Reconciling Ministries Network

North Georgia Annual Conference

by Christina Wright

United Methodists in North Georgia gathered from June 14-17 in Athens, Georgia for the 2011 North Georgia Annual Conference, with 2800 lay and clergy delegates.  For the first time ever, Reconciling United Methodists held an event during conference.  Approximately 35 people attended a Friday luncheon and showing of the film, “Incompatible with Christian Teaching” followed by a question and answer session with the film’s director, Anne Brown.  A lively conversation ensued, demonstrating the momentum that is building in the movement in North Georgia.  We also celebrated the two new congregations who have become reconciling in North Georgia in the past year and encouraged many more who are beginning the reconciling process.  Along with the event, an RMN table was present for the second year, with many of our materials being taken quite quickly and causing reprints to be necessary!

North Georgia was quite busy electing delegates, with 13 clergy and 13 lay delegates elected to the 2012 General Conference alone!  Reconciling United Methodists were very pleased that many of those elected will work to promote full inclusion of all people in the life and policy of our denomination.  We look forward to being in contact with all 26 General Conference delegates encouraging them to support Christ’s inclusive love in their voting.  This was a year of tremendous growth for Reconciling United Methodists in North Georgia, and Annual Conference efforts demonstrated the energy and potential of the movement here! 

Rocky Mountain Annual Conference

by Gheeta Smith

Annual Conference for Rocky Mountain was held at the Denver Marriott Hotel June 17-19, 2011. There were roughly 800 participants. RMN had a combined effort of ACT members from Utah and Colorado working togethr to tell stories, distribute and gather information and generally be a witness and visible presence at the event. Utah RMN distributed about 65 stoles among AC delegation, volunteers, and Denver Pride participants. In addition, the Colorado RMN team had purchased 1,000 self-sticking rainbow ribbons reading "Love ALL" with the RMN logo. Roughly 75% of the ribbons were given to the participants and leadership of the conference. While it was neat to see so many ribbons, it did make it a little difficult to know who really was supportive of RMN and inclusiveness.

All 6 of the pieces of legislation regarding inclusion passed to GC at 80% or higher (with the highest support at 94%). Only one item required additional discussion on the plenary floor before it, too, passed at about 84%. The interesting point about this last item was that the discussion was around the potential definition of 'bullying' and not around the issue of inclusion.

We have a relatively diverse and moderate-to-progressive GC/JC delegation (about 25 people, total between delegates and alternates). As I watched the voting on pieces of legislation regarding inclusion and LGBT issues, it was interesting to see how things changed over the course of the weekend. People who were initially giving what seemed to be a knee-jerk "no" were switching to "yes" or abstaining from voting by the end of things. This suggests that people are understanding and agreeing on the issue of inclusion, or perhaps they are refraining from voting while they wrestle with the questions. It appears that ultimately not one member of the GC/JC delegation gave a visible "no" vote on these issues, but there were probably 3 or 4 who abstained.

There is definitely still work to be done here in the Rocky Mountain Conference, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much things seem to have changed for the positive in a year.

Susquehanna Annual Conference

by Siobhan Sargent

On Thursday June 9th, I had the opportunity to travel to Harrisburg PA and meet with a wonderful group of Susquehanna's Reconciling United Methodists. In partnership with Common Witness Coalition Coordinator, Steve Clunn, I witnessed the next steps towards creating a sustainable reconciling movement in this brand new conference.It was an intimate gathering of truly inspired and passionate individuals, willing to do the work towards full inclusion of all God's children.  As I listened to the ideas and experienced the energy of all those huddled around the lunch table that day, I could not help but think of the parable of the sower. The seeds were sown that day, not on the path, or among rocky ground or even amidst the weeds but in good soil. I am confident as the team in Susquehanna gears up for next year's campaign, they will make real strides in growth and visibility.

Holy Ground at Annual Conference

Rev. Sharon Seyfarth Garner - Lakeside, Ohio   June 2011

Here are a few words that you won’t often hear in relation to clergy session at Annual Conference – “We were standing on Holy Ground.”  However, this year at the East Ohio Annual Conference Clergy Executive Session, there we stood.  We experienced the power of a prophetic moment as we honored the decision of one of our beloved colleagues to leave the United Methodist Church and transfer her ordination credentials to a denomination that would honor both who God called her to be and who God created her to be.

