Therefore Go.

This year’s General Conference theme was born out of Matthew 28:19, “therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

On several occasions Thursday delegates heard reminders of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Mary and Aaron Vandersommers were commissioned as missionaries with United Methodist Global Ministries during the morning worship service.  The East Ohio Conference husband and wife team, who are serving in the Congo, heard – along with the other 27 newly-commissioned missionaries – the challenge issued by Bishop John Yambasu.

Following nearly two weeks of often contentious debate, the message delivered by the Sierra Leone bishop seemed to be directed at all bodies in the room, and not just at the new missionaries seated on stage.

“Beneath the Logo of our denomination, some congregations have inscribed the words ‘Open hands, open hearts and open minds,’” Yambasu said.  “I tell you what. I love that motto. But I have a problem with it.

“For far too long we have opened our hands and nothing seems to happen. Instead of open hands, what we need now most are embracing hands. We need hands that embrace. Church, we need to and have to and must embrace each other. We must embrace in spite of.

“For far too long we have had open hearts and yet nothing seems to happen. What the church needs now is compassionate hearts.

“For far too long we have spoken of open minds. But it seems to me that nothing has happened. What we need now and most is engaging minds.

“Friends we need to engage each other or we perish as a denomination. Red and yellow black and white, poor and rich; have and haves not; gay or straight, heterosexual or bisexual we need to engage each other.

“Yes, it was passion that caused Simon of Sirene to move to the scene where Jesus was forced to carry the cross, but it was compassion that caused him to take the cross from Jesus and carry it upon himself.

“Friends, the church is called by Christ to dismantle the demons of poverty and injustice, the demons of racism, wars and diseases, the demons of hunger and all forms of inequalities in our world. We must do so with passion, but even more, we must do it with compassion.”

Passion and compassion are qualities shared by the 19 retiring bishops who were recognized Thursday morning.  Bishop John Hopkins joins Bishop Michael Coyner of Indiana, Bishop Jonathan Keaton of Illinois Great River, and Bishop Deb Kiesey of Michignn as the four bishops from our North Central Jurisdiction who will retire at the end of August.

During their years in ministry the retiring bishops made countless disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Most United Methodists will tell you that “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” is the mission statement of the denomination.

But did you know the official statement has a second sentence?

It is – or it was – “Local churches provide the most significant arenas through which disciplemaking occurs.”

I say “was” because on Thursday General Conference delegates voted to change the second sentence.  By a vote of 603 to 175, delegates voted to add the words “and extension ministries of the Church.”

The new United Methodist Mission Statement is:  “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  Local churches and extension ministries of the Church provide the most significant arena through which disciplemaking occurs.”

In introducing the motion, Faith and Order subcommittee chair Scott Johnson said, “the committee made this recommendation knowing that discipling occurs in a variety of venues and sought to confirm those in extension ministries.  It was not intended to deemphasize the importance of local church ministries in making disciples, and so the recommendation comes before you.”

After the vote, Stefan Schroeckenfuchs, asked presiding bishop Minerva Carcano for a moment of personal privilege.  The delegate from Austria said, “I just realized that we have been spending six or seven days where we were talking about rules and many, many things.  Now we just spent five minutes, or maybe three, talking about the mission of our church.  What is the mission of our church?  For what are we United Methodist?  I just wonder why this seems to be so less important compared with other things?”

Carcano asked Schroeckenfuchs to remain at the microphone and “to lead us in a moment of prayer for the mission of this church.”

“Gracious God you have called us to be your church.  You have called us to lead together with you.  You have sent Jesus Christ to us, who is not only our Lord and Savior but has showed us what it means to be human beings, children of God.

“We’re loved by yourself and I thank you for this love you have shown us and I ask you that in every moment you will help us to give this love to others.  When Jesus preached from the mountain he spoke of his vision, about the kingdom to come for the poor, and the mourning, and for those who do not know how to deal with the important question will be happy in residence in your heavenly kingdom.  Help us be focused on what it means to be your followers.  Help us to stay together. Amen.”

Other business from Thursday.

Find 2016 General Conference photos @ EOC Flickr

On Wednesday Council of Bishops President Bruce Ough reported back to the body of delegates, as had been requested through a non-binding motion that was passed during the afternoon business session on Tuesday.

Here is Bishop Ough’s statement, in its entirety:

“Just a reminder that the action you took yesterday was a nonbinding resolution. Which meant in effect that the Council of Bishops was not obligated to do anything about it. We were honored that you asked us to consider this and have taken it up. Also, anything I share with you in this report is unbound as well. It would be your future decisions guiding by presiding officers in this session of subsequent sessions that would determine how you chose to respond. Finally, I want to be very clear that this is grown out of many hours of discussion, discernment and prayer, and the very capable, late night work of a small writing team. Furthermore, this is not the unanimous, not everyone is on board, but a very solid endorsement of the Council. As I make that statement I would also affirm that unanimity is not the same as unity.

“’But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.    Galatians 3:25-29 (NRSV)’

“Your bishops were honored to receive the request of General Conference to help lead our United Methodist Church forward during this time of both great crisis and great opportunity.  As far as we can discover, this is the first time that a General Conference has ever made such a request of the Council of Bishops, and we accept this request with humility.

