Pastor Mark Williams

Delegate Reports

Day 12 - Friday, May 7

As I arrived at the convention center, I walked through the gauntlet of pamphleteers which has stood outside the doors of the convention center for the past two weeks. Every morning, volunteers from the different caucuses have published daily reports for delegates, keeping them apprised of legislation that they have a particular interest in. Reconciling Ministries Network published their daily "Water Quality Reports," with information about legislation affecting GLBT persons. Affirmation published "Drops of Water" with news and editorials about GLBT issues. The Methodist Federation for Social Action distributed their daily "Social Questions Bulletin" to help delegates track all sorts of progressive legislative issues and challenges. There were also daily handouts from the urban ministry caucus, the rural ministry caucus, the inter-ethnic caucus, and the Good News movement. In addition, there were occasional flyers from Judicial Council nominees, the National Korean Plan, and a conservative women's group. Every morning, I had two handfuls of extra papers by the time I got the door of the plenary hall.

This morning, the Good News daily publication was in damage control mode. For the past to weeks, their publication has been aggressively attacking everything progressive. But today, it was entirely on the defensive. Good News is in full retreat from their earlier calls for the church to split. The manner in which the news of this call came to the floor of General Conference last night clearly overplayed their hand. Their flyer this morning tried in every way they could to take back what had been said. But even still, they pointed out that the option of schism is "on the table" now. They clarified that they would not be bringing any legislative proposal for schism at this General Conference, but they suggested that the church needs to seriously consider this option over the next four years.

The back-peddling continued on the floor of Conference. Early in the morning session, presiding bishop Sprague called on Bruce Robbins, a former general agency Secretary and known progressive/moderate to accompany conservative evangelical leader Bill Hinson to the podium. Bill Hinson is the person who called for the church to split at the Good News breakfast briefing yesterday morning, and then repeated that call in a planned press conference afterward. Following that press conference, news outlets from CNN to the New York Times carried a headline that Methodists were considering schism.

Bruce Robbins danced around the issue, giving a very vague history of how events unfolded in leading up to a "Plan of Amicable Separation" being drafted by conservatives. He described a couple mediation attempts between conservative and progressive caucus leaders that happened prior to the separation document being distributed and prior to Dr. Hinson's presentation yesterday morning. Robbins skirted around actually applying any responsibility to the conservatives or Dr. Hinson for the hysteria around schism that hit the news.

When Hinson briefly spoke, he made nice and stepped back from his adamant statements of the day before. He clarified that his support of the idea of a schism was only a personal opinion, not a policy statement on behalf of Good News (though he glossed over the detail that his opinions were met with a standing ovation at the Good News breakfast, where they had invited him to speak and then gave him a platform to hold the press conference). He claimed to be completely uninvolved with the draft legislation for schism.

After eating crow this morning, the Good News folks seemed eviscerated. A resolution was brought to the floor by six delegates, one from each jurisdiction and another from a central conference, to address the issue of the church's unity. Pacific Northwest delegate Kristina Gonzalez was one of the six presenters of the resolution. After several impassioned speeches calling for the adoption of the resolution, Bishop Sprague invited us to sing together "Blest Be the Tie that Binds," just prior to voting. The General Conference adopted the following statement by a vote of over 95%:

"As United Methodists, we remain in covenant with one another, even in the midst of disagreement, and reaffirm our commitment to work together for our common mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world."

I must admit, it was an emotionally moving moment to see the conference overwhelmingly support this statement of unity. Many people were in tears, as Bishop Sprague encouraged us to pass the peace with one another as a sign of our unity, as we headed into the mid-morning break. But somewhere in the midst of having people come up and share the peace of Christ with me, it occurred to me how supremely hypocritical we had become. This resolution recognizes that we are in the midst of disagreement, but three days earlier the conference rejected any effort to acknowledge in the Discipline that we are in disagreement. In the last week, we have passed the most restrictive, punitive church laws against a minority of our church membership and those who would offer blessings and support to that minority.

We have legislated in such a way that it will certainly leave some people feeling no option but to leave the church. We have chosen schism by our decisions, and frankly I believe any decision that General Conference will ever make about controversial social topics will implicitly be a decision to embrace some and to push out the door others. For the past thirty-two years, we've been choosing schism, and it's been GLBT persons, families and allies who we've decided are expendable to our church's unity. The resolution on church unity makes a statement of commitment that glosses over the deep wounds, divisiveness and rejection of GLBT persons that the General Conference has chosen once again.

