What will February bring?

The United Methodist Church (UMC) is facing a crisis of sorts.  I say “of sorts,” owing to the fact that no one can be certain of what our church will look like, say, this time next year.  The church will hold a special Called General Conference in February, from the 23^rd to the 16^th.  (The United Methodist Church normally convenes its General Conference every four years.  This body alone can speak for the denomination, can set policy and budget for the entire UMC and alter our communion’s Book of Discipline – our document of organization and polity.  (The Book of Discipline is ordered by numbered paragraphs [¶] rather than page references.  In this writing ¶10.4.A would designate Discipline Paragraph 104, section 4, sub-section A.)  In this instance, however, the UMC makes provision for a Called General Conference to meet in the interregnum under certain circumstances.  Our Council of Bishops has called this meeting.)

The stated issue is “human sexuality.”  The real matter at hand is how the denomination will relate to the LGBTQ community.  Currently Paragraph 304.3.1 prohibits the ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals.  The Social Principles (a series of statements in the Discipline dealing with current official teaching on a variety of issues) states:

We affirm that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God,” and that all persons need the ministry of the church, the denomination states… The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching. -- ¶65.G

These are the things that are truly on the table.  There are several suggestions as to how the church should order itself in this matter.  They range from “do nothing, make no changes” to a sweeping revision of our practices.  The final action of the Special Charge Conference (2019) will precipitate responses on a spectrum with “total dissolution of the denomination as we know it” on one end and “business as usual” on the other.

One of my major concerns is that I fear that there may be strong knee-jerk reaction by a lot of people.  So, I offer this word of calm.  It is not the case that delegates will leave 2019 having finally decided all of the issues and nuances of the question.  Anything that this body decides will require enabling legislation that will take time to implement, whatever it may be.  The UMC has its next regularly-scheduled General Conference on the calendar for May 5-15 of 2020 (2020).  The work of 2019 will fall in the lap of 2020 for fine-tuning and for legislation that 2019 had not foreseen.  I believe that we need to remember that the Conferences elected delegates who will attend 2019 in the year 2015 for attendance at the 2016 General Conference.  The Annual Conferences had no idea at the time what would come before these delegations.  I believe that the 2020 makeup will be decisively different from its predecessors.  It will fall to these folks in 2020 to shape the UMC position with any degree of permanence.  I suspect that enabling legislation will have to wait for General Conference 2024 to formalize it. 

All that is to say that I would hope that Methodist people would show some restraint in February or March of this year.  Observers say that the Queen Mary doesn’t turn on a dime.  The Queen Mary is a speedboat compared to the machinations of the UMC.  I have every hope that cooler heads will prevail and that no one will do lasting violence to our witness.