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Church, Take a Breath

Posted: June 4, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: , , |Leave a comment

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.

This prayer recently has been on my mind as pastors and congregations celebrated Pentecost, the Church’s birthday. Often we come to Pentecost, forgetting the context out of which the Holy Spirit came.

The scriptural accounts of the days that followed Easter found in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20-21, and Acts 1 tell of the 40-day period Jesus spent instructing and preparing the disciples for their future. After those 40 days, Jesus ascended into heaven and 10 days later the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples as recorded in Acts 2.  Liturgically, the Church remembers this time of Jesus’ resurrection, further teaching, ascension, and the coming of the Spirit during the 50-days of Eastertide which concludes on the Day of Pentecost.

On Pentecost, the wind of the Spirit swept across Jerusalem, descended upon the disciples, and gave them grounding after they had been thrown into chaos by the events of the cross and the surprise of Jesus’ resurrection.

As I have reflected on the experience of the General Conference, I realized we were gathered during the 50 days of Easter.  With daily prayer and worship the General Conference delegates debated and discerned decisions of over 1000 petitions. 

Many of you have received commentary on what happened and did not happen at the General Conference. 

Here are my key takeaways: 

  • More local control for churches and potential regions of the world
  • Our theological, doctrinal, and missional core is solid without change
  • A path to unity was found without uniformity

Some key action and legislation included:

  • Restructuring and reducing the general budget by 43% to aid the local church.
  • Reducing the number of bishops in the US from 37 to 32
  • Regionalization, if adopted, will create a less US “centric” denominational structure. Adoption of regionalization requires a 2/3 aggregate vote of all annual conferences across the world.  This adoption process will commence in 2025.

To be clear, our Doctrinal Standards, Articles of Religion, Confession of Faith, Social Principles, Wesley’s Standard Sermons, Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on the New Testament, and our General Rules and Restrictive Rules cannot be changed even with the establishment of regions or the implementation of “Regionalization.”  See Paragraph 17, Article I, under our Restrictive Rules in the 2016 Book of Discipline.

The revision of the Social Principles resulted in a return to pre-1972 language with regard to human sexuality and then provided a global context to the definition of marriage.  The Social Principles are not doctrine, nor are they church law. Instead, they seek to speak about issues of the contemporary world from a sound biblical and theological foundation. 

This revision was an 8-year process consisting of 11 writing teams, translating to 4 different languages, and utilizing the contribution of 4000 people across the Church. These changes bring the Book of Discipline to a place where one group of people is not singled out for discrimination. These changes provide space for a differing opinion within the United Methodist Church while avoiding broad mandates. 

Nothing passed by the General Conference compels a church to receive a gay pastor or to hold a same-gender wedding. The legislation explicitly protects the rights of clergy not to conduct a same-gender wedding and for a local church not to hold a same-gender wedding. Pastors have the authority to decide when and for whom they will officiate a marriage ceremony. Local churches can establish their own policies with regard to worship services conducted in their sanctuary. Also, the DS or Bishop shall not require or prohibit any local church from holding a same-sex marriage on church property. 

Be assured that the appointive cabinet and bishop will continue to use careful, prayerful consultation in the appointive process with the goal of matching clergy and churches in covenants that result in fruitful ministry. 

Although ¶2553 was eliminated from the Discipline and the former disaffiliation process is no longer available, I have directed the Trustees and the Administrative Strategy Team to develop a process within the bounds of the Discipline for local churches who seek a different path outside the United Methodist Church. 

Last year at the Annual Conference, I concluded my sermon by quoting Gil Rendle. Gil is one of the voices of the United Methodist Church, who over the years, has offered thoughtful reflection for the church. In his book, Countercultural, he reminds us of our work: 

  1. Love God. We cannot control what is happening around us but we can trust, love and align ourselves with the God who created a shared creation that has its own control.
  2. Love your neighbor.  If we want or hope for a worthy life for ourselves, we must seek to provide it to all others in order to have it for ourselves. 

3. Include everyone. We can not live without community, but the only community that can sustain us must include all others without judgment, or it cannot sustain us. 

These are the distinguishing marks of United Methodists.  

As we step into our new church context, I want to invite the Church to take a breath. Let the Pentecostal winds of the Holy Spirit help us understand more fully the decisions made at the General Conference. What is true is that we are a Church of Grace, unmerited Grace. 

I look forward to our faithful pursuit of the continuing story of Acts. 

Bishop McAlilly

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