“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear—though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea…”

Psalm 46:1, 2

The final day of General Conference has arrived.

During morning worship, Bishop Tracy Malone offered to us a richly provocative sermon focusing on the steadfastness of God’s grace, dynamically at work even as we steward the anxiety of living into the historic changes we have initiated at General Conference and interpreting those changes to different kinds of churches. In her preaching, Bishop Malone powerfully reminded us that how we go forth from General Conference matters:

“By the end of today, we will have conducted the church’s business and engaged in two weeks of holy conferencing. But so what?! What now?! General Conference will only have meaning if we go forth trusting in the God who is our refuge and our strength. General Conference will only have meaning if we commit ourselves to showing up courageously in places of pain and poverty, suffering and sadness, injustice and injury and offering people Jesus Christ and his love. How we go matters. How we show up matters. How we love matters.”

How we go matters. Indeed, it does. It matters after General Conference, and after every Sunday worship service in a local church, and after every meeting or gathering of Christ-followers who are endeavoring to remain faithful. How we go matters.

Our long plenary session today involved caring for 27 petitions, all of which needed to be acted on in some fashion before the conclusion of General Conference. In our actions related to those petitions, we approved, among many other things, a greatly reduced 2025-2028 denominational budget. We also voted to set the number of U.S. bishops at 32, meaning that there will be no new bishops elected at this year’s Jurisdictional Conferences. 

We also made two changes to the Book of Discipline that I believe to be particularly noteworthy:

1. We removed the language from Disciplinary paragraph 341.6 that prohibited United Methodist clergy from officiating at same sex weddings and United Methodist Churches from hosting such services.

2. We added language to Disciplinary paragraph 340.2 that makes very clear that clergy cannot be compelled or required to officiate at any wedding that goes against their conscience or their theological convictions.

I see these actions as liberational in two different ways. First, because of action number one, United Methodist clergy and congregations are now liberated to conduct and host same sex weddings (if they so choose) in those contexts where such ministry is missionally urgent. And second, as a result of action number two, United Methodist clergy are liberated from any requirement to act against their theological convictions concerning the officiation of a wedding. 

We concluded our plenary session at 6:30 this evening. Shortly thereafter, following a time of prayer, Bishop Malone declared adjournment. 

I am tired, friends—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Tired, and eager to be in the presence of my beloved.

In my tiredness, I am also proud of the United Methodist Church and the faithful work of the delegates over the last twelve days. 

This is my sixth experience of General Conference:

Pittsburgh in 2004. 

Fort Worth in 2008. 

Tampa in 2012. 

Portland in 2016. 

St. Louis in 2019.

And Charlotte in 2024.

This General Conference felt like the culmination of what has been, for me, a twenty-year journey alongside the beauty and brokenness, the pain and potential of denominational ministry. This will most likely be my last General Conference. It is time, I think, to entrust this work to other minds and voices who will bless the church in ways that I cannot. 

As I have said many times, I remain a United Methodist because I believe that United Methodism gets more things right than any other denomination of the church. Furthermore, I believe that, what United Methodism gets wrong (and there have been many such things), it keeps working, repenting, and reforming until what is wrong is made right. 

My personal conviction is that this General Conference righted several wrongs in the church. I was honored to be a part of that work.

Thank you for being alongside me in the pilgrimage. 

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives…” —Isaiah 61:1

“A long time after we are dead, the lives our lives prepare will live here, their houses strongly placed…”—From the poem “A Vision” by Wendell Berry

I have long been inspired by the courageous work of Christian missionaries, the best of whom find ways to incarnate the love, ministry, and narrative of Jesus Christ in various portions of the world—not through coercion, colonialism, or triumphalism, but with a graciousness and vulnerability that inspire them to be more eager to listen than to speak, more eager to hear than to be heard, and more eager to learn than to teach. 

Today, during morning worship, we commissioned a large gathering of new United Methodist missionaries who are being sent into the world—everywhere from Switzerland to Sierra Leone; from Puerto Rico to Poland; from Madagascar to the Middle East. Bishop Ruby-Nell Estrella offered a powerful proclamation to the new missionaries and to all of us: “Go forth into all the world, missionaries and General Conference delegates,” the Bishop said, “and remember that Jesus will be with you wherever you go, even to the ends of the earth.”