“We share with you a deep commitment to the unity of the church in Christ our Lord.  Yesterday, I shared the deep pain we feel.  We have all prayed for months and continue to do so. We seek, in this kairos moment, a way forward for profound unity on human sexuality and other matters. This deep unity allows for a variety of expressions to co-exist in one church.  Within the Church, we are called to work and pray for more Christ-like unity with each other rather than separation from one another.  This is the prayer of Jesus in John chapter 17.

“UNITY – We believe that our unity is found in Jesus Christ; it is not something we achieve but something we receive as a gift from God. We understand that part of our role as bishops is to lead the church toward new behaviors, a new way of being and new forms and structures which allow a unity of our mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” while allowing for differing expressions as a global church. Developing such new forms will require a concerted effort by all of us, and we your bishops commit ourselves to lead this effort. We ask you, as a General Conference, to affirm your own commitment to maintaining and strengthening the unity of the church.  We will coordinate this work with the various efforts already underway to develop global structures and a new General Book of Discipline for our church.  Strengthening the unity of the church is a responsibility for all of us.

“PRAYER – We accept our role as spiritual leaders to lead the UMC in a ‘pause for prayer’ – to step back from attempts at legislative solutions and to intentionally seek God’s will for the future.  As a Council of Bishops, we will lead the church in every part of the world in times of worship, study, discernment, confession and prayer for God’s guidance. We ask you, as a General Conference, to join us in this effort, beginning this week. We were moved by the sight of delegates praying around the table, and we hope these efforts will continue.  As your bishops we are ready to join you and to lead you in these times of prayer.

“PROCESSES –  We have discussed in depth the processes which might help our church heal and move forward – up to and including the possibility of a called General Conference in 2018 or 2019.  We have not finalized our plans for such processes, but we will keep working on options we have heard from many of you, and we will keep reporting to the General Conference and to the whole church.

“NEXT STEPS – We recommend that the General Conference defer all votes on human sexuality and refer this entire subject to a special Commission, named by the Council of Bishops, to develop a complete examination and possible revision of every paragraph in our Book of Discipline regarding human sexuality. We continue to hear from many people on the debate over sexuality that our current Discipline contains language which is contradictory, unnecessarily hurtful, and inadequate for the variety of local, regional and global contexts.  We will name such a Commission to include persons from every region of our United Methodist Church, and will include representation from differing perspectives on the debate.  We commit to maintain an on-going dialogue with this Commission as they do their work, including clear objectives and outcomes. Should they complete their work in time for a called General Conference, then we will call a two-to three-day gathering before the 2020 General Conference. (Of course, we will consult with GCFA regarding cost-effective ways to hold that gathering.)

“CONTINUING DISCUSSIONS – We will continue to explore options to help the church live in grace with one another – including ways to avoid further complaints, trials and harm while we uphold the Discipline. We will continue our conversation on this matter and report our progress to you and to the whole church.

“Today, as a way of beginning to find our way forward, we suggest that in place of the allotted legislative time we spend 1-2 hours of plenary time in prayer, confession and exploration of a creative way forward.  The bishops are prepared to provide questions to guide your conversations.  Your conversations will be the first step to a way forward.

“I invite you to join me as I conclude with a word of prayer. Come spirit of living God, hold us close to your heart, this fragile and hopeful moment. We desperately want to have the rythym our life together, our behaviors, our actions and our decisions in rythym with your heart. In rythym with your hearing for the people. Help us oh God to stay in love with you and to grow our love and grace for one another. In the precious and powerful name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, we offer you our prayers and our lives.  Amen.”

In a press conference following the morning plenary session Bishop Ough was asked if Wednesday’s statement had been impacted by the conversations the Council of Bishops has had with leaders from across the political spectrum within the denomination.

“I think without all those prior conversations, we would not be here.  I think they have been significant not so much in all the content in all that the bishops put forward, but they have been very significant in setting the spiritual tone,” Ough said.

Those gathered in the ballroom at the Oregon Convention Center spent considerable time in prayer on Wednesday as they discerned the will of God.  Bishop Gregory Palmer, of the West Ohio Conference, led the delegates, bishops and visitors in 30 minutes of prayer and discussion around their tables and in their bleacher seats following the morning break.

Most of the afternoon was devoted to – sometimes heated – discussion and debates of motions and amendments relating to human sexuality language in The Book of Discipline.  An unplanned break was called after Jen Ihlo, an attorney and lay delegate from the Baltimore-Washington Conference, asked Bishop William McAlilly to step down from the presider’s chair – the first time in the history of The United Methodist Church that such a request of a presiding bishop had been made at General Conference.

McAlilly remained in the chair following the break, to the applause of many.  The debating stopped when delegates voted 428-405 to adopt a motion to accept the Council of Bishops’ report given by Bishop Ough in the morning.  In accepting the motion, the body has referred all legislation involving language of human sexuality to the commission that will be created by the Council of Bishops.

Other business conducted on Wednesday include:

The Judicial Council ruled in Decision 1318 that mandatory penalties are unconstitutional.

Imagine No Malaria was celebrated for raising $68.5 million. “What began with the bite of a mosquito has transformed into a faith-driven global health movement,” said Bishop Thomas Bickerton, chairperson of Imagine No Malaria, before announcing the follow-up campaign.  “Together, we have Imagined No Malaria. Now let us imagine Abundant Health.”

Other presentations included the 30^th anniversary of DISCIPLESHIP Bible study, a report by the Global AIDS Fund, and one on the Sand Creek Massacre.

Images of the day can be found @ EOC Flickr.