We were progressing through the usual, long list of votes when we came to the transfer of credentials to another denomination. Our “yes” vote opened the door for Rev. Jennifer Steinfurth Brown to say farewell to the United Methodist Church and to begin a meaningful, new chapter of ministry.   When Jennifer stood to request a moment of personal privilege, the Holy Spirit rushed in like a mighty wind and filled the auditorium.  Dozens of colleagues rose and stood silently to show our support for Jennifer and to honor the years of dynamic ministry that she had shared with us.  As Jennifer began to speak, the Bishop stopped her.  She was “out of order” by attending the clergy session since she had technically transferred her membership several months ago, and we had just affirmed this by a formal vote moments before.  He was doing what those in charge are expected to do – uphold the rules.  However, this moment of holy conferencing was bigger than the “rules.”  I believe that our Bishop recognized this when he went on to say that Jennifer would be allowed to speak if someone from within the conference would invite her to do so. A clergy colleague made the necessary motion, and the subsequent show of hands became yet another sign of our collective affirmation.

With great courage and grace, Rev. Jennifer Steinfurth Brown began to speak again.  The Pentecostal presence of the Holy Spirit swirled in our midst. She shared words of love for the United Methodist church that had nurtured her since her birth.  She shared that she had been called to ministry even before she understood her own sexual identity.  She shared her struggle in the discernment process that led her to the faith-filled decision to leave her beloved United Methodist Church and join a communion that could embrace both her call to ministry and her sexuality.  She was bravely telling the truth of her own story.  As she spoke, additional colleagues who were moved by her words rose silently to show their support.  We stood together - humbled, amazed, tear-streaked and proud of the brave witness by our friend and colleague.  We were standing on Holy Ground.

As is often the case with transformative moments, there is both a sense of joy for new beginnings and sorrow for what will no longer be.  I am filled with profound joy that Jennifer has found a place where she can openly be the minister that God has called her to be. She can share her beautiful, blended family with her congregation. She will thrive! Yet, I am also filled with profound sorrow that our United Methodist Church was unable to embrace her on this journey. It is truly our loss. I began my own journey into ministry in the same Probationary Cluster as Jennifer over 15 years ago. I consider her to be one of my closest colleagues and dearest friends. Not only do I miss her now, but I miss the shared ministry that we would have celebrated together as lifelong United Methodist clergy. My heart is aching.

I pray for the day when the Spirit of Pentecost will permeate our church – when each one of us will be empowered to speak the truth of our own story and all will be understood. Only then will our beloved ‘cross and flame’ truly represent the tongues of fire that proclaim God’s love to all people.

Download Methodist Good Bye Speech

Virginia Annual Conference

We are moving forward in the Virginia Annual Conference! With a grant from the Northern Illinois Conference Reconciling Ministries Task Force, we were able to host our first RMN luncheon at Annual Conference this year! With 43 people in attendance, we viewed “Incompatible with Christian Teaching” with Anne P. Brown, producer, as our guest speaker. Just prior to the break for lunch that day, a clergy ally responded to the report from two clergy “representatives of the Young Adult Council who explained the VocationCARE program, a call to young leaders to renew the church, change the world. - - - CARE is an acronym: C-Create a space to explore Christian vocation; A-Ask self-awakening questions; R-Reflect theologically on self and community; E-Explore/Establish/Enact ministry opportunities.” (http://www.vaumc.org/Page.aspx?pid=1927). This ally spoke in favor of VocationCARE and then explained how telling stories was such an important part of self understanding and understanding each other in this mentoring program and then moved on to talk about the stories that would be told in “Incompatible with Christian Teaching” and invited the gathered body to attend. At the time we had 25 registered attendees and had ordered 30 box lunches. Thanks to the miracle of loaves and fishes we were able to accommodate the additional attendees, some of whom were members of the Evangelical Fellowship.

Midday Holy Communion services were offered at the fountain outside the Roanoke Civic Center during each of the other luncheon breaks on Thursday and Friday. A variety of clergy and lay members participated and our list of allies grew.

Our Annual Conference rules prohibit any unofficial UM group from having displays about their programs. Therefore, neither the Evangelical Fellowship of Virginia nor Virginia Reconciling United Methodists are allowed to display their materials at the site. While this makes the distribution of resources and the visibility of supporters more difficult, it does not prohibit our work. Over 300 VRUM brochures were distributed that outlined our witness plans at Annual Conference as well as advertised Sing a New Song and our Believe Out Loud Trainings in the fall. Many wore rainbow shoestring lanyards and RMN logo stickers were added to between 150 and 200 name tags, double the number of previous years. Most of those who wore the lanyards are saving them for future UM events. We plan to provide this inexpensive witness at many future district and conference events along with the ever-present RMN stickers.

We elected 26 delegates to General Conference, many of whom are known to be allies.  MFSA had submitted a resolution affirming support for the retired Bishops ‘“Statement of Counsel to the Church.”  While this resolution was narrowly defeated (see 7/6/11 NEWSCOPE), many of us who supported it were heartened by the strong statements in support and were amazed that only a couple of years after conversations about limiting the membership of LGBTQ people, we were now discussing marriage and ordination.