I certainly understand and appreciate the work of those who put the resolution together and voted for it. In a way, it effectively further shames the conservative folks and highlights for moderates in the church that it is the conservatives who are working to split our church, not the progressives. But as a statement, the resolution is just one more blatant hypocrisy and lie that this General Conference has endorsed. It hurts that much more, when it's placed side by side with the petitions that were passed on Tuesday.

We had about 65 petitions to take votes on before the end of our work today. The pace was grueling at times. Several procedural motions were adopted to limit debate and hurry the decision-making process along. While the limiting of debate did effectively enable us to complete action on every petition by the end of the day, it also rushed some monumental decisions that probably deserved a lot more attention than they got.

The recommended budget for all the denomination agencies, programs and ministries over the next four years was placed before the conference. The total budget for the coming four years was recommended at over $612 million. This staggering figure caused several people pause. One amendment to reduce the World Service portion of the total budget failed by a vote of 51% to 49%. A second amendment to reduce the World Service budget passed by a vote of 52% to 48%. After a short break, delegates came back to the floor and immediately moved to reconsider the amendment they'd just passed. Apparently it occurred to several delegates when they had the time to think and talk about it, that the reduction in the World Service budget that they'd adopted would cripple some of our boards and agencies and deeply cut many of our ministries. The motion to reconsider passed, and the amendment, upon reconsideration, failed. So the full recommended budget was once again before us. Eventually we approved the full budget.

I'm not adept at translating financial information, but a few items caught my attention in the budget. Although the General Conference voted to recommend $3 million in our budget for our continuing Global Aids Fund, the final budget from GCF&A that was approved removed all $3 million and will rely on Advance Special (designated giving) to support our Global Aids Fund ministry. The same thing happened to Town & Country (rural) ministries. The Igniting Ministry media campaign was funded slightly higher than the General Conference recommended. Our apportionments will increase in the coming four years to keep up with this approved denominational budget.

Of the sixty-five petitions that we buzzed through, let me just highlight a few. By a vote of 53% to 47%, General Conference approved a boycott on Mt. Olive Pickle Company for their failure to bargain in good faith with their farmworkers. This was the second boycott adopted by the conference. The first boycott adopted earlier this week was against Taco Bell for their refusal to ensure that their tomatoes were purchased from farms that maintained fair and humane working conditions for their farmworkers. United Methodists are called to boycott Mt. Olive Pickles and Taco Bell.

A resolution supporting our continued endorsement and participation in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice was hotly debated. One speaker accused the coalition of endorsing abortion as a means of birth control and gender selection, which is simply not true. Fortunately the intentional mis-information campaign failed and the resolution was adopted by 58% of the vote.

A resolution calling for the protection of civil rights for all persons, specifically naming gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons among them, was also bitterly debated. In the end, the resolution passed with 64% of the vote.

The communion document developed to articulate our United Methodist theology and understanding of communion passed. Of the several implications that this could have for local congregations, I'm most excited about its commendation for communion to be celebrated every week. I'm pleased that the revised document that came to General Conference did not close our communion table to those who are not baptized, as an earlier draft of the document had proposed.

A very controversial resolution to add a paragraph in the Discipline for the "Rights of the Unborn," would certainly have been more thoroughly debated if it hadn't come up for a vote at 10:00 pm on the final day of General Conference. The conference voted to refer the resolution to the General Board of Church and Society for further study and consideration, not willing yet to add it to our Social Principles.

General Conference was adjourned at 11:30 pm. The closing worship service left me uninspired. In continued to celebrate our unity and covenant, ignoring our brokenness and the rejection that we endorsed of many of our members.

The Reconciling Ministries Network led a brief communion service after the General Conference finally let out at midnight. I co-officiated, along with the reverends Karen Oliveto, Vickie Woods and James Preston. It was moving service, during which the liturgy reminded us that we cannot be legislated out of the loving grace of God. We cannot be legislated out of God's claim upon our lives through the sacrament of baptism. We cannot be broken by the church in such a way that God cannot piece us back together and heal our wounds.

There are certainly more things to reflect on at this General Conference, but I must pack my bags for the return trip. I'll write up my final reflections on these past two weeks tomorrow, and submit my final report on General Conference 2004.

Mark Williams
Pacific Northwest Conference Delegation
First Alternate Delegate

The First United Methodist Church of Ellensburg

Delegate Reports

Day 12 - Friday, May 7