As I prayed for these women and men who have said yes to God’s call in a way that has completely unsettled their lives and reconfigured their trajectories, I also prayed for the deepening of my own obedience to God and my willingness to be radically inconvenienced for the sake of the gospel. 

During today’s plenary session, we experienced two historic moments.

In the first of those moments, General Conference delegates voted to grant sacramental authority to Deacons by virtue of their ordination. Currently, Deacons can administer the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion only when duly authorized by a bishop. Today’s action ensures that Deacons no longer require sacramental authorization and can freely administer “the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion for the sake of extending the mission and ministry of the church and offering the means of grace to the world.”

The Deacons alongside whom I have served over the years have been some of the most gifted and sacramentally-minded clergy I have ever known. I celebrate today’s action to expand and formalize the sacramental ministry of the Order of Deacon.

Today’s second historic moment was nothing short of transformational for United Methodism’s identity and trajectory-altering for its future ministry.

General Conference delegates adopted the final proposal in a series of petitions intended to revise the denomination’s Social Principles. In adopting this final proposal, delegates removed a phrase from the Social Principles that, for the last 52 years, has served as the foundation and justification for anti-LGBTQ+ policy restrictions on marriage and ordination. The phrase to which I am referring is this: “The practice of homosexuality…is incompatible with Christian teaching.” To repeat, because of today’s legislative action, this phrase is no longer a part of United Methodist polity.

For many traditionalist United Methodists, several of whom have reached out to me via text or email today to express their strong disagreement with the General Conference’s decision, the removal of this phrase and its related restrictions represents a severe divergence from their understanding of biblical authority and scriptural proscriptions. They are hurting and angry with this important and historic change. I truly appreciate the depth of their pain. Some concerned clergy have also reached out to me today, fearful that many in their congregation will leave the denomination over this development. I understand their anxiety about the viability of the churches they serve.

If I may speak personally, though, today’s action, for me, was the arrival of a long-delayed justice for a portion of the human community and the entire church. For 52 years, the United Methodist Church has weaponized its polity against LGBTQ+ persons, thereby causing decades of harm in the name of Jesus as a result of a fixed and unyielding understanding of biblical authority. Today’s action, in that regard, is the culmination of what has been a long and agonizing journey. As a result of that culmination, United Methodists can now affirm that no one— irrespective of age, racial identity, gender or gender identity, or sexual orientation—is “incompatible” with the church’s ministry and teaching. No one, in other words, is categorized as “incompatible” for being who God created them to be.

A dear friend of mine, watching General Conference on the livestream, texted me immediately following the vote: “I just burst into tears of joy. I have spent most of my life being told that I am ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’ per the Social Principles. No more! Thanks be to God! No more!”

Indeed. No more.

My day concluded with a late and lovely dinner with the delegates from the New York Annual Conference. It was good to break bread with friends and colleagues who live and minister in the region in which I am now appointed to serve.

Rest easy, friends, and rest well.

“I’m not going to die. I’m going home, like a shooting star.”  

—Sojourner Truth

In this morning’s worship, we were led by the preaching of Bishop David Wilson, the first Native American to be elected bishop in the United Methodist Church. Bishop Wilson spoke to us of “the great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) and “those who proclaimed the word of God to us” (Hebrews 13:7), focusing on those who had been instrumental in the shaping of his life and faith. We heard songs of praise during worship that were written and sung on the Trail of Tears, as we remembered those who glorified God even in the face of displacement, forced relocation, suffering, and death. “We honor such souls,” Bishop Jones said, “when we make decisions that will improve the health and spiritual vitality of the next seven generations.” It was a sermon that helped us to appreciate with greater attentiveness some of the decisions facing this General Conference.

We concluded worship by remembering with prayerful gratitude those bishops, spouses,  and General Conference delegates and leaders who have died since the last General Conference. As the bell sounded for each soul, we celebrated the legacy of these faithful servants of the church who have gone before us. 

Our plenary today included a full agenda:

• We welcomed representatives of the United Methodist ecclesiastical family, including our Pan Methodist full communion partner churches, our concordat partner churches, and our other partner churches with whom we share covenant, affiliation, or full communion.

• We approved Wespath’s new retirement/pension plan for clergy, expected to be less costly than the current plan while generating no additional long-term liabilities for annual conferences.

• We approved the deletion of Paragraph 2553 from the Book of Discipline, meaning that the Discipline no longer contains a mechanism for disaffiliation.

