As Wesleyan Christians have done for over 250 years in Great Britain, the US and elsewhere, the preachers and congregants are gathering for Annual Conference this coming week. Originating with John Wesley and his first "assistants", the conferences were opportunities to go to a place apart from daily ministries to encourage one another, consider together what doctrines were to be taught and emphasized, and by what means, in addition to the routine organizational matters of the young renewal movement in England.
During our time at Conference, we still worship and pray together, fellowship, study, and complete the business of the Annual Conference. Much of the business is routine; other steps are innovations or revisions. Some resolutions address significant social controversies of our times, seeking an expression of the ethical or moral mind of the churches' leaders. Last year, for example,important proposals for full-inclusion of gay and lesbian persons in the life of the church were adopted
for consideration by the General Church in 2008. We have yet to see what consideration these will receive.
This year, other actions being considered (on which our delegates, Lou Witman or Dave Bobert, Pastor Mary Keen or I, would welcome your comments) are these:
1. Adjustments in the apportionment formula, which in our case would drop our
support to the state and general conference by about 25-33%, but would increase the costs to smaller churches by 10% or so on average.
2. A move to reduce the number of districts in Minnesota from six to five, thus reducing the conference expeditures.
3. Support for the Russian Church Initiative (our church has given over $11,000).
4. An appeal to United Methodist leaders in the Conference to begin every meeting with consideration of the impact our decisions would have upon the poor of the land. (I am a co-author of this proposal with John Darlington of Christ Church, Rochester), and our urban ministries coordinator, Dennis Alexander).
5. A proposal to offer domestic partner benefits to Annual Conference employees
(since the Conference does not make religious requirements for all of its clerical and administrative employees).
6. A proposal to ask for a vote on the question of the United Methodist understanding of marriage in Minnesota.
7. Other appeals to the General Conference (meeting in 2008) on peacemaking and war and peace study materials.
8. Election of representatives to General Conference meetings.
Please remember your United Methodist Christian sisters and brothers from all over Minnesota as they meet to pray and consider these and other proposals and appeals.
By the way, any United Methodist may write proposals to the Annual or General Conference. If you are interested, please just inquire with me or with Pastor Mary. We can describe the procedure to you.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
What Does Jesus Say about Ethanol?
I have been wondering what Jesus thinks about ethanol. There is not a word on the subject in the gospels. I wonder if this means we should be in favor of ethanol because Jesus does not reject it, or against ethanol because Jesus does not support it, or make our own thoughtful and reasonable decision about ethanol because there is no relevant moral teaching from Jesus on this?
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Good Fiction
Mary Lynn and I went walking this afternoon, and somewhere in the conversation I made a profound, speculative leap--assuming I knew what someone might be thinking or doing about a situation. Mary Lynn caught me at it, and I had to admit to her that I had no idea why I needed to think what I was thinking, but that I thought it was a perfectly good fictional story!
Oftentimes, we anticipate, fear, savor the thought of, wince at, hope for--many, many thing or events which are not real, and which may not ever occur as we imagine them. A Christian's challenge is to stay in the moment, in the reality that is here, and to ask how God would want this moment to be lived. There is far less in Scripture that counsels us to worry about, or generate fictional stories about, another person's motives or actions, than there is on carefully observing and understanding our own. Jesus said, "Why are you fretting about the splinter in your neighbor's eye, when you yourself are walking around with a great log in your own?" Which of the two see things more clearly under those circumstances, you or the neighbor?
Anyway, some fictions make the best-seller lists, but many of our fictitious tales deserve to be forgotten as soon as they hit the cerebral cortex.
Oftentimes, we anticipate, fear, savor the thought of, wince at, hope for--many, many thing or events which are not real, and which may not ever occur as we imagine them. A Christian's challenge is to stay in the moment, in the reality that is here, and to ask how God would want this moment to be lived. There is far less in Scripture that counsels us to worry about, or generate fictional stories about, another person's motives or actions, than there is on carefully observing and understanding our own. Jesus said, "Why are you fretting about the splinter in your neighbor's eye, when you yourself are walking around with a great log in your own?" Which of the two see things more clearly under those circumstances, you or the neighbor?