The greatest joy came from helping people find each other.  It had to be a God thing when one person who noticed my stole shared their family story and where they worshiped.  Less than four hours later, a couple identified themselves to me as allies who wanted to do more.  Lo and behold, they were a part of the same large congregation as the person I had met earlier that morning!  The Holy Spirit is indeed moving among us!

Northwest Texas Annual Conference

  by Zach Kerzee

Northwest Texas Annual Conference witnessed its first reconciling event on Saturday June 11^th at 7am! Because this was the first event of its type in the NWTX Annual Conference, none of us were quite sure what to expect. Needles to say we were blown away when we hosted 50 participants!

Attendees of the breakfast were quite diverse in age, gender, and sexual orientation and represented a wide range of districts in the Northwest Texas Conference.  This beautiful environment of love, acceptance, and multiplicity represents for me the environment we should work to create in each of our churches.

The breakfast was centered around the sharing of personal stories.  McMurry Gay Straight Alliance President, Chad Ewing, shared his personal testimony and encouraged all participants to lend their voice to the conversations occurring throughout the Church.  Because of the divisive nature of this topic, members of our conference have been encouraged to remain silent for the sake of “unity.”  But now we’ve seen firsthand how silence can be interpreted as agreement with the oppressive system. We have concluded that the time for silence has ended! We discussed the importance of expressing our discontent with the treatment of our LGBTQIA members of the United Methodist Church to the voting delegates of General Conference 2012 . It is our hope that this breakfast will start a sustainable movement in the NWTX Annual Conference and will aid in the passage of inclusive legislation which greater reflects the all-embracing, liberating, love of Christ.

East Ohio Annual Conference

by Joy Watts

East Ohio ’s annual conference began with a sign of hope.  Sam Byrd, carrying the the Christ candle in the opening processional, wore a rainbow stole!

This year one of East Ohio RMN's goals was to be more visible.  A fun sewing party was had  and many people were courageous enough to wear their rainbow stoles the whole conference! Another goal was to work to elect a progressive slate of delegates to General Conference. A coalition was formed, a list of delegates to support (with their permission) was created, handouts (updatedperiodically) were offered outside the doors of the auditorium. It was hard late night, early morning, rushed break work, but the results were very encouraging!

 On Wednesday,  our Joyful Parade participants gave out colorful balloons saying Reconciling Ministries Network and sang We Are Marching in the Light of God as they led the way to our annual worship and communion service. Each year Mary Ann Carlson, a former RMN board member, invites someone of national prominence to preach.  This year we were blessed with the DYNAMIC preaching of Rev. Janet Wolf!  Following the service, we took part in many great conversations at the Ministries Fair, where our rainbow stoles and Believe Out Loud pins were hot items!

 Following conference, we were provided with the words of a clergy person who withdrew her credentials from the United Methodist Church to pursue a more authentic life in the Episcopal church with her partner and family.  We thank her for turning the floor of conference into holy ground, and, for not going silently.

Upper New York Annual Conference

by David J. Whitlock

I am happy to report that the Upper New York Annual Conference voted, by standing vote, to remove the “incompatibility” clause and some other wording that goes with it, in the current Discipline, by a vote of  568  to 449 .  That wording was added in 1971 and it should come out.

It came about partly due to the hard work of the Upper New York Reconciling Ministries Network.  I would bet 15 fresh strawberry shortcakes with heavy cream whipped cream that God’s Holy Spirit was at work also.  Whoops, United Methodists are not supposed to bet!

Hats off to Bill and Mary Jane Russell, of the western part of the conference, for doing a lot of hard work to make sure that a table was “manned” at all times during the conference with lots of Reconciling Ministries Network literature plus Reconciling members to reach out and explain Reconciling Ministries to those that wished more information.  One prominent accolade on the table was a congratulation to the University UMC, of Syracuse, NY, who recently voted unanimously (46  to zero) to become a Reconciling church.  I am hoping that many other churches in the new Upper New York Annual Conference will claim that designation in the next few years, bringing more Christians back into the fold.  We are available to help.

Many, many rainbow stoles were seen on the floor over the conference times together.  Both the MFSA booth and the Reconciling Ministries booth had them available at an economical cost.  In fact, the Reconciling booth ran out third day.

Of special note during the floor debate was the witness of a retired UMC clergy member who had been elected to be a General Conference delegate way back in 1980.  He advised that at that time he had helped vote to keep discriminatory language in the Discipline but that over the years of study had come to the full realization of the four aspects of John Wesley’s quadrilateral and advised that he was now ready to strike the discriminatory wording from the Discipline and asked all 1,800 attendees to forgive him for his earlier position.

