words I heard from a Filipino-American brother in one of our meetings: “The hardest thing to change is a colonized mind.” We need to learn how to support decolonization.

I am not defeated. The Spirit is moving in the Western Jurisdiction and in many other parts of the US church. Our sharing and worship after the session adjourned was not a time of mourning but of energy and hope. I believe that God is doing a new thing that includes or bishops and jurisdictional leaders, but it must energized by all of us. To be truly effective, it must become global. But let it begin with us.

Jan Nelson

"Antagonism in the Church Today"
Cynthia Tuell - Lay Member, California-Pacific Conference

            The Dome in St Louis once housed the Rams NFL team. It’s huge. As an observer up in the stands, I felt as though I were in outer space, looking down on the frail and troubled Earth below. I was surrounded by an amazing number of rainbows, but these heavenly signs of promise did not sway the voting earthlings on the floor. The rainbows were just stoles after all.

            My father, the always pragmatic, always hopeful Bishop Jack Tuell, believed that he would see the day when the offensive, restrictive language would be removed from the Book of Discipline. But the antagonism in our church today seems as fierce as that expressed at the terribly unChristian 2012 GC, my father’s last before his death.

            I inherited my father’s pragmatism but, I’m sorry to say, not his hopefulness. I don’t believe General Conference can heal the UMC. The votes for the Traditional Plan were there on the first day and held steady on the last. A whole day of praying, some silent, some musical, some exhorting, didn’t change minds. So much for prayer, as Bishop Willimon suggested in The Christian Century (https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/guest-post/methodist-mess-st-louis ). And it looks like the Wesley Covenant Association has decided to stay in the UMC for now (https://wesleyancovenant.org/ ). So we are status quo ante, only more viciously so.

            I don’t know the way forward. The church of Christ has survived many a schism. It’s not the worst idea, I do believe.

"Don't Push Us Out"
Richard Bentley - Reserve Clergy Delegate

I was a reserve clergy delegate of the California-Pacific annual conference. My delegation allowed me to be seated (special thanks to Cedrick Bridgeforth helping this happen), in hopes I could be recognized to speak. As happened to many, I was in the speaking queue but never recognized. Below is the speech I had hoped to make.

I bring you greetings from the people of the California-Pacific annual conference who worship in 15 languages every Sunday. And I bring you greetings from the Methodists who worship in 3 languages each Sunday on the grounds of St. Matthew’s UMC. As a pastor in a place where Methodists worship different languages each Sunday, I have learned how it is important to listen first if I would like someone to listen to me. As a member of the most racially and ethnically diverse annual conference in the United States, I have come to understand how vital it is to listen to others before asking them to listen to me.

For the last 10 years, I have had many opportunities to listen to United Methodists in Africa, the Philippines and Europe. I’ve traveled to Africa and the Philippines, met with United Methodists and listen. During the 2012 and 2016 General Conferences, I sought out people from the central conferences and listened. I was part of organizing, “Listening with Open Hearts” which was held last August. Listening with Open Hearts brought United Methodist leaders from Africa, the Philippines and Europe to Portland, Oregon so that United Methodists in the US could listen and learn. Over the last 10 years, I’ve learned about the tremendous need for education, caring for children who have been orphaned, the struggles of women, the impacts of Global Mining in DRC, the Philippines and other places, the need for peacemaking and helping refugees, human rights work, the challenges of having free and fair elections, . . . .  And I’ve learned how we as the church can be stronger when we work together globally .

Sometimes it has been challenging to listen, especially to new or unfamiliar viewpoints. But I’ve learned to use the Galatians 5:22-23 test. In Galatians, the early church was struggling with whether scripture required all Christians to be circumcised. Paul’s response was no, despite what the scriptures said circumcision was not required. And then in Galatians 5:22-23 says to test where God is present in the midst of challenging changes by looking for the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And so, I’ve learned in the midst of new and different ways of doing things to look for the fruits of the spirit. Where the fruits  of the spirit are present, Jesus and the love of Christ are present too.

I hope you can listen to me now as one who has listened to many – including a number who are delegates here today. And I invite you to listen using Galatians 5:22-23 to guide your listening. I am a pastor and life-long United Methodist. I do not plan on leaving The United Methodist Church. But the Traditional Plan as written would push me out of The United Methodist Church.  It would require me to affirm statements to which I cannot and will not agree. It would then seek to push me out -- using chargeable offenses if necessary-- to involuntarily exit me from The United Methodist Church. So, if you vote for the Traditional plan, you are voting to push me out of the United Methodist Church. I have a daughter Hope who is in her first year serving under appointment as a United Methodist minister. When I talked with her last night, she said “Yes Dad, you can tell people I cannot and will not sign this statement.” So if you vote for the Traditional Plan, you are to push a young United Methodist minister out of our church. Likewise, my sister-in-law Becky is a United Methodist minister who you would also be voting to push out of The United Methodist Church.

