Group of Bishops Calling for ‘Deeper Conversations’

November 18, 2019

3:49 PM

Deeper Conversations

Eight bishops sign statement calling for “vibrant and missionally effective Wesleyan movement.” (Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.)

Eight United Methodist bishops are calling for a new form of unity amid differences over human sexuality that seem to be pushing The United Methodist Church toward a split.

Bishops Scott J. Jones, Eduard Khegay, Michael Lowry and Mark J. Webb, along with retired Bishops Lindsey Davis, Alfred W. Gwinn Jr., Robert E. Hayes Jr. and Young Jin Cho, signed a statement and offered it to the church calling for “deeper conversations regarding new expressions of Methodist witness.” They asked United Methodists who agree with the statement to sign it.

“It is time to be honest about our current reality,” reads the statement. “The events since the adjournment of the Special Session of General Conference illustrate how deep our division is. Sadly, even greater discord, chaos and fighting loom on the horizon at the 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis.”

Legislation passed by the 2019 General Conference maintains the church stance, which dates to 1972, that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” That legislation, known as the Traditional Plan, strengthened church bans against ordination of "self-avowed practicing" gay clergy and same-sex unions.

The new legislation goes into effect Jan. 1 in the U.S. and a year after the 2020 General Conference in church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines.

“We need to get out of this win/lose dynamic and get to a point where we look at a new form or organization that has multiple branches or streams,” said Lowry, who leads the Central Texas Conference. “There are differences among the eight of us who signed so I am not speaking for them. I hope for a new form of unity.”

Signers of the “Deeper Conversations UMC” said the recent call and commitment by some for a moratorium on all complaints related to LGBTQ clergy and clergy performing same-gender weddings without a call on actions that violate the denomination’s Book of Discipline is a sign of brokenness.

Florida Area Bishop Kenneth H. Carter, whose tenure as Council of Bishops president is nearing an end, suggested a moratorium on church trials related to LGBTQ individuals, while at the same time calling for loosening the denomination’s trust clause to allow congregations to leave with property. And the Western Jurisdiction’s five active bishops promised to provide “a safe harbor” for LGBTQ clergy.

Upper New York Conference Bishop Mark J. Webb wrote a letter to his conference about the statement from the eight bishops.

“I will continue to carry out the sacred vow I made when I was ordained an elder and consecrated a Bishop to faithfully administer The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. I will live out this responsibility with as much grace, compassion, fairness, and integrity as I possibly can,” Webb said in the letter.

“I will not ignore complaints of any nature that come to me and will process them as outlined in The Book of Discipline which seeks to do all possible in achieving a just resolution.”

Conversations by various groups such as UMCNext, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, UM-Forward and others were offered up as good work that could bring about new forms of ministry.

“It is time to bless, support and free one another to be the church we feel God calls us to be,” reads the statement.

The bishops released their statement after the Council of Bishops held their autumn meeting Nov. 3-6 at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in North Carolina.

Arkansas Conference Bishop Gary E. Mueller, in a letter to the conference, also stated he would uphold his sacred vow to faithfully follow the Book of Discipline. He, too, called for people to be open to multiple new expressions of Methodism.

“It hurts my heart that in my 41st year of full-time ministry the church which awakened me to Jesus, embraced me, nurtured me and has given me the privilege of serving is broken and battered. But my faith in the resurrected Jesus means I know this is not the end of the story. Christian unity is alive and well, even if structural unity in the United Methodist Church is not,” Mueller wrote.

Kathy L. Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service.

Comments (2)

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deeper conversations

St. Louis crashed for many reasons. Violation of conscience was a huge part of the woe. Traditional folks jumped and waved their hands that the OCP violated their Christian conscience, but the COB and some others denied or explained away that warning. If the COB and the Connectional Table found the OCP didn't violate their conscience, others 'ought' to be able to suck it up and deal with it. Then the train ran over the COB sandbox. THEN traditional folks ignored similar warnings and pleas that for others the traditional plan was a similar violation of conscience, and the same logic was used to dismiss those concerns, leading to the ongoing train wreck of bishops and some conferences in open disobedience...for conscience's sake. What led to this fiasco? GC2019 wound up presented with win-lose as the choice; those with the most votes get to keep their conscience and losers have to shed their conscience or leave town under punitive conditions. Lots of folks seem eager for a hydrogen bomb replay of that outcome in Minneapolis, more concerned about what "others" may get if there is a division than an alternative that publicly lays waste to the UM name and congregations. So look at your respective plans for resolution/division. Would you want to live or depart under the conditions your plan imposes on others? These 8 bishops are calling for win-win; zero sum games in churches are always all zero and no sum.

Bob more than 4 years ago

Acceptance of ALL God's Children

It seems patently obvious that the UMC will no longer be United of the subject of full acceptance of our LBGTQAI sisters and brothers. So be it. Let us revert to being the Methodist Church. Most thinking, educated and certainly, our younger members will no longer tolerate a church that disrespects and denigrates those who were born to be other than heterosexual. Some were born gay, some lesbian, some transgender, some with ambiguous secondary sexual characteristics. These are inborn conditions and cannot be discriminated against.
As a young student nurse, many, many years ago, I had a rotation in a large NYC hospital dedicated to pediatric patients. I saw first had girls who had a rudimentary penis, a small vagina, and X-rays (this was before Sonograms, or MRIs were available) showed that the baby had no uterus. There was a boy with a rudimentary penis, a vagina and a tiny, even for a baby, uterus. There are many anomalies and how can a person born with these anomalies be "Sinners?" Others are born with complete secondary characteristics, perhaps as a male, but their brains know that they are not male, their brains know that they are female. Needless to say, the reverse is, also, true.
The UMC must come kicking a screaming into the 21st century and realize that science matters, intelligence matters, and education matters and all are important. If we relied solely upon the Bible, we would still be saying that the Earth is Flat, that the Sun revolved around the Earth, that seizures were caused by demons that Jesus had to remove. WAKE UP UMC or those who still want to discriminate against our LBGTQAI sisters and brothers will have to have their own church that believes that we are in the 1700 or 1800s. If that occurs then the church that continues to discriminate will fade into ignominity within 20 years, if not sooner.

Carla and Robert more than 4 years ago