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Grace and peace, friends!
I am so grateful for you, and for God’s continuing work in you and through you. I hope that all of you are doing well, and I look forward to the time when we can all gather face-to-face again.
One of the great challenges of these times is the divisiveness we see all around us. It is certainly troubling when we see neighbor pitted against neighbor, when we see relationships ended due to differences, even see families broken apart. The church, however, is called to embody a better way, to show the world around us how to love each other even when we disagree. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul says, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”
I feel like one of the incredible works of God’s grace at St. Paul’s is that we have an incredibly diverse group of people with a broad range of theological convictions and social stances, yet we have maintained unity in sharing a common purpose of being “Anchored in Christ, and moved to serve.” Recently, though, you may have heard about plans for a split in our denomination, The United Methodist Church; and you may very well be concerned about the challenges it may present to St. Paul’s. Because there is a lot of information being shared—some of it accurate and some of it not—I wanted to let you know where we are on that.
It’s no secret that the UMC has had some disagreements, especially over interpretation of the Bible as it applies to human sexuality and other social issues. Because of that, there have been some local congregations who expressed their desire to form their own denomination, and a plan has been proposed that keeps The United Methodist Church intact while allowing for new denominations to be formed for those on the far right (represented by a group called the Wesleyan Covenant Association, or WCA) and the far left (represented by a group called the Liberation Methodist Connection, or LMX).
Some of you may wonder how these plans would affect St. Paul’s, and my answer would be, “Probably not very much.” After all, we are—as I said—made up of a diverse group of people, so we are neither far left nor far right. Moreover, any plans for separation would have to be debated and approved by the General Conference, which was supposed to convene last year, but could not meet due to the COVID pandemic. It is currently scheduled to take place in August and September of this year, but that is not yet certain, and we are unsure yet what the results of any vote would be. What I am sure of is this: St. Paul’s will continue to work toward being the church God has called and commissioned us to be, a church that seeks to lead people into a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ and which seeks to be in relationship with our community and the world around us in a way that changes it for the better.
We will be posting some links on our website that have more information. However, if you have questions, or would like to talk more about it, I am happy to talk with you. Just give me a call or send me an email. I would also invite you to take part in Coffee & Conversation with the Pastor, which takes place on Zoom on Monday mornings at 10. Let me leave you today with these words of wisdom from Rob Renfroe, one of the leaders in the Good News movement. He is more conservative, and this is one of those things on which we would agree:
This is a difficult moment, but it’s a moment of opportunity. It is a moment when we can show the world that the people of Jesus are different. When others shout, we listen and talk softly. When people are angry and try to make others angrier still, we act with gentleness and kindness. When others delight in dividing people, we find joy in bringing people together. When others say that differing politics and values must separate us, we say and show that the love of Jesus can bring us together.
I appreciate your prayers for me, our church, Bishop Ward, and our delegates to General Conference; and I appreciate your continued commitment to the work of Christ in our community. “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
LINKS:
Information on Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation: https://www.gracethroughseparation.com/faqs-legislation
Adam Hamilton article addressing inaccurate information: https://www.adamhamilton.com/blog/a-response-to-thomas-lambrecht#.YCv9MmhKjIW
Article by Keith Boyette of the WCA on why it is important to approve a way forward: https://wesleyancovenant.org/2021/02/11/getting-to-a-decision/
UMNews a good source for UMC News https://www.umnews.org