Reactions, Resistance Mount to GC2019 Actions

The following reactions to the results of the 2019 General Conference were gathered from public posts on various social media.

From Greater New Jersey Reconciling Ministries' Facebook page:

Sign posted by Allendale UMC, St. Petersburg, Fla.

From West End UMC, Nashville, Tenn.

Friends, today did not go as many of us hoped. The Traditional Plan passed, the One Church Plan failed. Some harm was done in word and deed, especially to our LGBTQIA community. And even though we may not be all of one mind at West End, we affirm together this statement, for which I am grateful. No matter what the larger denomination says, you are welcome here.

From a member

Keith Fulenwider, member, St. Stephen UMC: My congregation, St. Stephen UMC in Mesquite, TX, has been working for full inclusion of LGBT persons for many years. We were the first Reconciling Congregation in the Dallas area. We have been very patient in our attempts to spread the spirit of full inclusion of all God's children in all aspects of our United Methodist lives. After listening to many United Methodists representing the Traditional Plan, I realize that I cannot continue to support their model for the church. If that is what the UMC as a body decides to become, I will find a way to take a different path that will allow me to honor those of my brothers and sisters who are LGBT and to completely include them in my faith community. I have dear friends who are being marginalized and feeling the very real pain that this causes, and have been for much too long. If the UMC adopts the Traditional Plan that I have seen, even with substantial modification to make it constitutional, then the UMC has left me. I admire and support those who choose to stay and continue working for change, but I personally have reached the point where I believe that my efforts are better used in a different environment.

A Letter to the UMC from Elizabeth Eaton Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which accepts LGBTQIA people and is in full communion with The United Methodist Church

Dear Church,

This morning at worship in the Churchwide Office we sang;

God, when human bonds are broken, and we lack the love or skillTo restore the hope of healing, give us grace and make us still…Give us faith to be more faithful, give us hope to be more true,Give us love to go on learning: God, encourage and renew. (ELW 603)

These words speak to many aspects of our current world. Today they resonate especially with our continuing prayers for our full communion partner, The United Methodist Church (UMC), and, as they call themselves, for all “the people called Methodists.”

Yesterday the 2019 General Conference, the UMC’s highest legislative body, voted to affirm the church’s current prohibitions of “ordaining LGBTQ clergy and officiating at or hosting same-sex marriage.” (You can read about this decision at https://www.umnews.org.) This special General Conference had been called for this issue only; in the end, delegates turned away from a plan recommended by their Council of Bishops, which allowed for diversity in local practice, to embrace instead this “Traditional Plan.”

Many of you today are asking the good Lutheran question, “What does this mean?” The implications of the decisions of the General Conference are not yet fully apparent: the Judicial Council must review controversial provisions later this year, and in any case the rippling consequences for ecclesial life will take much longer to work themselves out. Yet it seems clear that the conclusion of this process has not brought the greater unity for which so many longed.

What we can say with certainty is that as the UMC takes its next steps, we in the ELCA will continue to walk with our full communion partner. We treasure the joyful memories of the Churchwide Assembly in 2009, where we voted unanimously to enter this relationship, and we are grateful also for the common witness, deepened friendships, and shared ministries which have been the fruits of this decision. This relationship, and our commitment, have become woven into who we are as this church. Our life together as churches is a shared life together in Christ.

We remember also that the same 2009 Assembly decided to open the way for those in same-gender relationships to serve as pastors. This week, as we watched the impassioned debates on the plenary floor in St. Louis, we recognized that these costly struggles are familiar from our own recent history, and acknowledge that some amongst us have experienced re-traumatization. In our present experience also, we have not fully grown into the commitments we have made. Yet, though a controversial decision at the time, our 2009 action has brought strength and blessings for our life and mission beyond what we could have imagined a decade ago. This church treasures the faithful ministries of those rostered leaders who help us witness to God’s love and invitation for all people. Their ministries are integral to who we are as this church.

I ask this church, then, to continue by the side of the UMC, exchanging gifts and sharing burdens. In particular, we pray for them in their continued efforts faithfully to be church in the contexts we share. As we pray for them, we pray also for this church: may we be faithful to the calling to which we have been called, willing to confess our shortcomings and to trust in the healing, challenge and surprise of the Spirit of God, who calls us always forward.

In Christ,

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton

Presiding Bishop

From Corvallis UMC, in Corvallis, MT.

Barbara Nixon, a member of Corvallis UMC, posted the above on Facebook on Feb. 27.

Message from Western Jurisdiction Leadership

"We have long appreciated the richness of the global diversity of our United Methodist Church and have embraced opportunities to join with you all in the work of making disciples for the transformation of the world.

"We also understand the purpose of the Church to be in mission and ministry. Consequently, we in the West have been functioning for years as One Church committed to full inclusion, seeking to be a home for all God’s people.

"Today we acknowledge the fracture of this body, yet we worship a God who tells us that the body of Christ has many parts, all equally valued. Rooted in Wesleyan tradition, grounded in Scripture and committed to mission and ministry, the Western Jurisdiction intends to continue to be one church, fully inclusive and open to all God’s children, across the theological and social spectrum.

"We know from experience we are stronger when we live together as progressives, traditionalists and centrists in our Church. Many times during this Conference we have sung or prayed or blessed each other with the reminder that we need each other.”

In two weeks, the leadership of the Western Jurisdiction will meet. We want to be clear that the leadership of the Western Jurisdiction believes in one church for all. Mission and ministry is too important. This is where we stand, we are not moving, we are not leaving, and we are not changing.

Statement from Foundry UMC, Washington, D.C.

