24 April 2008
Reports from GC - Day 2: Apr 24
24 April 2008
A full day. I opened the day with breakfast at the MFSA camp. As usual, a modest, friendly site with stoles and people of all colors.
Morning worship continued the themes of Christian Conferencing, Wesley’s General Rules (now popularly referred to as “Three Simple Rules”: Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God), and hope. The Episcopal Address was a multimedia exploration and exposition of the theme of hope and the (first ever) Young Persons Address was a dynamite combination of messages from half a dozen diverse persons, interspersed with drumming. They called the church to account and challenged us to participate in shaping our future rather than simply pushing it off on the next generation. This one is worth watching on web video. The Laity Address was an old-fashioned call to personal witnessing to Christ and church growth by the numbers (I won’t offer any critique–you be the judge).
I went to the IRD/Confessing Movement lunch featuring Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia but, alas, there was an overflow crowd and delegates were given priority. Since I had to choose either to stay and listen to Kulah or to eat, I returned to the MFSA camp and had a sandwich in a more relaxed atmosphere. The IRD publications I picked up earlier made for interesting conversation at lunch, though!
At an afternoon talk led by Bruce Robbins on his proposal for the global restructuring of the UMC–which I support, along the lines of the Wulf proposal (rather than Bp Scott Jones’ proposal through the COB and CT)–I discovered that he had distributed an article of mine on the Social Principles adaptations in the central conferences to several folks there. Afterwards, I had dinner with Jim Bankston, my former mentor pastor. He briefed me on what is going on at St. Paul’s UMC in Houston and told me that the St. Paul’s choir will be singing at my ordination ceremony in May! I cannot think of a more appropriate musical group for my ordination. This is the choir of which I was a member for 10 years.
The evening legislative committee session moved at glacial speed. I’m following the Conferences committee, specifically the Global Nature of the UMC legislation. Misc: I heard that Mary Elizabeth Moore was selected to chair the Faith and Order Committee. Way to go!