Mississippi Annual Conference

“Goodness is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger than death.  Victory is ours through Him who loves us.” – Desmund TuTu

Mississippi’s annual conference presented us with many opportunities this year.  The night before conference we gathered for communion, prayer, discussion, and solidarity.   We had 2 tables – one for DREAM (Daring to Reconcile and Embrace All in Mississippi – see www.dreamms.wordpress.com ) which is our state’s first Reconciling community – we shared info about RMN and MFSA as well as promoted our film screening of Incompatible with Christian Teaching.  The other table was for Sacred Conversations – a follow up to the resolution the conference passed last year calling for dialogue around issues such as homosexuality.  Everyone who visited the tables was friendly and open to conversation, with some expressing excitement in finding out about us.  We were very pleased with the delegation vote results, feeling like the slate of delegates elected to go to the General Conference is more balanced than times before.  On the other hand, there were resolutions passed at the conference that hurt many of our hearts – resolutions that build walls between us and people of other religions, resolutions that overlook the tragically real situations in life that make reproductive choice necessary, and resolutions that fail to honor the Gospel connection between tending to the suffering in the world and tending to the souls.  At least the resolutions didn’t pass without some courageous and prophetic voices being heard.

When I think about all the prayers, conversations, and effort that went into Annual Conference this year and the outcomes I’ve just mentioned above, I remember the seeds we planted, both literally and figuratively, at our Believe Out Loud gathering a few months ago.  In fact, the flower you see is one that bloomed from those seeds.   I also can’t help but think of the parable of the sower – the one where:  “A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

I was fortunate to hear the best sermon ever preached on this parable a few years ago.  In it, the minister pointed out what I’d never noticed before: how the farmer in the story is so careless with the seed, even wasteful, with seeds spilling in places that it wouldn’t grow.  It’s not clear to me whether the farmer was intentional in his sowing pattern, maybe he had a hole in his bag or maybe his bag was overflowing with seeds, or maybe he just couldn’t tell which soil might yield a return or not so he scattered them everywhere.  I don’t know, but I hope we’ll intentionally be like that sower, scattering God’s seeds of love and goodness, light and life to all around us, purposefully not discriminating against places and people that seem less “promising” for surely, victory isn’t ours until it’s everyone’s.

Oklahoma Annual Conference

by Monica Swink

The beginning of Annual Conference has begun to mean a breakfast with Oklahoma Progressives. The group, Mainstream United Methodists, or MUM, (yeah, I know – what a name!) begins the hard work of Annual Conference, meeting together, greeting old friends, and this year, talking about strategies for electing progressive delegates to General Conference. We were better organized this time around and the elections Monday night showed it. In Oklahoma City, Epworth UMC, a Reconciling Congregation since 1996, hosts this breakfast and uses the opportunity to cover the MUM members with rainbows, buttons, and colorful lanyards for nametags. This year, Rachel Harvey, as a guest from RMN spoke with great eloquence and stirred up the crowd!

But, the stories are the thing. We in Oklahoma feel pretty isolated as we work for full inclusion – seems like there are few supporters outside the two reconciling churches. And then, Annual Conference comes and we hear the stories:

One of the young persons from a more rural area of Oklahoma, elected as a lay delegate to General Conference was Briana. Her sister Chelsea attends Epworth while at OCU and is one of our liturgical dancers. Briana’s mom related this story to me the night before the voting.  Briana was asked if she agreed with ordaining “homosexual” clergy persons. Briana answered that she was aware that the Discipline spoke against ordaining clergy who were ‘self-avowed and practicing homosexuals,’ but she didn’t see how we as a church could question God’s call. When Briana asked if she passed this layperson’s test, he quickly said “no!” Briana was elected as the first young person and the fourth lay delegate!

Another story of hope: a clergyperson who is currently in the process of ordination and is hoping to be ordained next year stopped me with a story. Appointed to a small rural charge, this clergyperson hired a new accompanist for the choir (piano or organ, I don’t remember.) When he came out to his pastor, afraid he’d be fired, this musician was assured that his sexual orientation was already suspected and it wasn’t a problem.  His partner began coming regularly; then a couple friends of theirs and soon the church had, what one layperson in the church called, “the gay row.”  Perceptions are changing in that church; some of the senior members are adopting the couples. As I told my friend, sometimes it happens slowly but getting to know each other as children of God rather than “us” vs. “them” makes the world change!

Epworth was asked to provide entertainment for the retirees’ luncheon.  So many retirees were impressed by the talent and that opened the door for more conversation about being a Reconciling Church and working for full inclusion.  Having Rachel Harvey in her rainbow stole sitting in the bleachers was a joy and many times I’d look up there to see her visiting with someone – some I knew and some I didn’t.  It was a joy to have her presence!!

The elections were considered a success for the progressives of Oklahoma (not all of whom are supportive of full inclusion, by the way) with 45% of the laity elected and 41% of the clergy elected actually supported by MUM.  Women make up 58% of the delegation.  Because we have so many elected delegates supported by the progressive group, the Oklahoma RUMs are hopeful that our stories and meetings will be even more effective!  So we celebrate and prepare for General Conference 2012!