• We elected new members of the Commission on General Conference, the Judicial Council (which rules on the constitutionality and Disciplinary integrity of United Methodist legislative decisions), and the Board of Trustees of John Street United Methodist Church in New York City (the oldest Methodist congregation in America, dating back to 1766).

Every so often, a moment occurs at General Conference that bears the weight of history with particular momentousness. One of those moments occurred this morning.

Through the consent calendar and without plenary debate, General Conference delegates removed from the Book of Discipline a 40-year-old ban on the ordination of clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” Any attempt on my part to capture in words the significance of this action would be woefully insufficient. I will simply say that the vote took me to a place of deep emotion as I reflected on the faithful and gifted LGBTQ+ persons whom I have known and loved over the decades and who lived daily with the anguish of being marginalized by the church or denied the ordination to which they felt called. Their journeys were deeply present in my heart and mind as I voted today. I believe that today’s action took place upon the sacred ground of their legacy.

I acknowledge that some who are reading this post will lament or condemn this action by the General Conference, interpreting it as “yet another sinful initiative on the part of an apostate church” (as one person phrased it on social media). If this reflects your perspective, I am not your enemy, nor am I cynical about your viewpoint, even as I disagree strongly with it. Our disagreement does not diminish our shared commitment to what we believe to be faithful.

Others of you will celebrate the General Conference’s action, seeing it as the long-awaited righting of a heartbreaking injustice. If this describes your mindset, know that I add my heart and voice to your celebration.

Important to note is the fact that today’s General Conference action does not force any United Methodist pastor or congregation to act against their conscience concerning human sexuality. The removal of the ordination ban, however, serves to widen the United Methodist circle in a spirit of expanded inclusiveness.

After today’s vote, a delegate friend of mine, a candidate for ministry who describes himself as “a queer, lifelong United Methodist,” walked over to where I was standing, wiping tears from his eyes. “The church I love,” he said, “is finally protecting my soul instead of wounding it.”

Indeed.

It has been an important day, friends. I stand with you in prayer and continuing hope. 

(photo from UM News)

Christ, the church you gave is broken. Spirit, come and make us whole

—from a hymn text by Bishop William Boyd Grove

As part of this morning’s worship, we welcomed representatives from various Christian denominations as a celebration of United Methodism’s fierce and longstanding ecumenical spirit. Indeed, part of what I love about United Methodism is its stubborn refusal to become idolatrous about its own place or status within the body of Christ. Instead, from the time of the Wesley brothers, there has been within the Wesleyan movement an eagerness to build relationships with other Christian traditions, fueled by the conviction that what we share commonly in Christ is far more substantive than anything that divides us. 

At the heart of our ecumenical celebration today was an affirmation of the full communion that the United Methodist Church now shares with both provinces of the Moravian Church. If you know your Wesleyan history, you will remember that Moravian spirituality had a significant influence on the faith of both John and Charles Wesley. Today’s celebration of full communion with the Moravians, then, felt like a natural development. It was a true joy to join with other delegates today in reading these words from the Moravian book of worship: “The church is a single body of interdependent members, each having a place and a purpose.”

Interestingly, as part of our legislative work this week, the General Conference also approved full communion with the Episcopal Church in the United States, which represents the culmination of years of ecumenical work. If the Episcopalians approve the full communion in the months ahead, it will become yet another milestone in American ecumenism. 

Worth noting is the fact that, as part of our ecumenical focus today during morning worship, we sang a powerful hymn, the text of which was written by the late Bishop William Boyd Grove. Bishop Grove was elected to the episcopacy out of Western Pennsylvania and was a strong voice of encouragement for me throughout my life. In his hymn, entitled “Christ, the Church You Gave Is Broken,” Bishop Grove crafted these words:

Christ, the church you gave is broken,

Mend it now through us, we pray;

That the message it has spoken

May be heard through us today.

Make us one now, make us one now,

In this troubled, frightened hour.

Indeed. And amen.

To put an exclamation point upon today’s celebration of ecumenism, our preacher this morning—Rev. Dr. Jerry Pillay, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches—challenged us to see ecumenical relationship as an opportunity to establish a more expansive Christ-centered justice in the world. “The task of the church,” Rev. Dr. Pillay preached, “is to speak and live prophetically in the face of the world’s various injustices—gender justice; climate justice; economic justice; racial justice; even digital justice. Where is mercy, after all, when suffering and injustice are tolerated?”

