Conferences Hit High Notes with Elections, Reports

North Carolina Video on Sexual Harassment Stuns Viewers

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As the second week of June wound down, the trend toward younger, more progressive, more LGBTQ friendly delegate elections held among U.S. annual conferences.

In addition to electing one of its more progressive GC2020 delegations, North Carolina Conference drew lots of attention for approving a study on "how to do no more harm to LGBTQIA+," according to a Facebook post from Laurie Hays Coffman.

North Carolina also gained kudos and criticisms for its discomforting "Women in Ministry" video on Vimeo. Clergy men were recorded reading aloud from a collection of sexist remarks made to clergy women. While some social media comments pushed back, saying the remarks were common to women in all professions, supporters understood that sexism and sexual harassment are a particular problem within the church.

Another Southern conference, South Carolina, also broke from its traditionalist history. Check out this article on the Greenville News website: SC United Methodist Church clergy delegates become younger, more diverse, more pro-LGBTQ

Those radical New Englanders

While the New England Annual Conference ran true to its radical roots – after all, their ancestors gave us the American Revolution – the NEC made news by electing a three-person all-gay clergy delegation to GC2020, only one of whom is white.

One of the delegates, the Rev. Becca Girrell of Lebanon, NH, posted the accompanying photo on Facebook with these words: "Your #NEAC19 clergy delegates to GC 2020. Now 100% more queer. — with Effie McAvoy and Jay Williams."

Oregon-Idaho gets a glimpse of the future

Kristen Caldwell of the Oregon-Idaho Conference communications staff writes: "Annual Conference members got the sense that something new is being birthed from the brokenness caused by General Conference 2019, but what that baby will look like remains to be seen.

"At least, that’s how Rev. Jeannine Knepper phrased it during Thursday’s town hall discussion when different representatives gathered at the front of the plenary room to answer questions formed by different Table Talk groups and also included questions from the crowd." Read the full article.

Fashionista bishop

Bishop Elaine J.W. Stanovsky (Greater Northwest Area) turned United Methodist fashion up a notch at the Oregon-Idaho Conference when she wore one of the popular new "UMC Resistance" T-shirts to deliver her episcopal address. Kristen Caldwell quotes the bishop: “General Conference (2019) sought to chart this new way forward,” she said in her opening episcopal address. “But it may turn out to be a tipping point that tears us in two.” Read more.

Pacific Northwest legislates to resist

A few days before Oregon-Idaho's 2019 session, its sister conference Pacific Northwest met under the theme "Love Like This." PNW communicator Patrick Scriven writes: " ... the members of the 2019 Pacific Northwest Annual Conference (PNWAC) voted for a wave of petitions that denounce anti-LGBTQIA+ denominational regulations, celebrate queer lives, and set some of the tasks for how it will resist. In short, much of the legislation passed could be summarized by the petition that reads:

"RESOLVED, that the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference denounces the actions of GC2019 that inflicted emotional and spiritual harm on members of the LGBTQIA+ communities."  Read more.

Northern Illinois embraces the Sankofa

Michael J. Fox was nowhere in sight as the Northern Illinois Conference went "Back to the Future" for its 2019 session in a new location in Schaumberg, Ill. Instead, conference organizers chose a West African symbol – a mythical bird known as a Sankofa, originating in Ghana.

"The word 'sankofa' literally means: to go back and fetch it," says the Northern Illinois wrap-up report. "The egg in its mouth symbolizes that future of potential. 'We often have to go back to the place where we lost our way or our identity in order to regain/fetch who we have been at our best. Then we can go forward, knowing who we are,' said Bishop Sally Dyck in her episcopal address. “I think the Sankofa is a beautiful image of what our task is at this point in history as the UMC and the NIC. This is a perfect year for us as an annual conference to look back in order to fly forward.”

North Texas Bishop clarifies resolution

Dallas Area Bishop Michael McKee issued a statement this week clarifying the "One Church" resolution overwhelmingly adopted by the North Texas Annual Conference June 4. The resolution drew a request for the bishop to rule whether it violates the Book of Discipline's prohibition against annual conferences adopting policies contrary to those enacted by the General Conference.

Bishop McKee wrote: "The One Church Resolution as approved states, 'Therefore be it resolved that as a people of the North Texas Conference we aspire to behave as One Church Congregations and Conference. Be it further resolved that: we will pray for one another; we will allow for contextual ministry and pastoral care and not impede the work of others in ministry; we will seek to find common ground and actively be in ministry with people who are different from us; we will not speak ill of one another and we will model that all people are of sacred worth.'

"The key word in this resolution is 'aspire.' To aspire to something is to direct one’s hopes and actions today toward achieving something tomorrow. Passage of this resolution signals that the vast majority of lay and clergy members of the North Texas Annual Conference hope for and intend to work toward the day when the North Texas Conference and the wider United Methodist Church becomes a Church in which pastors and churches are granted the flexibility to reach their unique missional contexts. At the same time, they are afforded protections to not act contrary to their convictions. The affirmation of this resolution is a statement by the lay and clergy members of the North Texas Annual Conference that they desire space for traditionalists to continue to offer ministry as they have in the past, space for progressives to exercise a more complete ministry with LGBTQ persons, and space for all United Methodists to remain connected. This resolution is about what the North Texas Annual Conference hopes to become in the future." Read full text.

Media Mentions as of June 14, 2019

Local United Methodists voice support for LGBTQ members – KELOLAND TV, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

New England Methodists Look To Annual Meeting For Answers On Denomination's Future – The Public's Radio

Methodist church & LGBTQ Marriage – KIMT 3

This Is Why More Christians Now Support LGBTQ Relationships  – metrosource.com