Walking Alongside or Walking Wounded

by

Recently, the Council of Bishops discussed how to “walk alongside” congregations (and ongoing congregations) regarding the future of the United Methodist Church. That was the headline from a United Methodist News Service story. Aren’t we past the point of using clichés like “walk alongside” to describe the Council of Bishop’s inability to mediate the decline and fall of the United Methodist Church? What more discussions are to be had? We’ve hit the iceberg, the ship is sinking, and those who are crewing the ship are refusing to tell the clergy to find a lifeboat. It’s over. We’re done.

No one is walking alongside the rank and file clergy who believe in equality. No one is helping me explain to our LGBT members that one day; their church will not be harmful and hurtful. I can’t make that explanation because I’d be lying. There’s no form of the United Methodist Church, as currently constituted, that isn’t emotionally harmful to these members of our church family.

To preach the politics of Jesus is to guarantee solitude in the pulpit. In these toxic times, “walking alongside” is code for keeping a safe distance from the dangerous nature of the gospel. News articles are a poor means to convey intended support. It hurts my feelings to think that after all this time; the Bishops want to “walk alongside.” What does that mean? I’ll tell you: it means nothing. We’re on our own. No one is coming for help.

If we’re going to do this, make a progressive mainline denomination out of the ashes of United Methodism, unqualified support must come from the top. The fence riding, doublespeak, “well, we don’t know” fence-riding has got to end. People’s lives are in the balance. You’re hurting the people who are on your side.

In the same way, conferences, polemics, and good ideas from well known national speakers will not save what’s already broken. It’s time to do something grand and dramatic. Telling ourselves how right we are and open to moderation is not the solution. Moving on with our lives and our ministry is the answer.

The Rev. Richard Lowell Bryant serves as pastor of Ocracoke United Methodist Church on Ocracoke Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks. This post is republished with the author's permission from Medium.com. 

Tags

by

Comments (6)

Comment Feed

I think this trope is played

"Walking Alongside", "Starting the Conversation", Equipping", so forth. The time for delay and endless rehashing of the issues involved in a possible way forward has past. This is not a time to gear up for another round of endless committees and study sessions. We just went through that from 2016 to Feb 2019. The denomination's "leaders" are only showing a vigorous aptitude to continue pell mell on a race to extinction as a culturally relevant institution. Without unity there is no United Methodist Church. So, act or be silent.

Robert W. Ives 149 days ago

So don't walk alongside

The disaffiliation process is in effect now. Simply take your church out of The UMC and go your own way.

Kevin 151 days ago

stumbling alongside ...

"'To walk alongside' is a phrase that we use in touchy-feely or spiritual situations where we want to express the support that someone gives another person during life's journey," according to the internet.
That would be better than staying mounted on one's episcopal horse along with "all the King's men [and women, plus one <out> lesbian whose job is at great risk]" who have been dutifully trying to reconstruct the Church of Humpty Dumpty.
I'm not impugning their best efforts to date to exercise their episcopal office in sensitive ways.
But that phrase does imply that "walking alongside" may give the person who [con]descends from horseback new interpersonal insights--but without requiring any further sacrifice of one's privileged position. Or, in colloquial terms, not getting s*** on your shoes. And certainly not getting your feet wet, literally or figuratively, in the messy realities you must navigate daily in your ministry.
Francis Asbury spent a lot of time on horseback (literally) until he was so physically impaired that he had to resort to carriage rides (and NOT like those in NYC's Central Park!). But he always knelt down on his knees in the mud at the end of every journey to pray with the Methodists he often rode for days to be with. Let us not forget his example.
But let us also acknowledge the profound, unspoken reality that the Council of Bishops has been deeply undermined, or in the words of one commenter, "taken [a]back" by GC 2019.
They have been targeted, attacked, criticized unmercifully, isolated, distrusted, marginalized, mischaracterized, undermined from within by dissenters' demands, demonized, undercut, manipulated by political power plays, forced to give up their pastoral and prophetic roles and function as our 'sex police', and required to act in violation of conscience.
Not to mention being in deep grief over their strategic leadership failures, the depth of suffering caused by the malicious attacks of extremists in our midst, the destruction of our ability and willingness to be church together despite major differences, the degradation of their symbolic presence, and the meltdown of the institution they love.
It's a hostile takeover.
So when a Bishop makes a post-GC statement on YouTube and looks shell-shocked, remember that they don't know what else to do. And are silently suffering to various degrees from symptoms of PTSD in their professional role.
Problem is: they are mostly not admitting it. And putting up the best front they know how.
Deeper problem: they are ‘stuck’ in the impossible quandary of how to avoid totally alienating the large minority of Methodist ‘traditionalists’ who are jubilant over the vote at GC2019. (And were probably jubilant over the election in 2016.)
I wouldn’t expect to get much help in manning the lifeboats. So maybe it’s time to learn to walk on water.
Is Ocracoke UMC able to function by itself as a small outlier?
Are you willing to step out of the boat of being an appointed Elder?

