27 April 2008
Reports from GC - Day 5: Apr 27
27 April 2008
Yesterday during plenary, a delegate made a request to the planning committee that in the future, General Conference not conduct any business on the Sabbath. I sympathize with this concern and tried to stay away from the convention center as much as possible today, even though business is being conducted.
That said, I did sit in on the Ministry and Higher Education committee today long enough to hear them vote on retaining the ban on celebrating homosexual unions. The vote was 49 to 34. This margin is less than the number of African delegates on this committee, all of whom presumably support retaining this ban. So, theoretically, this committee could have recommended lifting the ban if it were up to the US delegates only. This is why the Worldwide Nature of the UMC restructuring proposals are so important, having ramifications for all sorts of issues in our church.
Interestingly, my blog has been targeted as possible spam and blocked by Blogger. Dan Browning and I think it may be an IRD conspiracy. Meanwhile, Peter is posting this blog on the church’s website—which you already know if you’re reading this today!
