“Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind." – 1 Peter 3:8
Dear Church Family,
As promised, this week I deliver my final article on the business of the Texas Annual Conference of 2017. I mentioned in a previous article that in 2016, United Methodists gathered together for our General Conference, which happens every four years. Often new legislation and amendments to our Book of Discipline come out of General Conference and then those matters are sent down to every Annual Conference in the world so that they have a chance to vote on those changes. A majority of United Methodist delegates from these Annual Conferences have to affirm such changes in order for them to become new law within the UMC. This year we had five proposed constitutional amendments that we voted on at Annual Conference and here is a rundown on what those amendments dealt with:
1. An amendment to combat issues of discrimination against women and girls by adjusting our language in our Book of Discipline to affirm that both men and women are created equally by God. The wording also would affirm that God is neither male nor female.
2. An amendment to acknowledge that all persons are welcome in the UMC no matter their race, color, gender, national origin, ability, age, marital status, or economic condition.
3. An amendment to ensure that all delegates for General Conference are fairly elected from each Annual Conference rather than be appointed by a bishop.
4. An amendment to ensure that bishops in the Central Conferences (Annual Conferences outside the United States) are elected at regular meetings of their jurisdiction rather than at special called meetings.
5. An amendment to increase accountability of bishops in their work and to increase accountability from the Council of Bishops.
My guess is that a lot of those amendments are confusing to you and probably do not seem to matter all that much. Well, I can tell you that the first two amendments garnered a lot of discussion from those who supported them and from those who opposed them, but our bishop was able to keep the discussion from getting too heated or from getting off track. In regards to the first amendment there were some who were concerned about stating that God is neither male nor female since Jesus is God and Jesus is a male. Others, however supported the amendment because of the importance of seeking equality for women in the world. In regards to the second amendment there was much discussion about what the term “gender” means in light of a changing view on gender in recent years in our nation and in other parts of the world. We will not know the outcome of this voting until later in the year when all the other Annual Conferences have had a chance to vote. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about Annual Conference I invite you to come and visit with me. And if you think you might want to visit the Conference in 2018 then I would love to talk to you about the possibility. Who knows what might happen in our denomination in coming years.
