Alaska Missionary Conference 2008 — Report

This is my “official” communications report I had to turn in to UMNewscope….

The Alaska United Methodist Conference held it’s annual conference in Anchorage on May 30th through June 1st 2008. There are 28 United Methodist Churches spread out over The Last Frontier, with ministries to several outlying areas. When we gather as a Conference, it is a family affair. We know each other. We understand our various struggles and triumphs. And we love praising God together in the few times we are able to come together during the course of the year. The following is a “Top Ten List” of what occurred in our 2008 annual conference session.

1. We started by singing “And Are We Yet Alive.” That’s how we United Methodists (even those of us up here) know we’ve begun!
2. We increased membership on our program and administrative committees to reflect an increase in clergy to our conference (from clergy couples) and a desire for more lay participation.
3. We changed our name from “The Alaska Missionary Conference” to “The Alaska United Methodist Conference” (AUMC). While we remain a missionary conference in the United Methodist Church, the change reflects that we are learning how to do mission in the 21st Century. We have learned from our Native sisters and brothers that the word “missionary” can be offensive because of the sometimes disturbing history of Christian missionary activity in Alaska. Out of deference to our Native friends, we changed our name. Our official status remains the same.
4. We conducted a “Hoopla” for Nothing But Nets — netting over $600.
5. We celebrated “Good Gnus Money.” This is a program for grants up to $2000 to use as seed money for new ministry projects. We want to encourage our local churches and members to dream of potential new ministries in their settings. And, yes, the program material has several “gnus” on it.
6. We said goodbye to Bishop Ed Paup who will become General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries after 12 years with our conference. We also said goodbye to our Conference Superintendent, Rev. Rachel Lieder Simeon, who will become the Associate General Secretary for Administration of UMCOR after 15 years in Alaska.
7. There was “holy conferencing.” One of the very unique things about the Alaska United Methodist Conference, is that we are small enough to spend a lot of time together–at meals, in worship, in small groups, and merely being with each other. If God is moving in a particular way, we have the freedom to move right along with God. And our conference leadership has been attentive to that in our gatherings.
8. We shared a report from General Conference, lifting up the high points, the holy points, and the points of disagreement. It was shared that the AUMC has a challenge making its distinctive voice heard in the larger church. While our state is large in size, our church is small in numbers. There were changes that will make it more difficult to express our missional needs, particularly on General Boards and Agencies. Nevertheless, we believe we have something to say to the larger church.
9. We adopted a Missional Priority for 2008-2009: “Native Ministry in Alaska.” We hope to identify Native Communities (some of which are very isolated) and their needs for expanding mission. We pray that we will be able to raise up lay leaders and ministerial leaders in these communities.
10. The AUMC was a 2007 recipient of a mission offering taken by the Virginia Annual Conference of the UMC. This year, that offering will fund “Giving Voice.” “Giving Voice” is an ecumenical gathering of Native Elders representing several regions and tribes. While this started as a gathering to give a place at a table for elders to share concerns and religious experiences, it has grown into discussions on addressing and exploring solutions for common problems. By being part of this process, the AUMC is learning how best to address the needs of native communities, some of which we’ve never worked with before.

Why I Am a United Methodist

Actually, there was a four-week sermon series I gave with that title before heading off to General Conference in Fort Worth.  I think it was pretty good.  The four reasons I gave were:

1. The United Methodist Church is where I found true Christian Community.  I talked about Sunday School and youth group and shared some of the high points of Christian community that I’ve found in the church.  And I talked about some of the low points.
2. The United Methodist Church taught me about the bigness of God’s Grace.  Prevenient grace.  A grace so amazingly big that it’s given to me without even waiting for a response.  The grace is prior to my response.  For someone who deals with some pride issues, this understanding of grace takes it all out of my hands and puts it in God’s hands.
3. The United Methodist Church taught me about practical divinity.  We believe that faith should be put into practice in the world.  Faith without works is dead.  Got to talk about some of the great ways the larger church is involved in mission around the world.
4. The United Methodist Church taught me about worship.  Here I shared some of the memorable worship experiences I’ve been a part of, even in my present congregation.  And I also shared about some of the challenges of conducting worship in a small congregation.

That’s kind of the long answer for why I am a United Methodist.  The shorter answer (and no less relevant) is that, when we moved from Massachusetts to New York in the mid 1970s, the United Methodist Church seemed more friendly than the Presbyterian one.  If the Presbyterian Church in Yorktown Heights, NY has seemed a little more friendly on the Sunday we showed up, perhaps this would be a very different story that you’d find on this blog.

Back from Annual Conference

Yesterday was the last day (of three) of Annual Conference for the Alaska United Methodist Conference. I really wasn’t able to think about blogging much at that time. Very busy driving into Anchorage each day. I’ll post some updates a bit later.

