Broken Bread
Photo Courtesy of Jason Valendy
The UMC is facing a break-up in the coming months. There is a Protocol of Reconciliation Through Separation which outlines a way the UMC might separate (break up). There are a number of groups and people who are hopeful this protocol might provide a way for us to split rather than splinter. It reads something like a “controlled break” a doctor might do to reset an previously broken arm that has healed incorrectly.
There are some who find the Protocol less than ideal and even unjust, I am not one of these persons. I am aware that anything generated will be unjust in someway(s). I am aware that the Protocol is not my desire, but it is the best option that is before us. I am aware that all the options we believe we have are all insufficient. I support this Protocol.
That being said, it is clear to me that in all the talk of the break up there is not much talk about being broken into.
Inward/Outward shared a line from Gordon Cosby
Prayer is learning the art of the connection… We believe, if we continue to be faithful, the time will come when our lives will be broken into by another order and we will be transformed and as transformed, will become transformers.
The Protocol is helpful to get us to break up, but it does more than that. We have arrived at that moment “when our lives will be broken into by another order”. May we learn the connection we have with one another and how it is we need one another, even in the break up.
My prayer is that the UMC will be broken into. Because if we just break up, we will never be broken like Christ who for the sake of the world broke into the world for the salvation of all.
So, let us pray.
Valendy Thumb
Rev. Jason Valendy
The Rev. Jason Valendy, along with his wife the Rev. Estee Valendy, serves as co-pastor of Saginaw United Methodist Church in Saginaw, Texas. This post is republished with permission from the author's blog JasonValendy.net.