We were in plenary session all day long until 6:50. In addition to approving a very important consent calendar (more on that in a moment), delegates spent most of their time and energy today discussing and debating legislation that has significant financial impact on the denomination, since matters with financial impact must be acted upon before a denominational budget can be approved. Here is the long and short of it: This afternoon, the General Conference passed a new “base rate” for The United Methodist Church’s apportionment formula. (Apportionments are the proportional missional giving amounts assigned to each Annual Conference, which the Annual Conference then apportions to local churches. These apportionments are what fund the global ministry of the United Methodist Church.) Because of a smaller number of congregations following a season of disaffiliation, delegates today approved the lowering of the current base rate of 3.29% to a base rate of 2.6% for 2025 and 2026. Then, if the apportionment collection rate is 90% or higher during those years, the base rate will move back to 2.9% for 2027 and 2028.

The bottom line is this: U.S. annual conferences will be asked to pay lower apportionments over the next few years. Also, denominational ministries that rely on those apportionments — including general boards and agencies and episcopal leadership — will need to budget with those reductions in mind.

It felt like we did hard but important work to rightsize our budget framework for the current reality. There was not a spirit of gloom in the room either. Far from it, there was a sense of eager hope, emerging from our shared realization that we have become a different kind of church—one that is poised for a unique ministry in this new day.

Now, back to the consent calendar we approved today.

Through the approval of today’s consent calendar, delegates quietly and without plenary debate began to remove or reverse church restrictions against LGBTQ persons. Some of those restrictions were strengthened and expanded at the 2019 special session of the General Conference. Having been a delegate at that conference in 2019, I can tell you that there was an entirely different spirit in the room today.

Here are some of the changes that the General Conference approved today through the consent calendar:

• The removal of a Disciplinary ban on denominational funding of LGBTQ ministry or anything that promotes the acceptance of homosexuality

• The removal of a Disciplinary ban on boards of ministry that prevented them from considering “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” as candidates for ministry, and the removal of the requirement that bishops rule such persons ineligible for ordination

• The elimination of mandatory penalties against those who officiate at same-sex weddings

• The adding of an allowance for gay clergy in good standing to be appointed to other annual conferences if an appointment is not available for them in their own annual conference

• The setting of a moratorium on judicial proceedings related to the current denominational bans related to LGBTQ ministry

There are substantive conversations still to have at General Conference about United Methodism’s policies concerning LGBTQ persons. Today’s legislative approvals, however, signal the advent of a new era of inclusiveness and advocacy. I realize that not everyone in United Methodism will celebrate this new era. Still, what I have just described reflects the efforts of a church that is poising itself in fresh ways to minister with all persons. 

Today concluded with a special dinner for the delegations of the Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Susquehanna Annual Conferences. It was good to spend time at table with leadership from these three neighboring regions.

Take heart, friends. God is good, all the time. Moreover, the grace of Jesus is sufficient for every day, including this one.

(Dancers from United Methodist-related Pfeiffer University help introduce a report to General Conference from United Women in Faith. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.)

God desires us to experience a deep and intimate interconnectedness, a relationship that is as vulnerable as it is transforming…a kin-dom in which even those labeled “the least” receive the most of our love.

—Bishop Karen Oliveto

Today’s morning worship, beginning as always at 8:00, was vibrant with global music, multilayered prayer, and preaching that resonated with prophetic energy. In her sermon, Bishop Karen Oliveto, focusing on Jesus’ revelation that his heart is either blessed or broken by the way we treat “the least of these,” issued a challenge to become more faithfully and riskily the kind of church that truly sees those souls that are too often ignored and marginalized. “Every single one of us has someone we don’t see,” the Bishop declared. “We can’t be the church if we are defining ourselves by those we are leaving out. It begs the question: Have we ever let Christ in?!”

What an unsettling question to ponder! “Have we ever let Christ in?” Perhaps it is a primary question for every church as it considers and evaluates its ministry. 

Our worship concluded today with the consecration of several persons to the Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner—the only recognized office in the United Methodist Church for laity called to full-time vocations in servant ministries. Through today’s consecration, these called and faithful servants of God (including Western Pennsylvania’s own Leanna Lake) were set apart for vital and representative ministry on behalf of the church. I was authentically moved as bishops prayed prayers of consecration for each Deaconess and Home Missioner, celebrating each person’s present and future ministry in the life of the church. 