Another Special Sunday — Peace with Justice

Peace with Justice Sunday in the United Methodist Church is officially the Sunday after Pentecost. But this day is also Trinity Sunday, which I have made the focus over the years. So, we’re having Peace with Justice Sunday this week. There are a few nice resources out there and all, and I’m not opposed to talking about peace. What I’ve had difficulty with is focusing on the United Methodist Special Sundays, of which there are only 6, during our building process. I know that we should be cheerful and extravagant givers. But I do confess to having difficulty getting all fired up about some of the special Sundays. We’ve always supported One Great Hour of Sharing which goes to support the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Advance Specials, which our church participates in. I can look my congregation in their collective eye and tell them that, since we have been beneficiaries of this offering, it makes sense that we would support it wholeheartedly. The other Special Sundays are a harder “sell” for us. They are all valuable, but a harder sell.

We’ll see…

The Great “Cell Phone Controversy” at General Conference

Had a meeting tonight at a church to talk about General Conference and, yes, we talked of the lengthy discussions about sexual preference/orientation. (I hope you’ve noticed that what the word one uses here, preference or orientation shapes or is shaped by how one feels about homosexual practice. If one feels that homosexuality is a choice, then one would use preference. If one feels that it’s not a choice but ingrained in someone’s DNA or something, then orientation is the word.) We also talked of the “liberal”/”conservative” biases and how the church will have to deal with representation as we take in more conferences from Africa or other parts of the world. We’ll have to decide how much of a voice places like Alaska are going to have in the church.

The conversation tonight made me think of the great “cell phone controversy” at General Conference. In short, conservative/renewal groups gave cell phones to members of African delegations. The Africans were happy to have cell phones, as most of their American brothers and sisters had them (although I heard they were not happy that they were not able to call outside the US to talk with families or their ministries–don’t know if it’s true. The evangelical/renewal folks said they were just being nice. The “liberals” thought this was all a bribe since the cell phones included a list of conservative persons to consider for the United Methodist Judicial Council…our “Supreme Court” if you will.

Here’s where you can read some more about it. You can read the official United Methodist News Service Report where it says:

My hope is that the white leadership of the church would be mindful of the actions in light of the history of exploitation of people of color in this church. I hope they would not willingly engage in any sort of behavior that would undermine the humanity of people of color whether they are in the United States or other countries. This action of giving cell phones to buy or manipulate people can be interpreted as a return to that sort of racist behavior.

You can read what Jim Winkler (General Board of Church and Society) says in the official blog of the reconciling ministries network:

A U.S. pastor and former missionary personally witnessed a coalition representative instruct Central Conference delegates to vote against the “Worldwide Nature of the Church” report. The same representative then took credit he did not deserve for obtaining funding for theological education in Africa.

I watched a staff person of the “Reform and Renewal” coalition sending text messages to African delegates during a legislative committee session. The activity was so blatant marshals requested the cell phone be put away.

You can see what Mark Tooley, of the Institute for Religion and Democracy has to say here:

“Why are liberal church elites in the U.S. so intimidated by the empowerment of African and other international delegates? What are they so afraid of?

“When Africans speak their Biblical convictions, threatened liberal church bureaucrats call that ‘manipulation’.

“Patronizingly, United Methodist bureaucrats assume that African and Filipino delegates can be bought with a cell phone.

“These clueless church elites don’t understand the obvious. America evangelicals and Global South evangelicals support each other because of their common faith.”

And you can read another conservative slant here. What is most disconcerting about this last one is the comments below the post. The following is, perhaps the most colorful:

The so-called “leaders” of our denomination continue to show their TRUE, “PINKO” selves and I know that I’m not the only “MEMBER” (all my LIFE! 65 YEARS!) that is so FED UP with these COMMUNISTS INSPIRED “know nothings”. I’m a Viet Nam vet, IF IT MATTERS, and would gladly debate ANY issue with ANY of our “educated” PIMPS in “leadership” positions. Want ot “GROW” our membership ??? Dump these DUMMIES now in control !

In truth, I looked to see if I could find a liberally-slanted comment that was quite so “colorful.” I did not find one, but I’m sure it exists out there. Colorful language is not just a conservative trait.

Here’s my take. The cell phone plan, if it had not included a list of Judicial Council Nominees, would have blown over. It just looked bad…like votes were being bought. And while some who received were grateful there were others who felt like it was a bribe. And, it looked “bad” enough that I think some persons in the Methodist Middle rebelled a little and it might have cost the reformers their Judicial Council nominees altogether. The four candidates put forward by the progressives/moderates won their elections, even though, looking at the main voting blocks of the conference, they should not have done so. I believe the progressives/moderates were pleasantly surprised none of the renewal candidates won.

More troubling, to me, is how this is being communicated and being played out — not just at conference but afterwards as well. “Liberals don’t support Africans because they are so conservative.” “The conservatives were only doing this to buy votes.” It’s just like two sides throwing stones at each other. I think both perspectives are too simplistic and it’s going to be very difficult to look at this issue from any other point of view.

Good post from Adam Hamilton (Church of the Resurrection, KC)

Rev. Hamilton is an author/pastor of one of the biggest churches in United Methodism. He has a blog post where he talks about the whole homosexuality discussion at General Conference. I think it’s a good, well thought-out post. You can read the whole post HERE.