We’re still here. Even though the Traditional Plan has passed the General Conference, we're still here. We know that God is not finished with us yet. As we learn more in the coming days about what this means,

Foundry will still be Foundry.

We will welcome, celebrate, serve, and empower LGBTQIA+ people. We will worship joyfully in the rainbow diversity of sexuality, race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, and ability that God has gifted us with. And we will work to make sure that we continue living as a witness to what is possible when you extend radical hospitality and welcome. And as we walk this road together we will hold onto God’s unchanging love and grace, trusting that even now God’s holding onto us.

Facebook post from Lonnie Brooks, sponsor of GC2019 legislation

The special session of the United Methodist General Conference, after being anticipated for so long, is now history. It wrapped up about a half hour ago. Well, it sort of wrapped up, because one of the closing acts of the Conference was to carry a motion to refer the biggest part of the work of the body to the Judicial Council of the UMC for a declaratory decision on whether or not that work was in keeping with the Constitution of the Church.

The major focus of attention going in was whether the Church would adopt either of two plans for its way forward on how the Church would be in ministry with people who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or any other orientation other than what is often called straight. The plan favored by most of the Church's established connectional leadership was the One Church Plan under which many of the decisions about that would be relegated to local control, such as in local churches or regional conferences, and the alternative to it with the most support was the Traditional Plan, wherein the current churchwide ban on ordaining and appointing to pastoral service LGBTQ clergy and on our clergy's officiating at same sex weddings would be maintained. Within that plan the penalties for deviation from that so called norm would be enhanced.

After four days of deliberations, sometimes rancorous, and always passionate, the Church adopted three proposals that will serve forever to identify this Conference. By a wider margin than most analysts, including this one, expected, the Church adopted the Traditional Plan. Along with that it adopted a proposal from the Church's Board of Pension and Health Benefits that will ensure the integrity of the pension program for clergy if the Church should divide itself some way, and it also adopted a proposal to permit local churches who can't in good conscience remain within the UM family to leave the Church with their property and assets intact, as long as certain financial obligations are satisfied.

But not everything is as it seems on the surface of it. The critical step was that request for constitutional review by the Judicial Council, because the plan that was adopted has already been subjected to such a review, and it has repeatedly been struck down in large part because of violations of various parts of the Church's primary law. Most importantly, repeated attempts by the Traditional Plan's supporters to fix those deficiencies have been unsuccessful, because further reviews have still rejected them.

We don't really know when the Judicial Council will meet to consider the request for review, but its next regularly scheduled meeting is in October, so I'd guess we'll get the results officially at that time. But, we don't really have to wait for that, because we already know what it will rule. Massive sections of the adopted Traditional Plan will again be declared to be unconstitutional and thus null, void, and of no effect, not to be included within the Book of Discipline, the law book of the Church.

But, the other two provisions--pension protection and Graceful Exit--will almost certainly be declared to be constitutional.

All that means, as a bottom line, that when the dust settles, this special session of the General Conference will turn out to have been a colossal waste of time, effort, and money, including the two and a half year work of the special study group commissioned to do the study that fed into the Conference. My estimate is that we'll have spent about $7,000,000 to protect our pension program and provide a graceful way for local churches to leave if they no longer choose to remain United Methodist. The effect on most of the local churches and regional bodies of the Church, like annual and central conferences, will be small to the point of invisibility.

Message from Church and Society

ST. LOUIS, Mo.—General Secretary Susan Henry-Crowe of the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church released the following statement after the close of the 2019 General Conference of The United Methodist Church:

"The United Methodist Church's special General Conference failed Tuesday to love LGBTQIA people, recognize their gifts in the church, maintain our unity in the midst of diversity, and to live out our Gospel mandate to seek justice and pursue peace.

"We worship a fully-inclusive, justice-seeking God. Church and Society is committed to living out our faith, seeking justice and pursuing peace. We will be in ministry with all people who seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Church and Society will never cease to work with God to build the fully-inclusive realm of God on earth.

"The 2019 General Conference chose to further deepen the divide in The United Methodist Church. The plan adopted by a slim majority is punitive, contrary to our Wesleyan heritage, and in clear violation of the mandate given to us in 1 Corinthians 12.

"'The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!"' (1 Corinthians 12:21a) One part of our church cannot say to another, "I don't need you." And yet, that's exactly what happened.

"The 2019 General Conference brought unbearable pain to the body of Christ. The delegates’ resistance to hear and honor the presence and voices of LGBTQIA people has created a wound. The wound may one day be healed by the grace of God, but the scar left behind will visible forever.

"Our prayer must be of repentance. We must seek forgiveness. We must call on Christ to heal all of the brokenness we have imposed on the body.

"I will pray for forgiveness for my part of having participated in a church that has excluded, pushed out and damaged many faith-filled LGBTQIA people. For all the families and young people wounded by these exclusions, we must always pray.

"Whatever comes next for The United Methodist Church, I am steadfast in my belief that the General Conference cannot release us from our responsibility to love and care for a world groaning for justice.

"We must also put our faith into action, and continue to work for LGBTQIA equality in civil and human rights.

"We will seek justice for LGBTQIA migrants. We will seek to end conversion therapy, the dangerous and discredited idea that you can change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. We will work to ensure that no one is fired from their job or prevented from access to housing because they are LGBTQIA. We will work to end hate crimes against LGBTQIA people, especially LGBTQIA people of color. We will seek a climate in which LGBTQIA children are protected and enabled to live full and flourishing lives.

"The work of justice and peace continues. Whatever comes next for The United Methodist Church, I am steadfast in my belief that the General Conference cannot release us from our responsibility to love and care for a world groaning for justice."