If you have links to GC2004 Reports that may be of interest, please send the link to:  nicvoice@nicvoice.org. 

If you are unable to read this update, please go to www.nicvoice.org where the reports are being posted on-line.

ALL ITEMS ARE NEW or UPDATED!!!! 

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NEW!  RENEW , a network for Christian Women of the UMC

The Renew Network is organized to be in ministry to and with women of the United Methodist Church. We are a support network for evangelical, orthodox women within our church, providing a voice for their concerns, supplemental program resources for their program needs, and a place for them to share ministry with other women. 

     Renew's service to the women of the church is two-fold. First of all, we are a network for renewal: to encourage women to establish and maintain a growing, intimate, and faithful relationship with Jesus Christ; to help provide a firm scriptural foundation for their faith; and to equip them for discipleship and witness. We are also a concerted voice for renewal and accountability on the part of the Women's Division, the official women's organization of the United Methodist Church.
 

RENEW - Post General Conference Special Edition Newsletter

• LET’S DO IT! Moving forward in ministry
• EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN?
• A VIOLATION OF TRUST, SPACE, AND SPIRIT 
• TEENS COMMITTING SUICIDE—DO WE TRULY CARE? 
• CONFLICTING CLAIMS 
• OLDLINE CHURCHES PARTICIPATE IN ABORTION
• NOTABLE QUOTES FROM GC2004

Foundry strives to provide a spiritual home in the city for all of our communities. We are an open, inclusive community dedicated to enabling persons to live a Christian life and to share Christ with others through worship, evangelism, witness, mission, education, and nurturing.

In the Methodist church in Washington, D.C., where I am pastor, faithful members who happen to be gay and lesbian serve side by side with straight members on every committee, mission and ministry. We call ourselves a “reconciling congregation,” seeking to include and empower those who have been marginalized in the past because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability. At Foundry United Methodist Church, we would welcome openly gay and lesbian clergy on our ministerial team. As a pastor, I would like to celebrate the loving committed relationships of our gay and lesbian members with holy unions and weddings. So we were grievously disappointed by the actions of our denomination’s highest legislative assembly, the quadrennial General Conference, when the nearly 1,000 delegates from churches across the world met recently in Pittsburgh.

They were reacting to a March church trial verdict in which a clergy jury in Washington state refused to punish an openly lesbian pastor by taking away her ordination. Unable by church law to overturn that verdict, the delegates tried to dot every “i” and cross every “t” in our Book of Discipline to prevent similar verdicts. A statement saying the United Methodist Church “does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching” was declared to be church law rather than merely teaching or opinion. A proposal by the Board of Church and Society to soften this policy by adding a sentence simply recognizing that Christians disagree about homosexuality was defeated. Opponents argued that such a moderating statement would make it more difficult to enforce the denomination’s ban against openly gay clergy. Other legislation erased any doubt that same sex commitment ceremonies are outlawed in United Methodist churches and clarified that those of us who might want to conduct such services risk losing our ordination.

All this was obviously backlash. The controversial Washington verdict and the growing movement among United Methodists, especially on the east and west coasts and in urban areas, to be more affirming of our gay members scared the delegates.

We are a denomination with congregations in practically every small town and rural community in America. There are more United Methodist churches in the United States than there are post offices. Some delegates feared there would be a massive exodus of people from our churches if they thought their bishop might assign them a gay pastor. They underestimate the people in our pews, who have accepted – mostly graciously – women clergy and older second career clergy. Often congregations, in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” mode, know their pastor is gay and love him or her deeply. Part of the reason it was difficult for the Washington state jury to take away Rev. Karen Dammann’s ordination was the strong support of the congregation she served well.

It is ironic that the same body that panicked about homosexuality voted overwhelmingly to continue our popular church slogan: “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” Yes, we are disappointed. But headlines like the one in the Washington Post “Methodists condemn homosexuality” are not the whole story.

United Methodist policies on homosexuality attempt to walk a tightrope, refusing to condone homosexual practices but also refusing to condemn gay and lesbian people. Delegates made it clear that the denomination does “not condone the practice of homosexuality,” but another policy unequivocally declares that “homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. ... We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn their lesbian and gay members and friends.” In spite of the mood of backlash, there was no will whatsoever among delegates to suggest that gay people should not be welcomed as members and lay leaders in our churches.

In other words, the church wants to include gays and lesbians in our congregations unless God should call them into ministry or unless they, like anybody else, should want their loving committed relationships to be celebrated and blessed. This is an inconsistency that the Methodist Church will not be able to maintain forever.

Every denomination has a deeply engrained culture that tends to win out eventually. Garrison Keillor makes fun of Methodists for our irrepressible and overbearing, almost intrusive, friendliness. My bet is that Methodist friendliness will prove stronger than the homophobia that still infects American society and the United Methodist Church. There are still many Methodists who do not understand that homosexuality is an innate orientation, not a choice. However, there are very few who would choose not to embrace any particular person – gay, straight or whatever -- who is part of their community or who happens into their church looking for God.

A number of years ago, in another state where I used to serve, a gay pastor announced his orientation to an official meeting of clergy and tried to surrender his ministerial credentials. The group voted not to accept. A majority probably would have voted against homosexuality in principle, but the good Methodist pastors just could not bring themselves to vote against Stephen.

Our church legislature made a mistake in Pittsburgh. Delegates tried to strengthen laws that the hierarchy is already having a hard time enforcing. I am as loyal a United Methodist as you will find anywhere. Yet I would never vote to exclude someone from ministry based on his or her sexual orientation, no matter what the Book of Discipline says, any more than I would exclude qualified clergy based on race, gender or physical abilities. Denominational rules will not stop me from trying to be a good pastor to all the members of the church I serve, including those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. And I am not alone.

A wise church governing body would have maximized the ability of different congregations to minister appropriately to their differing communities. Because of an unreasonable fear that we might lose members in our small town and rural churches, this assembly did the opposite. Their actions will not, as delegates may have hoped, make the issue go away but only highlight it. Methodists are not mean spirited. I doubt the church will find it painless to enforce the tight boundaries delegates have tried to establish.

Early one morning during the recent meetings in Pittsburgh, several hundred of us stood outside the convention center as delegates made their way into the sessions. We wore rainbow-colored clerical stoles in solidarity with those denied ordination or full inclusion within the church because of their sexual orientation. We knelt or stood silently in prayer. The temperature was colder than I had expected, nearly freezing. Every time I considered leaving the vigil to get warm, I noticed a man about my own age standing near me, his eyes closed in prayer. Every few minutes a tear would fall from the corner of his eye and drop to the sidewalk. He wore a sign that said: “My child is an individual of sacred worth.” Watching him, I was unable to leave the vigil no matter how cold I got.

Gays and lesbians are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles, our grandchildren, our co-workers, and our friends. Many United Methodists may not understand homosexuality in principle, but we do love one another. I am confident this love will eventually conquer our fear.