I spoke with my bishop last night. I asked him if I could say that if you vote for the Traditional Plan, you are voting to push California-Pacific annual conference, the most ethnically and racially diverse annual conference in the US, out of the UMC. He said, yes can say that you are voting to push Cal-Pac out. He went on to say that you could say not just be pushing Cal-Pac out, but the entire Western Jurisdiction. So if you are part of Cal-Pac or the Western Jurisdiction I invite you to stand so the General Conference can see the people it is voting on whether or not to push out. And regardless of where you live or serve, if the Traditional Plan would push you out, I invite you to stand. If you are connected with folks who would be forces to leave, I invite you to stand. If the passage of the Traditional Plan would harm you or those you love, I invite you to stand.

Look around. See all the people who would be harmed by the passage of the Traditional Plan. If you are thinking of pushing the yes button to push those who are standing out, I invite you to look them in the eye so you can really see the people – United Methodists filled with the fruits of the spirt – who you are voting to push out. Look and acknowledge the relationships which you are voting to brake.

If you are uncomfortable ending all these relationships and pushing out all the people who are standing, perhaps it is the spirit inviting you to step back. Perhaps the spirit is inviting you to push button 2 to vote “No.” Or perhaps the spirit is inviting you to live out John Wesley’s first general rule -- which is to do no harm -- by abstaining. Look at the harm you would cause to faithful United Methodists who are standing with me. And let the spirit and its fruit be your guide.

Western Jurisdiction UMC Bishops Video Statement Script

by Western Jurisdiction UMC 

http://westernjurisdictionumc.org/western-jurisdiction-umc-bishops-video-statement-script/

 
“God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”  1 Corinthians 12:24b-26 NRSV
 
To the LGBTQI people
We acknowledge the harm inflicted during this Special Session of General Conference, especially towards our LGBTQI siblings. Once again, General Conference has turned you into an issue instead of recognizing how essential you are to the body; we have talked about you, rather than with you. You are precious children of God, and you help us all see a fuller glimpse of the face of God. We have not deserted you. We see you. We stand in solidarity with you.
 
To United Methodists in our Ministries in the West
Throughout the spring we will hold informational and listening sessions across our conferences to discuss the outcomes of General Conference and the future of ministry in the Western Jurisdiction.
 
We implore you to take part in these conversations with open minds and prayerful hearts so that the Spirit might guide us all towards whatever comes next.
 
Our Jurisdictional has often led the United Methodist Church in crossing boundaries of inclusion.  It elected the first Asian-American bishop, the first African American woman bishop, the first Hispanic American woman bishop, the first out gay bishop. A bishop in the West was the first to appoint an out gay clergy person.  We have helped to lead the Church into border ministries, refugee and immigrant ministries, and ministries that move outside church buildings into communities.  
 
We are committed to full inclusion of all God’s children in the body; we will not cut off a part of the body, nor ask it to carry the cross of exclusion for the church any longer. Our commitment to diversity is deeply rooted in Scripture, and our Wesleyan tradition. We are committed to be a courageous church in mission and ministry including with our ethnic and marginalized communities. We prioritize this work because Jesus prioritized this work in his life and ministry.
 
To theological traditionalists
The Western Jurisdiction has grown to understand diversity in its many forms, not as something to be merely tolerated, but as Christ’s gift that enriches our something that enhances our common life as disciples of Jesus Christ.  We are committed to “making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 3)
 
We do not want to be separated from you, but rather we would choose to remain in one Church as we continue to strive to become one body in the one Spirit (Ephesians 4: 4).
 
To colleagues across the church, who aren’t sure where they belong
We will continue to be a home for all God’s people, gathered around a table of reconciliation and transformation. We are not going anywhere. We are eager to be in conversation with others across the church who are similarly committed to offering a home for all God’s Children.
 
We have committed ourselves to working in coalition with others to find a way to live our faith with integrity in the wake of the recent devastating General Conference. 
The Leadership of the Western Jurisdiction is set to meet in two weeks. Between now and then, we will continue to pray, listen, and discern where the Spirit is leading.
 
Visit westernjurisdictionumc.org to join us in the dialogue, the search and the invitation as we continue to move forward to embrace the life abundant God has intended for each of us.
 

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  The Western Methodist Justice Movement (WMJM) is a movement of United Methodists in the annual conferences of the Western Jurisdiction who are committed to carry out the prophetic statements and actions of the Western Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church. Our work focuses on diverse action areas, including: increasing the inclusiveness and justice focus of churches, planning ministries to fully include GLBT persons, immigration justice, reproductive justice, justice in the Philippines, education and advocacy for justice in Israel-Palestine, planning extravagant hospitality in our churches, and addressing the worldwide nature and future of the UMC. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 

Copyright © 2019 Western Methodist Justice Movement, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

Western Methodist Justice Movement
c/o Frank Wulf
1226 N Alvarado St
Los Angeles, CA CA90026-3127