In today’s plenary sessions, in addition to gathering nominations for essential General Conference committees, we received a number of reports from various portions of United Methodism:

• United Women in Faith, whose ministries of justice, advocacy, mission, Christian education, and spiritual formation are rightly described as the backbone of the church
• United Methodist Men, who are envisioning new ways to engage the men of our congregations in mission and ministry
• Africa University, whose educational work continues to have a significant impact throughout Africa
• Higher Education and Ministry, celebrating the continued work of United Methodist-related schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries
• Wespath—The agency that administers pension plans for United Methodist clergy and laity (Wespath has submitted legislation to General Conference that, if approved, will transition the clergy pension plan to an account based plan—yet another manifestation of denominational restructuring to ensure sustainability.)

Throughout the late morning and afternoon, substantial time was devoted to one of the most pressing challenges of the global church—specifically, the significant tension between the need for additional bishops on the continent of Africa (where United Methodism continues to grow) and the hard financial realities of the current denomination (resulting in a 42% reduction in the recommended denominational budget). We approved the creation of two additional episcopal areas in Africa which will result in two additional bishops. It is an insufficient number, and that fact is fully acknowledged by the General Conference. Yet, the two additional bishops are at least an affirmation of a profound need for leadership in Africa that the denomination must and will continue to address.

The day concluded with a Service of Lament, Confession, and Hope—a brief time of worship in which we denounced the sexual abuse and misconduct that has occurred within the United Methodist Church, confessed the complicity (often through silence) of laity and clergy in the harm caused, and reaffirmed our belief in the healing and redemptive love of God. It was both a time of prayerful truth-telling and a celebration of God’s faithfulness and grace.

As I move toward what I hope will be a good night’s rest, I am thankful for the day. It felt like a good beginning to a week that will demand some hard and vitally important conversations and decisions.

Peace.

“Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.”
—Mark Buchanan

Today is a day of worship and sabbath rest for the General Conference delegates and volunteers. Thus far, I have experienced an authentic day of sabbath in the presence of beloved friends—the kind of friends that help my soul to breathe, pray, and rest. 

After a good night’s sleep (and a later wake-up time!), I joined Mallory Miles and Liz Lennox in experiencing worship at Myers Park United Methodist Church. Mallory is a member of Western Pennsylvania’s General Conference delegation and Liz is the Director of Communications for both the Western Pennsylvania and Susquehanna Annual Conferences. The three of us have been friends for years and have stood together in various portions of significant territory. We’ve laughed together at life’s absurdities, wept together over life’s pain, and pondered together over life’s profundities. To experience a beautiful time of worship with these two friends today immediately became my favorite moment of General Conference. 

When we sat down in one of the pews in the beautiful sanctuary today, the man sitting next to us, whom I did not know, stood up, pointed at me, and said, “You’re Eric Park, right?” It turns out that he is a regular online attender of our Sunday morning worship services at Christ Church NYC! “I love your church’s worship,” he said to me, “and it always speaks to my heart. Keep up the good work, and we’re praying for you and the other delegates at General Conference.” 

Today’s guest preacher at Myers Park UMC was Rev. Magrey deVega, the Senior Pastor of Hyde Park UMC in Tampa Florida. (Interestingly, Hyde Park UMC was where I attended worship during the General Conference of 2012 in Tampa.) Rev. deVega’s sermon, which focused on the John 15 text about Jesus being the true vine, was as tender as it was teleological and as pastoral as it was deeply theological. The sermon challenged me (us) to consider the pain of pruning, the urgency of abiding, and the joy of bearing fruit. I continue to hold Rev. deVega’s sermon in my thoughts as I reflect upon what it means for the United Methodist denomination to be pruned, to abide in the presence of the Christ who calls us, and to bear the kind of fruit that bears witness to the priorities of God. 

It was a truly inspiring time of worship. The ministry of music and liturgy were richly beautiful.

Following worship, Liz and Mallory dropped me off at a restaurant entitled “Easy Like Sunday,” where I met another friend whose presence in my life requires a bit of explanation. Since February of 2023, I have participated in an online morning prayer ministry offered by the church I serve (Christ Church NYC). Most of the participants in this Monday through Friday ministry are Christ Church members. There are some participants, however, who live in other parts of the country but connect virtually almost every weekday morning with the prayer ministry. One of those persons is Dawn, a deep-hearted, wise-minded, and sensitive-spirited Christ-follower who lives about 90 minutes away from Charlotte. I have seen Dawn’s face on my computer screen most mornings for a year-and-a-half. Today, I met her in person for the very first time—at the “Easy Like Sunday” restaurant in Charlotte! What a sweet gift to my spirit it was to spend some time with Dawn, as we allowed our hearts to connect in encouraging and restful ways. In a sense, I met a longtime friend for the very first time! 