Wayne 153 days ago

When do you want to get together

So we can have a face to face smack down of each other about whose fault it is the church is in the mess it is in. As a traditionalist I have my own long list of how I view progressives have destroyed the church I used to love and respect.

Reality is, I feel for the Bishops who vested their lives in the church only to see it coming unraveling at the seams. They are in an extremely tough spot. And what I blame is not them personally, but how the office of Bishop has come to function in a way it was never designed to function; for too long they worked too hard to keep all the theological balls in play and it has proven to be a very costly endeavor and only delayed the inevitable meltdown that has been brewing for decades.

Reality is I did not celebrate the outcome of GC2019; I was deeply saddened to see such concrete proof that the UMC has degenerated into conflicting and contradictory factions jockeying for position and control. I was stunned that Bishops had bet their leadership on an outcome that, given the history of General Conference on this matter, seemed unlikely from the get go. I was frustrated that traditionalist leadership had bet on a legislative fix when legislation had not been able to put an end to this civil war since it began in 1972. I am not impressed that traditionalists slammed progressives with extreme accountability measures that make absolutely no sense to you and that there was absolutely no expectation that Bishops would enforce them. I think it was overkill-- adding insult to injury. I am glad the One Church Plan was so soundly defeated.

And although I voted for Trump, I was stunned that he actually won because my vote for him was the result of my inability to vote for Hillary Clinton and another 4-8 years of Democratic socialism. I did rejoice at seeing the smug media being so thoroughly upended by his win, And I do have concerns over how Trump handles himself as President but I will never ever apologize for not voting for Clinton whose main goal in life was not service to her country but to be the first woman President. The one thing Trump has accomplished is to disrupt the political correctness we were all choking on.

And I know absolutely none of this makes sense to you, and that you absolutely disagree with my perspectives just as I absolutely disagree with you. But I will defend your right to disagree with me. It would be nice if you could do the same for me. Never in the history of humanity or the church has everybody been able to think exactly alike.

Joan Wesley 148 days ago

"Political Correctness"

As Inigo Montoya said, "I do not think that means what you think it means."

It's merely a statement of one side being morally superior in their own minds. All factions do it. The entire UMC imbroglio is due to our right wing factions demanding political correctness for themselves.

George Nixon Shuler 147 days ago

Corrected Politics

"As Inigo Montoya said, "I do not think that means what you think it means."

It's merely a statement of one side being morally superior in their own minds. All factions do it. The entire UMC imbroglio is due to our left wing factions demanding political correctness for themselves." There. Fixed it for you.

bea 145 days ago

     DONATE TO OUR MISSION

If you value receiving United Methodist Insight, please contribute to our financial support. Make checks payable to our sponsoring congregation, St. Stephen UMC, and write "UM Insight" on the memo line. Then mail to United Methodist Insight, c/o St. Stephen United Methodist Church, 2520 Oates Drive, Mesquite, TX 75150.

Thank you!

Get United Methodist Insight Weekly!

* indicates required