Mainstream UMC Panel
Mainstream UMC panelists for the organization's General Conference wrap-up event were (from left) Barry Dundas, Jim Giles, Mark Holland (standing), Bishop David Wilson, Jesi Lipp and David Livingston. (Great Plains Conference Photo by David Burke).
Great Plains Conference | May 16, 2024
OLATHE, Kansas – Mainstream UMC celebrated advancements at General Conference and looked ahead to the work that remains during annual conferences across the country.
The wrap-up took place May 14 at Olathe Grace UMC and was livestreamed.
Mainstream UMC Exec Speaks
Rev. Dr. Mark Holland talks about Mainstream UMC's work leading to the General Conference. (Great Plains Conference Photo by David Burke)
“We have come full circle in many ways,” Rev. Dr. Mark Holland, co-founder and executive director of the group, told about 150 people in the church sanctuary.
Although Mainstream UMC was founded in 2018 to lobby for the One Church Plan, it adjusted its focus to push for regionalization and removing restrictive language from the Book of Discipline, both of which overwhelmingly passed on the General Conference floor.
The restrictive language against “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” had been in the Discipline since 1984.
“The good news is it’s all gone,” Holland said, “And the bad news is it was there for 40 years and the legacy took its toll.”
Holland said he was grateful that Mainstream could work with the Reconciling Ministries Network, founded 40 years ago, and Methodists For Social Action, which began work in 1907.
“It was a team effort of everybody pulling in the same direction,” he said.
Jim Giles, a longtime friend of Holland’s since both were in the former Kansas East Conference Council on Youth Ministries, said he came out his sophomore year of college and didn’t feel welcome by his former church, Olathe First UMC, at the time and had separated himself from the denomination.
“There was no place at the table,” he said. “The person they nurtured wasn’t welcome.”
Queer Delegate Caucus
Jesi Lipp talks about the Queer Delegate Caucus. (Great Plains Conference Photo by David Burke)
The vote from General Conference, he said, left him with “unexpected emotions, lots of tears.”
Jesi Lipp, the only openly queer member of the Great Plains Conference delegation, said that they never had a question about their place in the church.
Lipp was among the steering committee for the inaugural United Methodist Queer Delegate Caucus, which included 33 seated delegates in Charlotte, North Carolina, and another 75 jurisdictional delegates and alternates.
“This year we had queer folks, not hiding the fact they were queer, elected to committee leadership,” said Lipp, who was elected secretary of the independent commissions committee.
However, “we are not there yet,” they added. Lipp said the queer voice of The United Methodist Church need representation similar to the General Commission on Religion & Race and the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Rev. David Livingston, vice president of Mainstream UMC and a clergy delegate, said he was surprised by the 78% “landslide” vote from General Conference to approve regionalization – two-thirds was needed for it to pass.
Putting regionalization into effect will need an aggregate two-thirds votes of members of annual conferences, which Livingston expects to take place in the next year and a half.
Regionalization is already in effect everywhere but the United States, he said, and is similar to the American legislative structure of various levels of governance.
Rev. Barry Dundas, senior pastor of Olathe Grace, said he could already feel the effects of the restrictive language removal at the local church level.
“In two weeks this year, everything feels like it’s changed,” he said. “For the first time in a long time, I have hope we can live out our calling and say all have a place here.”
Bishop David Wilson praised the Great Plains delegation, calling them the “movers and shakers” of General Conference.
“They knew what was going on and were making a huge difference,” he said. “The Great Plains was very present at that place.”
A possible special session of the General Conference in 2026, which would be called by the Council of Bishops to “sort through the ramifications and conversations about our future” is “not a done deal yet,” he said.
In a Q&A session, Livingston, pastor of Fairway Old Mission UMC, said discussions have begun for a reinstatement process for those who turned in their credentials or were told to leave the church because of conflicts with their sexuality.
“Be patient as that gets developed and put into place,” he said.
Nanette Roberts
Rev. Dr. Nanette Roberts talks about the reason for her early retirement. (Great Plains Photo by David Burke)
Opening the wrap-up, Holland recalled the founding of Mainstream UMC, where he and Rev. Dr. Nanette Roberts, Olathe Grace senior pastor at the time, developed the group over lunch after not finding a national organization that fit their needs.
“We had no dollars and no cents in the bank,” he said, “And not much sense between us.”
Before giving the closing benediction, Roberts asked the audience to remember LGBTQ clergy of the past.
“Their lives and their ministries made a difference and we are grateful,” she said.
Roberts served 38-½ years in ministry, the last 20 at Olathe Grace. She told the Mainstream gathering she retired early in the appointive year, at the end of 2022, so she could marry another woman.
“You didn’t know, but you did know you didn’t know,” Roberts said of her sexuality.
“The reason I was successful is I love God, love Jesus and love people in the church more than anything,” she said. “I couldn’t go one more time (to General Conference) and be talked about as an issue.”
David Burke
David Burke is a content specialist for Great Plains Annual Conference Communications. This article is republished with permission from the conference website. Please email David Burke for permission to reproduce this content elsewhere.