Don’t Wait for General Conference
After the proposed dates for General Conference 2021 were leaked two weeks ago, I teamed up with Ann Jacob, Jessica Vittorio, Alejandra Salemi, and Carlene Fogle-Miller, all young United Methodists, to petition the Commission on the General Conference to choose alternative dates. The proposed dates are August 31-September 10, 2021--at the same time that many young people will be moving to new places for the start of university semesters, young professors will beginning new terms, and young parents will be getting their children into the new routines for their first days of school. See the problem?
Now more than ever the voices of young people need to be present at the decision making tables of our Church. Next week my co-authors and I of the petition, which received support from the Council of Bishops, will be meeting with the Commission on GC to discuss alternative dates (perhaps 2022) and/or incorporating video conferencing (like Zoom) to make the Church's meetings more accessible (while taking into account regions that do not have high-speed internet). This is all to say that, no matter what the Commission decides to do, we will have AT LEAST an extra year before the next General Conference. So, what should we do?
Sine the start of my virtual preaching circuit last month, churches around the connection have asked that question: what should we do now? I won't pretend to have the answer, nor will I pretend that we are all on the same page--would we really be Methodists if we were?! What I hope to offer here are a few practical ways that queer affirming churches around the world can best utilize this extra time before GC. Ready? Here we go!
Embrace Technology: Without travel, the cost of brining in pastors, speakers, or lay people from other churches is minimal, which means that if your pastor or your reconciling group is confident in their abilities to walk others through the reconciling process, you can do that over Zoom! How could you partner with a church in rural Mississippi, Alabama, Germany, or Kenya? How could you connect with churches who are farther along or haven't begun the reconciling process? Use this extra time to embrace technology, to build relationships, open hearts, and build beloved community! This leads me to my second challenge,
Embrace the Connection: I know it sounds cheesy, and when the Council of Bishops kept repeating "lean in to the connection," it may have seemed somewhat out of touch with the impending schism. What I mean by this is, like I said above, we can connect with people around the world like never before--and that's a tremendous gift. As we prepare for GC, whenever that is, we have the chance to be agents of authentic change, building relationships that prepare for and shape what's next in the UMC. How can your church walk along side a church that isn't affirming yet; how can you partner with churches beyond the U.S. to hear the importance of the UMC in their areas; how can you embrace the connection like never before and be part of transforming it into a true place of love--or at the very least, mutual understanding?
Embrace Change: Again, this sounds simple and cheesy--and your churches are probably already doing this so I'll be their echo for a moment. Whenever this pandemic ends, we will all be different and we already are--but that's not bad. The way we do church has changed, the way we build and define community has broadened, and all the things we took for granted won't seem the same. Continue to acquaint your church with technology so that these global relationships will continue after the physical distancing measures are loosened. Use this dramatic moment of change as a launching point for honest conversation with your church about the realities facing the UMC. Prepare your community to use the lessons we've learned now so that we can be as adaptive in the future.
These are just a few simple challenges that you may already be engaging in, but it's my hope and conviction that if every church and church-goer takes these simple steps, we'll see a very different GC whenever it happens. May we each be vessels of the Divine for such a time as this, reaching out and building relational bridges, reimagining and embracing new forms of community, and reclaiming the very idea of church together.