Aldersgate Experience 1
Connecting Knowing Loving Growing
I’ve just returned from the North Carolina Annual Conference. It is always great to see fellow clergy from around the conference and meet the different lay delegates who love their churches so much. Each year we hear reports of how the people of the North Carolina Annual Conference are making a difference in the world around them. We also spend time debating how much money we will spend to support the people and programs that will make up the ministries of the conference in the years to come. And, of course, we worship together. What a blessing it is to praise God with so many deeply caring and concerned United Methodists! The conference concluded with the ordination and commissioning service of new deacons and elders. Our former youth director, Nathan Arledge, was one of those who was ordained as an Elder this year. But if Nathan’s ordination was a highlight; then one of the lowlights for me was the tabling of a resolution that dealt with the issue of homosexuality. Our brothers and sisters at Epworth UMC here in Durham brought forth a resolution to change the language of the Discipline on this issue. Our conference voted to table it until next year rather than talk about it. What bothered me was not that people would have been for or against the resolution. I know full well that people would have had a different opinion from mine. What bothered me was that we simply decided that the best course of action was not to talk about it at all. Earlier in the conference we adopted a Unity Statement that said we can agree to disagree on this issue, but still remain United Methodists. So, why would we then refuse to address the issue any
July 2014
Experience further? It has obviously been an important issue worthy of discussion for a long time. Many other denominations have wrestled with this issue as well, and they have reached different conclusions. Currently, there are several competing ideas being discussed within the denomination. One group of pastors from several different conferences has suggested that the United Methodist Church simply split and let the Traditionalists go one way and the Progressives go another. Another group has suggested that the denomination stay together, but we let local churches and conferences decide for themselves whether they will support gay marriage or the ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexuals. This is sometimes referred to as the “local option”. The issue has been talked about for years, but it feels like the debate is reaching a crescendo toward the General Conference set for 2016. It is possible that some structural changes within our denomination may come forth from that conference. I don’t mean that the theological language in the Discipline might change, I mean that the way we structure and govern ourselves may change (or not) based on our response to the debate on this issue. I honestly don’t know what will happen. It is still two years out. I just pray that we will follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and not just our own hearts. And at the end of the day we might find ways to love the people with which we disagree. May the peace of Christ be with you, Pastor Doug