God Is at Work in the 'Protocol'

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The surprise and furor attending the announcement of a new proposal for dividing The United Methodist Church over LGBTQ+ issues shouldn’t be unexpected. After all, when God’s Holy Spirit blows through human activity, surprise and furor are typical human responses (Acts 2).

The spiritual lens offers a perspective that hasn’t been tried so far in assessing “A Protocol for Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation.” I find this a deeply ironic omission, since a church is supposed to be primarily about spiritual matters. So let’s consider these spiritual earmarks:

  • The negotiators were brought together by someone outside the American-based dispute, namely Bishop John Yambasu of Sierra Leone. Not since the days when Angola’s Bishop Emilio de Carvalho drove the creation of Africa University has any African bishop exercised such persistence. Scripture is replete with stories of God calling someone that humans deem unlikely to accomplish a mission. (See Judges 6:11-16 for one example).
  • The negotiations were led by the United States’ – quite possibly, the world’s – most adept mediator, Washington attorney Kenneth Feinberg. Mr. Feinberg is a Jew with no vested interested in the future of The United Methodist Church other than his own religious devotion. Anybody remember the liberation of the Jews by Persian King Cyrus? (See 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, to name one reference).
  • The 16-person panel was brought together by faith. Say what you will about proponents of any side in the dispute over the UMC’s future, we must grant that at their most basic motivation, they care about what happens to Christ’s church.
  • The final result – the protocol that all of them signed – took place during an Advent atmosphere that one negotiator described as being suffused with “an ineffable Presence of God.” While some may discount such reports as being drunk in the morning (Acts 2 again), those with eyes to see and ears to hear will recognize divine influence. Perhaps if we talked of our spiritual encounters more often, we’d recognize them better.

Now myriad suspicions, criticisms, and rejections of the “Protocol” swirl around the church. To say the least, its creation was unorthodox. Its process doesn’t conform to the legislative procedures prescribed by the Book of Discipline and the rules of General Conference. It requires all sides to compromise. Yet we’ve been working the United Methodist adversarial political system for the past 48 years, and where has that gotten us?

Adding to its unusual pedigree, the 16-person “Protocol” negotiating team didn’t officially represent all the constituencies of The United Methodist Church. For example, although women were part of the team, they were far outnumbered by men. Nor was there an official representative from the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, nor the Clergywomen’s Caucus, nor United Methodist Women to name a few. Racial-ethnic caucuses also were left out of the talks until someone insisted that we must confront our historic systemic racism as much as, if not more than, our stances about sexual minorities based on divergent interpretations of scripture. Remember, there’s more money – $39 million – recommended to strengthen racial-ethnic churches than there is for a conservative offshoot – $25 million.

Finally, there’s the massive distrust across the global denomination. Conservatives don’t trust liberals nor do liberals conservatives. Africans and Filipinos now see that Americans often have manipulated them to gain General Conference votes for U.S.-based interests. Moderates no longer know who to trust. And yet …

Wonder of wonders! Despite all these past insurmountable obstacles, there’s now a proposal on the table that could well halt the UMC’s spiritual, emotional and financial bloodshed and give it new life.

Our pain and fear over the “Protocol” is understandable. We’re all “walking wounded” from the conflict of the past 48 years. I’ve been professionally observing this conflict for 32 of those 48 years, and I declare to you now: God is clearly at work in the “Protocol.” I – and others, no doubt – can see in this proposal God’s effort to overcome our human desires for power and vengeance in order to renew the worldwide UMC.

Given the way we’ve abused one another these past decades over what the Bible means about human sexuality, who gets to say so, and how we live by what we say, we frankly don’t deserve this opportunity. Despite my own trepidation, I find the “Protocol’s” process and content to be the ultimate Sign that God is at work in our midst, and here’s why.  Justice is getting what we deserve, which is what LGBTQ+ people and their allies have been seeking all these years. Mercy is not getting what we deserve, which is what traditionalists have been insisting on accountability to human rules in the face of inclusive visions.

However, grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and that’s what the “Protocol” offers: a clear path to a revitalized United Methodist Church that will organize its governance more equitably worldwide and halt the harm against LGBTQ+ people.

We can’t change the past; we have to let go of what has gone before. In the promise of new life, in the death of our life as it has been, I believe the “Protocol for Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation” shows that God is with us; we are not alone. Thanks be to God!

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.