Leadership Gathering Revs Up Participants to Hold Conversations on UMC's Future

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LEAWOOD, Kansas – Part history lesson, part camp meeting and part church politics, the future of The United Methodist Church as a worldwide denomination took center stage at the 2019 session of the Leadership Institute at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.

Billed early on as the official debut of the “Next Generation UMC” Plan, the event turned out to include a presentation on the competing Indianapolis Plan along with references to other “futuring” schemes now submitted for action at the 2020 General Conference May 5-15, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minn. (See accompanying article).

The crowd of some 2,500 participants – limited for the first time in 20 years to two people from a congregation because of overwhelming interest in the topic – were mostly like-minded centrists and progressives with a common agenda: undo the Traditional Plan’s punitive measures adopted at the special 2019 General Conference held in February in St. Louis, Mo., or divide the denomination to birth a new Methodist body without anti-LGBTQ policies. Nearly every reference to removing current United Methodist bans on same-sex marriage, LGBTQ ordination and the “incompatible with Christian teaching” clause was met with enthusiastic cheers and applause from the conferees.

Even more than overturning those parts of the Book of Discipline enacted by the Traditional Plan, however, the atmosphere of the conference was clearly to create a church that would cease “doing harm” to LGBTQ people. Half a dozen poignant videos featured lesbians, gays, and their families and friends telling stories of how the United Methodist stance – “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” – had hurt them and their loved ones.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, founding senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection, told the crowd more than once that the results of the 2019 General Conference had left him and many others hurt and sorrowful.

“I never thought the Traditional Plan would pass,” he said during the opening session Sept. 26. “After the vote, my first thought was: ‘How am I going to tell my congregation?’”

Rev. Hamilton said some 800 families left the 22,000-member Church of the Resurrection after the 2019 General Conference.

“Now we have to deal seriously with what’s happening in our United Methodist family,” he said. “I don’t want to be part anymore of a church that says LGBTQ persons are ‘less than.’ The General Conference has told them they’re ‘incompatible’ and that as their pastor I will be punished if I marry them. Right now, I’m just embarrassed by what General Conference has done.”

Lamentation and repentance

The next morning, Bishop Kenneth L. Carter (Florida Area) continued the theme of lamentation and repentance in his remarks.

“I saw General Conference 2019 as the death of a unity,” said Bishop Carter, who will complete his term as president of the Council of Bishops next May. “I love God and I love the word of God. We can’t love God and hate our neighbors. Beyond our grief, the good news is that God will be with us. The path forward for me is walking in a traditional faith toward an inclusive church.”

After Bishop Carter, two co-chairs of the “Next Generation UMC” Plan, the Rev. Junius B. Dotson and the Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, paved the way for presentations on their group’s plan with segments on The United Methodist Church’s history of discrimination against people of color and women.

Dr. Dotson, top executive of Discipleship Ministries in Nashville, is the formal sponsor of GC2020 petitions that would enact the provisions of “Next Generation UMC.” His presentation focused on the racial discrimination practiced by United Methodism and its predecessor bodies. These included the racism that led to the formation of historically black Methodist denominations and to the 1939 Uniting Conference that hinged on the creation of the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction.

At the same time, Dr. Dotson said he was grateful for those black Methodists who stayed in the denomination despite the discrimination they faced. Because of their persistence, he noted, he was mentored as a young clergyman by two noteworthy “ebony bishops” – Leontine T. C. Kelly, the UMC's first African American female bishop, and Bishop Roy C. Nichols, the first black clergyman elected bishop after the 1968 merger that created The United Methodist Church.

“This is a kairos [teaching] moment for the church,” Dr. Dotson said. “We face questions of relevance, the challenges of the Nones and the Dones, secular polarization and continued racial injustice.

“This is a unique opportunity for The United Methodist Church to reclaim its prophetic witness,” Dr. Dotson said. “I refuse to lose faith in our future because I have seen our past.”

'Why did it take 20 years?'

The sexism segment opened with a video history of women's leadership told by Rev. Grace Imathiu, a noted United Methodist pastor and Bible scholar. The video traced the 1956 achievement of full clergy rights for women and featured retired Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher, one of the first clergywomen delegates to General Conference in 1976.

“The question we must ask is: why did it take 20 years for women to be at the decision-making table?” Rev. Imathiu concluded in the video.

Yvette Moore, communications director for United Methodist Women, gave a history of the ways that Methodist women had to create their own “avenues to answer God’s call to service.” Among these were the forerunners of today’s United Methodist Women such as the Women’s Missionary Society and the deaconess movement. Ms. Moore noted that women historically led the denomination’s evolution against racism, sexism and classism because “women encountered them all.”

Rev. Gaines-Cirelli, senior pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., tried to end her segment without presenting a North Carolina Conference video on sexism toward clergywomen, but the crowd shouted for the video to be shown. The video features United Methodist clergymen reading aloud – without foreknowledge – remarks aimed at their clergywomen colleagues. The remarks ranged from disparaging -- "Here's our little girl preacher" – to sexual harassment – "I'm imagining you naked under your robes."

“I have lived through every one of those comments,” Rev. Gaines-Cirelli said after the video. “Structure and polity can’t change attitudes, but they can create equity. I don’t want to waste a good crisis.”

Later, the Rev. Tom Berlin, senior pastor of Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Va., underscored the ongoing reality of sexism toward clergywomen.

“One of my associate pastors told me that a layman had said he couldn’t focus on what she said because he was distracted by her legs,” Rev. Berlin said. “She asked me what to say to him. I told her, “Ask him how long he has struggled with lust and whether he was into porn.”

The room exploded with applause and shouts of affirmation.

Past struggles laid foundation for LGBTQ rights

With the foundations of United Methodist evolution on racism and sexism set, the morning agenda moved toward its peak motivating segment: a panel featuring two gay men, J.J. Warren and Dr. Randall Miller, and Jan Lawrence, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), the longtime LGBTQ advocacy organization that has seen its membership skyrocket since the special General Conference in February.

Mr. Warren, a student at UMC-related Boston University School of Theology, spoke with youthful passion about his call to ministry, while Ms. Lawrence encouraged the audience to use RMN as allies for local church discussions around LGBTQ inclusion. However, it was Dr. Miller, a professor at Pacific School of Religion, who brought hard data in the form of statistics regarding the demographics and expectations of young people about religion.

“Basically, we’re alienating young people because we don’t walk the path we preach,” Dr. Miller said.

Noting that The United Methodist Church is the only mainline denomination that has yet to change its anti-LGBTQ policies, Dr. Miller cited common themes among the changes in the Presbyterian Church (USA), The Episcopal Church (USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The common themes include:

* Affirm LGBTQ persons as full and equal church members.

* Support non-discrimination principles.

* Remove restrictive language and regulations from their policies to allow local congregations “room to breathe.”

* Allow pastors, congregations and regional bodies to make their own decisions regarding issues such as same-sex marriage.

* Create space for congregations to grow through a process of reconciliation that acknowledges past harm while affirming love for one another and a wish to stop harming each other.

A longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights in United Methodism, Dr. Miller said he wasn’t surprised by the work of organizations such as the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), “whose goal is to split and destroy the church.”

“I’m surprised by those who stay silent,” he said. “It’s time to take concrete actions to protect against future harm. I urge all of us to engage in earnest, spirit-filled conversations on a way forward for an inclusive church.”

The Rev. Adam Hamilton closed the next-to-last general session by encouraging the participants. "It's our hope that you will go home and become our evangelists for changing the structure of the church."

Videos from the 2019 Leadership Institute's general sessions will be posted on Church of the Resurrection's teaching site, ShareChurch.com.

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