
NYAC Protesters
Demonstrators from the New York Annual Conference protest at the 2016 General Conference. Photo Courtesy of With Us, Not About Us.
As the U.S. annual conference season swung into high gear, many United Methodists turned their eyes toward the New York Annual Conference, where members were poised during its June 7-10 session for the possibility of electing an all-LGBTQI delegation to the special 2019 General Conference.
The New York Conference approved a 2017 resolution that reads in part: “Resolved, that the conference urge its members to cast their votes for the 2019 General Conference delegation in such a way as to constitute a majority-LGBTQI delegation that reflects the full diversity of LGBTQI communities as well as the diversity of NYAC, so that LGBTQI people can have the genuine ability to shape the delegation’s positions and presence at the special General Conference.”
Toward that end, a group called “With us, not about us" presented a slate of LGBTQI lay and clergy and LGBTQ allies as candidates for election as 2019 General Conference delegates. Balloting will take place the evening of Saturday, June 9, according to the conference agenda.
According to the “With us, not about us” website, the slate of candidates recommended by the ad hoc group emphasizes not only sexual orientation but also the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of the conference based in White Plains, N.Y. outside New York City. The conference also takes in a portion of southwestern Connecticut. The group also requested that those who benefit from white privilege and heterosexual privilege “lay aside their power” in order for the New York Conference to create a highly diverse, LGBTQI-representative delegation.
The candidates recommended by the ad hoc group include:
LGBTQI Laity
Jorge Lockward, born and raised in the Dominican Republic, has been a member of the New York Annual Conference since 1989. He currently works as Minister of Worship Arts at Church of the Village UMC.
Dr. Dorothee Benz, a Methodist since immigrating to the U.S. with her family in 1968. She was a delegate to the 2016 General Conference, where she helped lead the effort, on and off the floor, that led to the suspension of further anti-LGBTQI legislation, the creation of the Commission on the Way Forward, and the call for the 2019 special General Conference.
Karen G. Prudente, a third-generation Filipino United Methodist and a member of Christ Church NY since 1972.
Quishaun D. Hill, a member of New Day Church in the Bronx, where he serves as co-director of the Worship Arts Ministry, and is an employee of the United Methodist Church of the Village.
Ann Craig, a lifelong United Methodist. She served as a US-2 Home Missionary in Virginia after attending Nebraska Wesleyan and is a graduate of Yale Divinity School.
LGBTQI Lay Allies
Tiffany French-Goffe, a lifelong United Methodist and a first-generation American, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants.
Fred Brewington, a delegate to the last four General Conferences. He currently serves on the General Church Connectional Table and the Standing Committee on Central Conferences Matters.
Daisy Tavarez, an active United Methodist all her adult life. She attended City College and Manhattan Community College and worked in the financial industry for over twenty years.
LGBTQI Clergy Candidates
Rev. Kristina Hansen, a second-career clergy. Since leaving a successful corporate career to answer a call to ministry, she has served churches in four of the conference’s six districts.
Rev. Alex Da Silva Souto describes himself as a person of the “in-between space” since his childhood in Brazil. He’s lived in Japan and San Francisco, where he served as a lay leader in the California/Nevada Annual Conference, before joining NYAC while at Yale Divinity School. He is a co-founder of the United Methodist Queer Clergy Caucus.
Rev. Martha E. Vink, born and raised in the New York Conference, has participated in the life of the denomination at every level, from local church involvement through terms on district, conference, jurisdictional, and national committees.
Rev. Dr. Sara Thompson Tweedy won the Henry Hallam Tweedy Prize [no relation] for "exceptional promise for pastoral leadership" from Yale Divinity School and followed in her mother's and uncle’s footsteps as a United Methodist minister.
LGBTQI Clergy Allies
Rev. Vicki Flippin was baptized into the Taiwan Methodist Church, the daughter of a Chinese naval veteran and a Women's Division missionary. Vicki serves today as the Co-President of the national board of Methodist Federation for Social Action, where she works to dismantle racism within the white progressive UMC
Rev. Sheila M. Beckford, a cradle Methodist, is an elder in the New York Annual Conference. Her deep roots in the life of the conference go back to her bake sales at Newman Memorial as a child.
Rev. Wongee Joh responded to her call into ministry as a Korean-American woman after she understood that things needed to be different for her daughters. “Inequities do not only harm those being discriminated against – they harm us all,” her bio reads.
Rev. Paul Fleck attended the 2008 General Conference as a reserve lay delegate from New England and the 2012 GC as a volunteer for the Love Your Neighbor Coalition.
United Methodist Insight was unable to find a list of other candidates for the New York Conference’s 2019 delegation on deadline, but will continue looking. Anyone with information on other General Conference candidates for the 2019 session can click here to email us.
The New York Annual Conference previously has been an advocate for full inclusion of LGBTQI people in the United Methodist Church. Along with Northern Illinois Annual Conference, New York's Board of Ordained Ministry previously declared hat it would not consider sexual orientation among qualifications for ordination. The conference was overruled by the Judicial Council, which declared that all clergy qualifications listed in the Book of Discipline must be considered in evaluating clergy candidates.
Click here to watch proceedings of the New York Annual Conference via livestream.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.