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A live report from the 2005 US National Conference and General Conference. Thursday MorningJune 23 - Page 1. 8:30 am. I arrived at the UB Headquarters building around 6:45, wanting to go over yesterday's posts and correct what I was confident were multitudinous misspellings and other brands of typos. As I worked on Page 2, there was a loud POP outside, and the lights flickers. Bishop Hirschy came into my office and said his computer had just shut down. My computers were still going, but the internet connection was gone. Gary Dilley came into the office and said power was out at his home. I came over to the Dining Commons, where all power was gone. People were eating in relative darkness. Fortunately, there was still-hot coffee, which proves God remains sovereign. About 8:15, the power returned, and Bishop Hirschy called the US National Conference back into session at 8:30. The musicians did their thing, and at 8:40, Annette Sites came to the podium to give the morning devotional. Annette is the wife of Dennis Sites, pastor of the Jerusalem Chapel congregation in Churchville, Virginia. She's talking about the various transformations that have occurred in her life, particularly as a pastor's wife. And I must say--she's got everyone eating out of her hand. This is an absolutely captivating devotional, with lots of humor, and just by typing, I feel like I'm missing things I'll regret. 8:55 Annette finished. Wow, that was good! She did what I've often suggested that pastors do--tell a story, a length, to help people get a definite picture in their mind. And then tack on a specific application. That makes good writing. But it's also what Jesus did. He'd tell this long story with plenty of detail--a parable--and then would say, "Now let me tell you what it means." Most pastors use sermon illustrations almost apologetically, injecting a short story into their message and then getting back to the "serious" stuff. I vote for long stories that leave mental images you can't escape. Just a little hobby-horse of mine. Now it's 9:00, and Bishop Hirschy is getting us started with business. Bishop Hirschy is explaining something that happened yesterday, or that didn't happen, regarding the election of ELT members. After the ballots were collected, counted, and the results announced, five ballots were found at the end of a table. They were never counted. Bishop Hirschy explained that he hadn't looked at the ballots, didn't want to look at them. But he was recommending that it's the responsibility of persons voting to turn in their ballots, and he was recommending that the ballots not be counted. Plus, he said that according to the tally sheets for the votes that were counted, even if all five ballots voted for the same person, it might possibly change only one result, and that would require the same vote on all five ballots. The delegates agreed that it was best that the ballots not be counted, and that they just be discarded. It was an excellent call on the Bishop's part, a judgment call on an unusual, awkward situation. Active Licensed MinistersWe still need an interpretation of what the Constitution now means when it says all "active licensed ministers" in the UB church can serve as delegates to the National Conference. Tom Brodbeck presented the recommendation from the ad hoc committee (him, Luke Fetters, and Anthony Blair). They proposed this wording, which ends up being an amendment to something that I can't recall offhand. The effect is this:
Retired pastors who are not active ministers won't be included. Beth Palmer made a motion that retired pastors would be included, whether or not they are currently serving in a church. It's an amendment by substitution, but you don't care about that. I wouldn't. Just show me the money. Tom Brodbeck pointed out that the referendum approved for 2007 takes away the "active" idea, and just makes all ministers, whether serving or not, voting delegates. Luke Fetters says he's not against having retired ministers vote at National Conference. He's just against trying to circumvent language in the Constitution by redefining it in the Discipline. For a two-year period, he says, we're stuck with what's now in the Constitution. 9:25 Bob Eberly asked when a referendum item officially becomes part of the Constitution. He was referring to the two items approved on Tuesday. Bishop Hirschy said it would be appropriate for the conference to take action on that. Normally things take effect January 1 of the following year, but we live in the spirit of changes until then. They voted, and it passed. Retired ministers are in, active or not. The number of lay delegates each church can send will be based on a formula based on the church's average attendance: 1-150 people: 1 delegate The MinistryThe Discipline Revision Committee is recommending that all of the chapters in the Discipline dealing with categories of ministers and stationing of ministers be removed from the Discipline. Only the introductory chapter would remain. This would give much-needed flexibility as we launch into a structure which, to be honest, we're not really sure how it's gonna work. Those chapters would be put in a Pastoral Handbook under the authority of the new Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team, which could update the policies there as rapidly as they needed, rather than be bound to follow them until they can be changed in 2007. This is a pretty big deal. There was opposition yesterday to removing information about conference organization and structure from the Discipline, though the delegates ended up doing it anyway. We'll probably get a little stronger opposition here, but I suspect they'll go along with the recommendation. Well, let's see. That's my prediction. Denny Miller moved that the entire recommendation, which has several parts, be approved. He said we've had it with plenty of time to read it, so let's do it. Open Theism StatementGary Graham (Michindoh clergy) moved that the statements on open theism and inclusivism be included in the handbook. David Rawley (Mid-Atlantic clergy) gave an impassioned argument--he's always succint and compelling--about how we sat down with the College, looked them in the eye, and said, "We don't want this doctrine being taught to our students." Now, if we are too "lazy" to impose the same requirement on our ministers, then we've got an integrity problem. Michael Mudge mentioned previous doctrinal statements passed, but never included in the Discipline, regarding tongues, women in ministry, baptism, and other issues. Paul Fetters said he is disappointed that Gary Graham made "my motion." He said he had been waiting to be told, "Now is the time," and Gary beat him to it. He said he's never been pleased about the statement (he wrote) on Depravity being put in the Discipline, but there was no other forum for it at the time. He went on with some other remarks which drew a lot of laughter. Dr. Fetters--when he goes to the microphone, you better perk up and listen, because whatever he says is going to be enjoyable, interesting, and most likely, very sensible. 9:55 They voted on the motion, as amended, and they approved recommendation 45-1 from the Discipline Revision Committee. That means they don't need to deal with all of the Discipline Revisions from the Ministry chapters. Hours of time were potentially saved. Which is good, since we're halfway to lunch, which means two hours to adjournment. And counting. Geographic OrganizationThe chapter "Division of the Territory" defines various organizational and geograhic entities, like Appointment, Local Church, Mission District, conference, and other things. Several new items are being added. One is a definition of "Cluster" as: "A group of 5-10 churches (ideally not more than seven churches)." The proposal also eliminated the category of "Affiliate Local Church," which may be a bit controversial. Daryl Elliott inquired about this. Tom Brodbeck explains that the current affiliate churches--former Evangelical United Brethren congregations received around 1969 that didn't want to join the merger into the United Methodist Church--will now need to sign the Local Church Covenant in order to be member UB churches. That means, they need to agree that they can abide by the statement preventing lodge members from being church members. The affiliate category was created to give them an exception to that clause. With the covenant, the category would no longer be needed or applicable. 10:00. Time for the conference photo. |