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Insight Photo by Cynthia B. Astle
What's Next Panel
Members of the "what's next?" panel at the Uniting Methodists Movement conference listen to a comment by Neil M. Alexander. On the panel are (from left) the Rev. Tom Berlin, the Rev. Jasmine Smothers, Helen Ryde, Mr. Alexander and moderator, the Rev. Rachel Baughman.
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Insight Photo by Cynthia B. Astle
David Field
ATLANTA – Dr. David N. Field, a member of the Commission on A Way Forward, speaks during his second keynote presentation at the Uniting Methodists Movement conference Nov. 14.
ATLANTA – “Hope and hard conversations” might best describe the response of some 260 clergy and laypeople who, either in person or online, attended the Nov. 13-14 conference of a newly formed group called the Uniting Methodists Movement.
In a handout given to participants at the conference’s start, the group explained its purpose: “The Uniting Methodists movement was formed to give voice to … faithful United Methodists and to speak up to urge the church not to divide over disagreements about same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ persons. Instead, the movement will find ways to allow all people (whether they see themselves as centrists, progressives, or traditionalists) to remain in one church, engaging one another in earnest ongoing discernment while making room for their differing convictions of conscience.”
The introduction ended on an ominous note: “In the absence of such a strong voice for mutual respect of differences, we believe a major division is likely.”
That dark cloud from the introduction was quickly dispelled by the conference’s main speakers, three of the 32 members of the Commission on A Way Forward:
- Dr. David N. Field, director of the United Methodist E-Academy in Europe and author of the book “Bid Our Jarring Conflicts Cease,” who was the keynote speaker.
- The Rev. Tom Berlin, lead pastor of Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Va.;
- The Rev. Jasmine Smothers, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Atlanta; and
Rev. Berlin, Rev. Smothers and panelist Neil Alexander, publisher emeritus of the United Methodist Publishing House, are also part of the leadership team of the Uniting Methodists Movement.
Rev. Smothers energized the conference with her passionate opening sermon, preaching from Mark 2:1-12, in which a paralyzed man is carried by four friends to see Jesus. In Mark’s gospel, the four friends break through the roof of a home to get their friend past the crowd blocking the path to Jesus.
At the conclusion of her sermon, Rev. Smothers left the stage of Impact Church and invited those who would be “friends” to take her to see Jesus. After some half-dozen people walked behind her through participants seated at round tables, Rev. Smothers turned to them and said, “Now how are you going to get me through that roof?” After a minute of awkward silence, three women grabbed a chair and carried it to where Rev. Smothers stood. They sat her down in the chair, and then they and others lifted Rev. Smothers in the chair back onto the stage.
'Threw out all the crap"
“The status quo [of constant fighting over LGBTQ stances] has made the church invisible and unusable,” Rev. Smothers said as she ended her sermon. “His friends threw out all the crap that stood between the paralyzed man and Jesus. Church, go out and find a mat!”
The symbolism of the innovative response to Rev. Smothers' challenge shaped the conference thereafter. Speakers consistently emphasized that in order to overcome United Methodism’s currently fractious state, conference participants must be willing to gather their courage and act in new and unsettling ways.
Among those unsettling ways will be developing conversations and relationships with those who hold opposing opinions on human sexuality, said Dr. Field, whose two hour-long presentations plumbed John Wesley’s sermons for guidance to today’s conflicts. The scholar asserted that Wesley abhorred the thought of schism, calling it a sin against God’s love.
“Who do you think is causing the most trouble in the United Methodist Church today?” Dr. Field asked. “That’s the person that God is calling you and me to love! The tremendous advantage we have as an international church is to learn how to love each other from different contexts.”
Some of the first steps toward unity will be to develop mutual respect for the sincerity of one another’s convictions, and mutual respect for each other’s freedom of conscience before God, Dr. Field said. In his second talk, he underscored his point by saying that the Book of Discipline is holding back United Methodist unity, because it is full of rules and restrictions that leave no room for following one’s conscience, a value that Wesley held in high esteem.
While Dr. Field’s talks built the historical and theological structure for keeping the denomination together, most people said the highlight of the conference was a “What’s Next?” panel discussion featuring three of the four Way Forward commissioners – Rev. Berlin, Rev. Smothers and Mr. Alexander – plus a last-minute addition: Helen Ryde, Southeastern Jurisdiction coordinator for Reconciling Ministries Network.