In a little while, I will head to a social dinner, at which will be present all the delegates, volunteers, and family members from Western Pennsylvania who are here in Charlotte for General Conference. The only agenda for the evening will be to enjoy one another’s company. The people at those tables will be souls I have known and loved for decades. They have mentored, shaped, and nurtured me throughout the years of the journey. While we do not all land in the same places theologically all the time, we share a love for Jesus and his church that has taken many of us into multiple places of ministry—including multiple General Conferences. As much as I love ministry in New York City, I never stop missing the presence of my Western Pennsylvania friends and colleagues. It will elevate my spirit to be in their collective presence tonight.

As I spent some quiet time in my hotel room this afternoon, I did a bit of searching through social media, simply to see what other United Methodists in my various networks are saying about General Conference. It was a powerful reminder to me of one of the greatest challenges of authentic Christian community: The intensity of divergent perspectives. What one person sees as healing, another sees as hurtful. What one person discerns to be beautiful, another experiences as broken. What one Christ-follower interprets as God-honoring, another interprets as apostasy. I have steadily and honestly described my first six days of General Conference as encouraging, hopeful, inspiring, and downright joyful at times. My little trip through the highways and byways of social media, though, helped me to understand afresh that my voice is only one, and it does not speak for everyone. I acknowledge my own limitations in this regard. I also reaffirm my love for those whose experience of General Conference and whose hopes for its outcomes are significantly different than mine.

That is the beauty of sabbath, I suppose. It allows minds to rest in the sufficiency of God’s grace, and it permits hearts to soften in the abiding goodness of divine love. 

Sabbath peace to all of you.

(Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News)

“Am I at a different General Conference than the United Methodist General Conference? There seems to be joy and rejoicing here in every corner instead of arguing.”

—Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa 

Back in 2010, I traveled with leaders from Western Pennsylvania to Zimbabwe. The purpose of the trip was to strengthen our relationships and ministry partnership with the leaders of the Zimbabwe East and West Annual Conferences. During our time in Zimbabwe, Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa and his Cabinet hosted us with heartwarming hospitality. At a dinner in his home one evening, Bishop Nhiwatiwa said something memorable to me over coffee. “The fact that you are here in my home” he said, “all the way from Pennsylvania, shows me that the heart of connectionalism in the United Methodist Church is still beating wildly.”

I thought back to that conversation during this morning’s time of worship as Bishop Nhiwatiwa preached to the delegates, volunteers, and guests the General Conference. After so many years of hearing disgruntled and disillusioned people casting aspersions at the theology, leadership, and ministry of the church I love, receiving what Bishop Nhiwatiwa preached today brought encouragement to my soul:

“There is no other denomination in the world, from my own witness, that does ministry with greater depth and deeper scope than the United Methodist Church…May the United Methodist Church forever continue to thrive for the sake of Jesus Christ!” 

It was a powerful moment for me—a clarion call from a longtime African Bishop to devote myself afresh to the unique ministry of this denomination that speaks of grace so eloquently and takes justice every bit as seriously as it takes prayer. 

A point of celebration: the monitoring of our communication in legislative sections revealed something significant: Of the people who spoke at microphones throughout the legislative sections over the last two days, 51.1% of the speakers were female. 47.9% were male. 1% were nonbinary. In a denomination that has long labored for gender equality and justice, this monitoring report inspires me to believe that United Methodism is becoming ever more faithfully the kind of church that incarnates Galatians 3:28: “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.” 

In this morning’s plenary session, one of the consent calendars that we approved included the passing of an important section of the Revised Social Principles. The approved section, now an official part of the Principles, includes 3 new protections for gender identity and 7 for sexual orientation. Here is one of the new protections:

“We condemn all attempts to deny individuals their basic rights or freedoms or to strip human beings of their inherent dignity and worth. We, therefore, reject within the church and wider society any act of discrimination, hatred, or violence directed against individual or groups based on national origin, tribal affiliation, ethnicity, age, gender identity, disability status, economic condition, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or any other factors.”

