AC '09 Plog Part 2

Back to Conference. Again, my hand written notes are transposed here and add in commentary. The blue/black thing I did because I want you get an idea of the diversity of my notes. What’s typed in blue was written blue. What’s typed in black was written in black. My commentary is added in red.

Afternoon Business Session

Sitting here after lunch waiting for the afternoon business session to kick off. Why is it that in a room of approximately 1000 seats and 25 people, someone walks in and wants to sit directly behind me? At least it wasn’t beside me I guess.

It’s time for the business session. I got a new pen. It was free. We are supposed to vote using black ink, so they gave us UM Children’s Home pens. It’s always….. nice to be lectured to during a prayer. I don’t remember that prayer, but I think it was something to the effect of God, help us to be nice to each other during the discussions.

What follows are my thoughts and reactions to the discussions relating to amendments to our church Constitution. These 32 proposed amendments were passed by General Conference last year and thus sent for voting to each Annual Conference in 2009. It is my understanding that to pass the amendments need a 2/3 majority of the voting delegates from all Annual Conferences worldwide. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

The first group of amendments pertained to the structure of the worldwide United Methodist Church. In short, they would do away with the designation Central Conferences and instate Regional Conferences.

The second set of amendments dealt with organizational things like church and conference membership, annual and jurisdictional conference composition, clergy participation in electing delegates, and a few other issues. You can get an overview here or read about them in copious detail here. All of my notes concern the discussion over Amendment 1.

During the discussion all delegates were invited to speak either for or against the amendments. If there was a speech for, there had to be a speech against before another pro speech could be made, and vice versa.

Here we go with the hate speech. I figured Amendment 1 would generate some response. It quickly became obviously clear that the discussion on Amendment 1 was going to center around gay and lesbian people and their role within the Body of Christ. Wow, this woman spent a lot of time writing this response. Seriously, the first person to speak got up and read a written response that had to be at least 4 pages long. The only thing I remember about what she read concerned the “6 scriptures that deal with homosexuals.” I will only say this. The passages in the New Testament do not refer to gay believers. They talk about one of two things. 1) Specific instances societies falling away from God into idolatry and performing sexual acts as worship to those idols. 2) Acts of dominance (i.e. rape) perpetrated against young boys by older men. For more, read this link.

Key word in Rev. West’s (pro-Amendment 1) response: “FEAR”! All of the speeches against the Amendment seemed to have one thing in common, fear. They were afraid gays would be ordained. They were afraid gays would want to marry in our churches. One was even afraid a transgendered person might want to join the church or *gasp* want to be ordained.

Back to blue: Do we really think there is a group out there waiting to join the Church so they can topple it from the inside? This is still my question. Is there a group out there just waiting for these amendments to pass so they can infiltrate our ranks? Or is it more likely that there are Christ-loving individuals who happen to be gay who want to be a full part of the Body of Christ? Who want to serve God and be who God created them to be? I think I’ll save this topic for another time.

Wow, I was all alone in my section clapping for that one. The pastor from “[Community] Church Without Walls. – R.G. Lyons (I added his name later) Rev. Lyons stated that he “does not believe homosexuality is a sin.” I clapped people glared, a little. Not too much. I completely agree with him. Again, I’ll say more on this at a later date. We won’t know the results of the vote until sometime in the fall after all of the annual conferences worldwide have a chance to vote.

Time to listen to reports. This is always the boring part.

I got distracted by my old writings. I’ve had this notebook a long time. 7 years! I had a moment of panic a couple of days ago. I thought I lost my notebook. It is filled with journal entries from the days before this blog, songs, parts of songs, Bible Study notes. Like I said: a moment of panic. I found it soon after I flipped out.

Good grief this woman is boring! Not really inspiring me to get involved in Lay Ministry.

It’s starting to get hot again. It was really hot in here last year. It’s getting there again today.

I’m amazed at how many people do not turn their ringers off during these things.

*BREAK*

Would you sit in a session surrounded by others while someone was making a presentation and talk on the phone?

Me neither. Seriously, a woman sitting behind us answered her phone. Did not get up and go out of the room and talked for 5 minutes. When she hung up, the phone rang again. And she answered it again! She talked for another 2-3 minutes. Rude. Rude. Rude.

I need to remember Central Conference Pension Initiative, so I’m writing about it here. $1 million NAC (North Alabama Conference) goal. The CCPI is a fund that helps retired pastors in poverty-ridden parts of the world. A worthy cause.

Apparently the NAC does a lot of empowering. One speaker was even “Empowered to empower.” I know it’s our theme, but the term was really run into the ground. There were 5-6 speeches in a row where the speakers used “empower” (or some form of it) at least6-8 times each. Wow!

Next came a report from the COYM or CYLT or whatever they are now. The youth. Two people spoke. The second pulled out Oh, The places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss. I can’t believe he’s reading the whole book. Even he seems bored with it. Seriously, by 7^th page his voice lost all emotion. Bad idea.

We have a 5^th Conference Priority – Missions –

· Transforming the world through missions and justice

Ways to be involved: 1) Be involved in Hands-on Missions projects. 2) Give money to support an Advanced Special. 3) Educate congregations on supporting justice issues. 4) Partner with another UMC of a different culture. I honestly cannot believe this wasn’t already a priority. I guess it was, it was just an unspoken one. Now it’s official, and it comes with a graphic.

I’ll cut it off here even though we’re still not through Day 1. Tomorrow, Camp Sumatanga.