Ms. Ryde told United Methodist Insight later that she was asked to join the panel after she commented during an earlier session about how the church’s stance on the “incompatibility” of homosexual practice is harming people.
Rev. Berlin, Rev. Smothers and Mr. Alexander spoke at length about the initial difficulties the Way Forward Commission had in communicating with one another. At one point in an early meeting, the group stopped its proceedings and devoted an afternoon simply to developing a glossary so that members would have common definitions of words, phrases and concepts.
'Stop talking like colonizers'
Rev. Berlin also pointed out that commission members from the Central Conferences – those regions of the church beyond the United States of America – helped the American commissioners recognize their U.S. bias. “They told us to stop talking like colonizers,” he said.
Eventually, said the commissioners, their discussion coalesced on the ideas that mission, vision, scope, and contextuality are the values most likely to move The United Methodist Church past it current impasse over human sexuality. Rev. Berlin said that “mission” and “contextuality” have made the greatest impact on the commission’s conversations, causing members to recommend three options to the Council of Bishops for consideration. In a recent press release, the Council reported those options as:
Option 1: Retain the current “incompatible” language and strictly enforce the Book of Discipline’s bans against same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ordination. “Make no mistake, Option 1 would tighten the rules,” Rev. Berlin said. “In this option, if you do a same-sex marriage, you’re out.”
Option 2: Loosen the language, giving annual conferences and local congregations the options to choose, as matters of conscience, whether to ordain LGBTQ people and perform same-sex marriage. “The vast majority of United Methodists are ‘compatibilists,’ said Rev. Berlin, meaning that they see LGBTQ sexuality as “compatible” with Christian faith.
Option 3: As the bishops’ release puts it: “A third sketch of a model is grounded in a unified core that includes shared doctrine and services and one Council of Bishops, while also creating different branches that have clearly defined values such as accountability, contextualization and justice.” Rev. Smothers termed this option, centered on mission, as “a new way of doing church.”
The conference broke up into small group sessions twice, first to have some of the “hard conversations” among people of differing opinions, and then to discuss ways to bring home the information and discussions from the conference. Among the online and printed resources offered was a new line of books from Cokesbury called “Faultlines” that are intended to aid such discussions at annual conferences and local congregations.
Concern, inspiration, hope
Several participants interviewed by United Methodist Insight during the conference gave similar reactions:
- Concern that conversations from the conference wouldn’t translate into action elsewhere. “You know we’ll talk something to death before we act,” said one participant who asked not to be named.
- Inspiration that small group conversations took place without recriminations about participants’ respective views on human sexuality. “We had those hard conversations, but we stayed with it,” another participant said.
- Hope for United Methodist unity that wouldn’t require uniformity, but would allow clergy and laypeople to minister in their respective settings.
“My intention was that queer voices would be heard,” said the Rev. Alex Soto, a leader in the United Methodist Queer Clergy Caucus. “We presented [to the Uniting Methodists’ leadership] our hope that this movement would represent the LGBTQ people in the church. So far, I feel very welcomed, and I’m feeling hopeful.”
“I’m glad to be here,” said Helen Ryde of Reconciling Ministries Network. “I seek to stay in conversation with everyone as long as they’re willing to sit around the table. If more of us were a little braver, the conversation would go on a lot longer, and people would say what’s on their hearts about inclusion.”
The Rev. Jack Knoespel, a recently retired clergyman in the Blue Ridge District of the Western North Carolina Conference, said he liked the process and resources presented at the conference.
“My mind always connects back to ‘how can I use this in a church setting?’” he told Insight. “I think the last set of questions and issues that [David Field] brought up would be outstanding to use in a church leadership planning setting. [Questions like] What is our public face? Are we poised to act in justice, mercy and truth? We can talk a lot about that!”
Rev. Knoespel said that the “numbers, the enthusiasm, the incredible leadership of the folks of the Way Forward commission that committed to stay together through everything” gave him hope for the church.
The Rev. Kent Ingram, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., told Insight that he thought the conference was “good, necessary and just a little daunting.”
“It’s exciting to see this vision of people who want to hold the church together,” he said. “The depth of people who want to stay together is more than I thought it was. That’s encouraging. Now we have to think about how we’re going to make this happen.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story listed Neil Alexander as a Way Forward commisioner. He is part of the Uniting Methodists leadership team.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.