There will be other segments of the Revised Social Principles coming before us as General Conference continues. The fact that we approved this segment so robustly, though, speaks an important word about United Methodism’s current spirit concerning the protection of all persons, including those whom the church has historically marginalized because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. This is a significant and hopeful beginning for other conversations about human sexuality later in the General Conference. 

We spent the remainder of the day in legislative sections, finishing our work. Tomorrow (Sunday) will be a day of worship and sabbath rest. I look forward to it.

Thank you for being with me through this experience. 

“We have the audacity to believe that we accomplish great things by ourselves and on our own…instead of leaning on the One who is the source of all goodness…As United Methodists, we sing ‘All to Jesus, I Surrender.’ But do we? Do we truly surrender ourselves to the only One who can dignify the dirty and transform the trash?”

—Bishop Sharma Lewis

One of the great honors of my life is being part of the creation and facilitation of weekly worship opportunities for a congregation. It has become clear to me over the years that congregants have a deep, personal, and passionate sense of what they want their liturgy and worship environment to include and not include. Not a week goes by that I don’t receive some clearly voiced opinions in this regard. Decades of such opinions about worship have conditioned me to receive the opinions for what they are at their best—people’s heartfelt guarding of their worship’s content and setting, both of which, they believe, are important enough to preserve and defend. 

Of course, such a spirit of guarding and preservation can become hardened and fixed, creating a kind of cynicism toward anything outside of one’s liturgical preferences, so that one becomes landlord to the liturgy instead of on open-minded worshiper. This tendency has manifested itself in my own attitudes toward worship more than once. 

Part of why I love the experience of daily worship at General Conference is the way it regularly leads me outside of my familiar rhythms of doxology. I encounter here liturgical language and artistic expression that challenge and elevate my sensibilities; styles of prayer that meaningfully energize my engagement with the presence of God; and preaching cadence and content that inspire a heightened attentiveness.

This morning’s worship, for example, included innovative music that awakened my soul, sacred dance that intensified my availability to biblical truth, and liturgical language that compelled me to think more expansively about the life of discipleship. When Bishop Sharma Lewis, during her preaching, asked, “Do we truly surrender ourselves to the only One who can dignify the dirty and transform the trash?”—I wanted to say yes to following Jesus all over again. Such, I suppose, is the power of what the Holy Spirit can accomplish, even in—and sometimes especially in—the freshness of unfamiliar and creative liturgy.

Today’s vibrant worship led us into a morning plenary session that included the General Conference’s approval of a one-time exception to the normative delegate election cycle. This was an important act, given the many pandemic-related postponements and irregularities that the global church has accommodated over the last four years. The practical result of this one-time exception is the official credentialing of those delegates and reserve delegates who were elected in 2023 to fill vacancies. I celebrate that these gifted minds and souls have now been officially credentialed to be part of the General Conference’s work.

We spent the later portion of the morning and the entire afternoon in our legislative sections throughout the Convention Center. In my legislative section (Global Ministries), we discussed, amended, perfected, and ultimately approved two different and significantly updated ministry responses to the global HIV and AIDS pandemic. One of these responses is entitled “A Covenant to Care: Recognizing and Responding to the Many Faces of HIV and AIDS in the USA.” The second response, addressing the urgent need for HIV and AIDS care outside of the US, is entitled “The Church and the Global HIV and AIDS Pandemic.” Both responses are extensive, calling for the UMC’s commitment to witnessing to the gospel through service, advocacy, education, and ensuring the provision of medical care. Each local United Methodist church can become a place of advocacy and compassion in this regard.

Both responses will go onto the consent calendar, as they were approved with overwhelming support by the legislative section.

Today’s work in the legislative section reminded me of how grateful I am to be part of a church that sees the continuing scourge of HIV and AIDS as an opportunity to incarnate the love of Jesus in a way that brings help and healing into places of profound suffering. 

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be our final day of legislative section work. All of next week will be full-day plenary sessions.

A good day. 

Peace to all of you.

“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”― Zora Neale Hurston

Today began with a time of worship, at the heart of which was a powerful, sharply prophetic, and rightly unsettling proclamation by Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, focusing on the sins of abuse and sexual violence, particularly where such violence has occurred in the church’s ministry or with the church’s complicity. Today (Thursday) is “Thursday in Black” at General Conference, envisioned and developed by the United Methodist Church’s General Commission on the Status and Role of Women along with the World Council of Churches. 