Rev. Hamilton touches on the pain of this issue and how, for some, perspectives from both the right an the left seem problematic. I particularly want to highlight the following paragraph:

Ultimately the underlying issue for the church is not homosexuality but how we understand the nature and authority of the Bible. The questions we need to be asking, as a denomination, are: What is the Bible? How was it formed? When and why do we view certain clear teachings of scripture as no longer binding (the early church did this with much of the Old Testament, and every church today views some scriptures as not binding, even the fundamentalists do this – I think of Paul’s admonition regarding women praying with their heads covered and remaining silent in the church as but two examples of many – yet many “bible believing” churches allow women to speak in worship and do not insist that women wear head coverings when they pray)? And, when is it not okay to set aside the clear teaching of scripture? The United Methodist Church needs to wrestle with these questions before it comes back to the issue of homosexuality.

And, I would argue, that the place to wrestle with this is not on the conference floor at General Conference. I just don’t think it can be done. And, I would argue, that it can’t be done with all of those on the “right” shoring up their camp and those on the “left” shoring up theirs and then arguing. I think we’ll end up with another vote of 45% to 55% like we had this past year and there will be winners and losers and demonstrations outside and times of “witness” inside.

What I am not saying, and I want to be clear about this…I am not saying that I think we should ordain homosexuals or perform gay weddings. Adam Hamilton claims this would be a train wreck for the church. I agree. And, more, I am not at a point, theologically, that I think I could handle that. I don’t have a third option to throw out there yet.

The “Perfect Storm” for Blogging

Here’s what’s being going on to get me to this place…

1) I’ve been reading a lot of political blogs lately…almost entirely left leaning blogs (Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Politico) with an occasional journey into some of the right leaning ones (Fox News, RedState, Right Wing News). I don’t make any promises of being “fair and balanced” if that’s supposed to mean I give equal time to both “sides.” I lean left. I’m a fan of Barak Obama right now. But I consider myself a moderate who grew up in a very Republican household with a father who occasionally sends me e-mails with conservative talking points. But… I have gotten this political sense (and I think Obama talks about it most) that we keep arguing from two sides, without any work in the middle. One of the things that has politically turned me against Hillary Clinton is the fact that she constantly says she’s “going to fight” for persons. I think that’s a political attitude that is past its heyday. “Fighting” means fighting against someone and I’m not sure we can politically afford to have the conservatives and the liberals (whatever those terms mean) duking it out for our political futures. There’s too much of an “us/them” attitude.

2) I attended General Conference of the United Methodist Church. You can see my blog account for the Alaska Conference at THIS SITE. I was serving as the Communications Director of the Alaska Conference, which I am, and I basically reported on what was going on as best I could. As has been the case since the General Conference in 1980, the issue of homosexuality has gotten most of the press and has taken up most of the time and energy of the conference. It’s the big issue. And, at least this time, it has gotten played out as a battle between those who are “pro-homosexuality” (or Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender– LGBT) and those who are “anti-homosexuality.” One bishop said this was playing out as a battle between those who valued “hospitality” (welcoming LGBT) and those who valued “holiness” (“homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching). I have considered myself pretty moderate when I was in the religiously conservative environment of Indiana. I consider myself pretty moderate as I’m in the more liberal religious environment of the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church. I struggle to find a voice from the middle. And I was left to wonder how the “pro-homosexual folks” interpreted those Scriptures which do seem to say a word against homosexual practice. And I was left to wonder why the “anti-homosexual folks” weren’t putting equal weight on Jesus’ words about justice and peace or didn’t stress some of the other Old Testament prohibitions — like touching women when they were menstruating or stoning. If we, in the United Methodist Church have a statement in our social principles that says “homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching” shouldn’t we have a statement that says “not tithing is incompatible with Christian teaching” or “gluttony is incompatible with Christian teaching.” If a pastor can not allow a practicing homosexual to become a member in a local church, shouldn’t they have a right to turn away those who eat too much or those who work in the banking industry (take money with interest). Perhaps instead of spending a full day at General Conference talking about homosexual practice, we should talk about the authority of Scripture instead. That would be quite a sight.

3) I read a book. That’s a big deal in and of itself. But the book I read was A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically. This is not, I would say, a book written for a religious audience. He’s a secular Jew who is exploring faith for a solid year. And he finds some of the most obscure Biblical laws and rules and tries to live by them. This book made me more convinced that, liberal or conservative, pro-homosexual or anti-homosexual, we’re all taking some liberties with our biblical interpretation just to make sense of it all. We’re all stressing some parts of the Bible more than others. If we tried to take it all equally seriously, we’d end up something like A.J. Jacobs. (By the way, I highly recommend the book.)

4) Just two days ago I had a brief conversation with the local anarchist. Nice guy. Works in a coffee shop. We were talking religious / philosophical stuff as we have done in the past. He said he believed with Friedrich Nietzsche that the last Christian died with Jesus and that no one really follows it all these days. I can see where he’s coming from. What answer do I have for him?

So, these four things, and some other things I haven’t gotten into, have brought me to this place. I hope I can work some of this out for myself. I hope I can come to some understanding. I hope, somewhere down the line, someone else finds this helpful. I also hope I don’t take myself too seriously.