May We Never See Another Day Like It

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Please God, may we never see another day like yesterday (July 19).  At the meeting of the South Central Jurisdiction we voted to affirm the decision of our episcopacy committee to call for the involuntary retirement of one of our Bishops. We must have accountability, but no jurisdiction, no episcopacy committee, no conference, no Bishop, and no Bishop’s family, should ever have to go through what we went through.

We tried yesterday and over recent days to make the best of a terrible situation. Even so, let’s don’t fool ourselves; this has been a bloody mess. We are now deeply wounded as a jurisdiction, and we will be carrying wounds and then scars for years to come.  

What can we do to bring some healing and to help this never happen again?  I can think of four things right off.  

We need to fix The United Methodist Book of Discipline. There is not a person on our episcopacy committee or among our episcopate who would say that the process in the Book of Discipline could not be clarified and improved.  Our jurisdiction specializes in reform legislation; writing, supporting and passing reform legislation is our hobby and our calling.  Other jurisdictions can help us.  We must have a way to hold Bishops and other clergy accountable, but we, as a church, can find a better way.  Let’s get to work.  

We need to talk more to each other, even — and especially — when it is hard.  The very best way to encourage accountability is person to person.  If a Bishop is struggling with effectiveness, other Bishops need to pay him or her a visit.  The same holds true for other elders and for deacons. Before we ever reach the stage of these formal processes of accountability, we need to have talked honestly with other. Yes, many have already been doing this, but we can do it more and better.  Let’s keep telling one another the truth, even – and especially – when it’s hard.

We need to talk about race. Please, please hear me, I am not at all saying that the decision of the episcopacy committee was racist or that race was at the heart of things, but if race were not already an issue in the larger context of our church, this would not have been nearly so brutal. It’s nigh on impossible to look, for example, at our patterns of appointment and say that race isn’t still an issue for our jurisdiction and others. Our dynamic young Anglo pastors and our dynamic young African-American pastors simply do not have the same opportunities. We have to talk about race.  When I have floated this idea, some African American brothers and sisters have told me “White people don’t want to talk about race.” Of course, we don’t … but we have to. United Methodist leaders, of whatever culture or ethnicity, have a long tradition of carrying the Good News of Jesus Christ into places of pain.  That’s where the Gospel is needed.  Let’s talk about race in all its complexity.

Finally, we all need to repent. I’m not blaming anybody in particular . . . I’m blaming everybody.  In one way or another, we are all complicit.  This is one of my least favorite parts of the Gospel, and it’s the part I most need to hear.  In this part of our life and most others, we need to repent and throw ourselves on the mercy of a God. We cannot heal this, but there is a balm in Gilead . . . a balm that is healing enough even for the deep wounds we now bear.  Let’s fall to our knees before a merciful God . . . and then let’s get up and get back to work.  

The Rev. Rebekah Miles was a clergy delegate from the Arkansas Annual Conference to the South Central Jurisdiction.