“Thursday in Black” is a unique opportunity for General Conference delegates to remember those who have experienced or are experiencing abuse and sexual violence; to honor their resilience; to repent of complicity; and to commit to the ongoing and perpetually urgent work of naming, condemning, and addressing abuse and sexual violence as being wholly antithetical to God’s deepest desires and intentions for the human community. Said Bishop Easterling this morning, “we practice hypocrisy if we focus only on the victims’ resiliency without acknowledging the church’s complicity through silence and inaction concerning abuse and violence against the most vulnerable in our midst.”

Bishop Easterling’s words inspired me to remember a song written by Dua Lipa entitled “Boys Will Be Boys,” some of the haunting lyrics of which are these:

It’s second nature to walk home before the sun goes down
And put your keys between your knuckles when there’s boys around
Isn’t it funny how we laugh it off to hide our fear?
When there’s nothing funny here

Sick intuition that they taught us so we won’t freak out
We hide our figures doing anything to shut them out
We smile, a way to ease the tension so it don’t go south
But there’s nothing funny now

Boys will be

Boys will be 

Boys will be boys

But girls will be women

It was a sobering service of worship this morning, reminding delegates of the truth that “love and abuse cannot coexist” (bell hooks). 

Following this beginning to the day, delegates experienced an engaging Laity Address offered by LaToya Redd Thompson, John Hall, Jennifer Swann, Mele Maka, and Micheal Pope. In the unfolding of a General Conference, the Laity Address serves as a tangible reminder that, if revival is to occur in the church, it will not come primarily through the clergy. Rather, it will come through the ministry of gifted and called lay persons who, to borrow the language of today’s address, become “disciples in the home, the neighborhood, the workplace, and the marketplace.” 

The rest of the morning plenary session led us into significant, even historic legislative work. The most noteworthy portion of this work was the General Conference’s approval by consent of 4 of the 8 petitions calling for the worldwide regionalization of the United Methodist Church. Later in the morning, we passed a fifth and the most foundational petition concerning regionalization. Since this fifth petition calls for an amendment to the United Methodist Constitution, it required a two-thirds majority to pass. The legislation passed 78% to 22%. While regionalization of the church has come up before at General Conference, the legislation never gained comprehensive traction. Today’s vote indicates a new mindset and spirit in the General Conference.

What is the significance of regionalization to the denomination? Many—me included— believe that regionalization is the church’s best hope for strategically contextualizing its ministry in a manner that recognizes the unique and diverse missional needs and priorities of the various regions of the global church. There was a time when the United Methodist Church outside of the United States, early in its existence, consisted of several global mission posts. Today, what may have begun as “mission posts” are now vital and vibrant portions of United Methodism that have outgrown the U.S.-centric polity that the denomination has embraced for decades. The plan for regionalization, in this regard, is an effort to decolonize United Methodism by creating four regional conferences (Africa, Europe, Philippines, and the U.S.), all possessing the same means by which to pass legislation for greater missional impact without having to wait for the work of the quadrennial General Conference.

Here is a link to more information about regionalization and what transpired today:

https://www.umnews.org/en/news/regionalization-gets-general-conference-go-ahead

Because this legislation involves amending the United Methodist Constitution, it will also need to be ratified by a two-thirds total vote of annual conference lay and clergy voters (which will be on Annual Conference agendas throughout 2024 and 2025). Regionalization, therefore, is not a done deal. Today, however, was a critical step in its realization.

Speaking of the global church, there was a particularly tender and painful moment in this morning’s plenary. The delegates, by a vote of 672 to 67, approved the departure of four Eurasion annual conferences, which include 66 churches in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The four conferences have plans to work together to form an autonomous Methodist Church. Bishop Eduard Khegay, who is also leaving the denomination, offered a gracious expression of gratitude to United Methodism for its ministry in his life and in the life of the churches under his episcopal leadership. 

We spent the afternoon in our various legislative sections, caring for the petitions and resolutions assigned to each section. In my legislative section (Global Ministries), we approved a variety of important racial-ethnic ministry plans, which will go onto the consent calendar. We also approved a petition calling for our denominational boards and agencies to provide more opportunities for training and resourcing related to the development of “cooperative parishes”—of particular interest to me, since the church I now serve (along with every church in the New York Annual Conference) is part of a cooperative parish.

It has been an important day three at General Conference, friends. I am grateful to have experienced it, and grateful for your continuing prayer and encouragement.

Peace.