General Conference 2020 Logo
The logo for General Conference 2020.
In 2019, the Commission on the General Conference approved the theme “…and know that I am God” from Psalm 46.
The Council of Bishops executive committee requested that the commission change that theme in light of the protests against racial injustice following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. The bishops did not offer an alternative theme.
But in making the request, the bishops cited the King James Version of Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
“We believe that to imply that we should gather in Minneapolis to be still would not be in the interest of our church, our people and the delegates who gather,” the bishops’ letter said.
The commission affirmed its Theme and Logo Committee’s decision not to change the theme. In 2019, the commission discussed at length whether to include the “be still” part of the translation.
Ultimately, the group opted not to do so in part because Bibles in various languages translated that part of the verse in dramatically different ways. For example, the German translation is more akin to the English phrase “Make peace.”
The Rev. Joe DiPaolo, a commission member and lead pastor of First United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, shared a statement about the greater context of the verse.
“The psalmist looks to God amid national upheavals, the raging of the seas, and even the collapse of mountains,” DiPaolo said. “It rings with hope that, despite all, God is yet with us; the living God is our strength.”
Sara Hotchkiss, General Conference business manager, read the bishops’ letter and DiPaolo’s statement aloud during the opening hour of the commission’s meeting when it was still open to the press.