A Long Day’s Journey Into Night
By Jim Nibbelink
A good day, but such a long day. We had our normal Western Jurisdictional meeting at 7 a.m. and completed the day’s business at 11:30 p.m. It’s now after midnight and this article won’t be transmitted until around 1 a.m. Sleep is limited and large doses of adrenalin are necessary to keep going. Coffee doesn’t hurt, either!
Bishop Ernest Lyght told us during worship that it’s time to quit “playing church,” when the church is called to care for the needs of desperately hurting people right in our own communities. We need to provide the bread of life – fresh bread – based on faith, hope and love, to people inside and outside of our congregations. This means both real bread to sustain physical life and spiritual bread to enhance and sustain the whole person.
The General Conference took a significant action by approving full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This means that the UMC officially recognizes the sacraments, polity and ordination of the ECLA. Later this year, the official conference of the ELCA will vote on this issue with respect to the UMC. This is a major step towards reducing the barriers between denominations that sometimes cause tension between different parts of the universal church. This action is not a merger or anything approaching merger, but a recognition that we have a common mission to the world under the leadership of Jesus Christ.
Sadly, during the afternoon, Jane Tews, one of clergy reserve delegates, fell while descending some stairs at her hotel and broke her left ankle. She is resting at a local hospital, awaiting surgery Tuesday afternoon. All of us, including Bishop Carcaño, visited Jane during the dinner break. She’s in good spirits and will remain in Fort Worth until her normally scheduled flight home on Saturday. Please add Jane to your prayer list as she has surgery and begins her recovery.
Two highlights of the morning’s work were the elections for the Judicial Council and the University Senate. The Judicial Council is the “supreme court” of the church and the University Senate is the body that accredits UMC-related seminaries and other institutions of higher learning. Five openings were filled on the Judicial Council, three for clergy and two for lay persons. In a surprising result, some members of the current Council were not re-elected. The General Conference sent a clear message that it expected a different perspective than has been evident in the past four years.
In other action, the Conference approved to raise the mandatory retirement age for Bishops from 70 to 72 and approved the research and other work necessary to produce a new United Methodist Hymnal by 2012. The current hymnal was published in 1989 and the one before that came out in 1966, so we’re about on pace with history as far as new music resources go.
Much of the day and evening was spent reviewing petitions that have financial implications. Major initiatives like the Hispanic and Native American Plans were readopted to extend the success we have seen from these efforts. The target budget for the next four years is around 640 million dollars. The final figures will be voted on next Friday, but the target has broad support from all general agencies of the church. This would represent about a 4.8 percent increase over the last four-year period.
From now on, the action will be on the floor of the Conference, since most Legislative Sections have completed their work. A few Sections aren’t finished, so they must meet during meal times and after the evening recess. That means extra-late nights and noontime pizza deliveries until the work is done. This is serious business, and everyone puts in extra effort to do it well on behalf of the whole church. Thank you for placing your trust in our delegation!