Anyway, some fictions make the best-seller lists, but many of our fictitious tales deserve to be forgotten as soon as they hit the cerebral cortex.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Important Business and the Community's Counsel
Chapter 3: On Calling the Brethren for Counsel
Whenever any important business has to be done in the monastery, let the Abbot call together the whole community and state the matter to be acted upon. Then, having heard the brethren's advice, let him turn the matter over in his own mind and do what he shall judge to be most expedient.The reason we have said that all should be called for counselis that the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best. Let the brethren give their advice with all the deference required by humility,and not presume stubbornly to defend their opinions; but let the decision rather depend on the Abbot's judgment, and all submit to whatever he shall decide for their welfare.
However, just as it is proper for the disciples to obey their master, so also it is his function to dispose all things with prudence and justice.
Today's reading from the "Rule of Benedict" is a solid bit of wisdom: leaders in communities of faith ought to listen to the entire body before making choices on important matters which affect everyone. Lately, we have needed to ask all of the congregation for their counsel with some frequency. We adopted and committed to the building campaign once again. We have consulted, and still need more consultation about, the questions related to levels of inclusion for gay and lesbian persons in Christian fellowship. We have before us now a community conversation that will continue more widely on May 27th, as we talk about one family's offer of the gift of stained glass windows for our sanctuary's northern windows. Soon, we will be describing and asking the community's opinions on our worship and ministry plans for the new academic year.
In a vibrant, faith community, listening well, speaking thoughtfully, and deciding prudently are all necessary practices. They are arts, and signs of loving community. In our community, of course, the only "Abbot" we have is the heart and mind of Christ. May God help us to hold on to his decisions, as they emerge from our gathered community's opinions, emotions and thoughts.
Whenever any important business has to be done in the monastery, let the Abbot call together the whole community and state the matter to be acted upon. Then, having heard the brethren's advice, let him turn the matter over in his own mind and do what he shall judge to be most expedient.The reason we have said that all should be called for counselis that the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best. Let the brethren give their advice with all the deference required by humility,and not presume stubbornly to defend their opinions; but let the decision rather depend on the Abbot's judgment, and all submit to whatever he shall decide for their welfare.
However, just as it is proper for the disciples to obey their master, so also it is his function to dispose all things with prudence and justice.
Today's reading from the "Rule of Benedict" is a solid bit of wisdom: leaders in communities of faith ought to listen to the entire body before making choices on important matters which affect everyone. Lately, we have needed to ask all of the congregation for their counsel with some frequency. We adopted and committed to the building campaign once again. We have consulted, and still need more consultation about, the questions related to levels of inclusion for gay and lesbian persons in Christian fellowship. We have before us now a community conversation that will continue more widely on May 27th, as we talk about one family's offer of the gift of stained glass windows for our sanctuary's northern windows. Soon, we will be describing and asking the community's opinions on our worship and ministry plans for the new academic year.
In a vibrant, faith community, listening well, speaking thoughtfully, and deciding prudently are all necessary practices. They are arts, and signs of loving community. In our community, of course, the only "Abbot" we have is the heart and mind of Christ. May God help us to hold on to his decisions, as they emerge from our gathered community's opinions, emotions and thoughts.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Freedom=Cleaning Out, Starting Again
Thoreau wrote at this time in 1857:
How rarely I meet with a man who can be free, even in thought! We live according to rule. Some men are bedridden; all world-ridden. I take my neighbor, an intellectual man, out into the woods and invite him to take a new and absolute view of things, to empty clean out his thoughts all institutions of men and start again; but he can’t do it, he sticks to his traditions and his crochets. He thinks that governments, colleges, newspapers, etc., are from everlasting to everlasting.
What will it take for us to re-imagine our world, our schools, our churches, our nations, our entire global climate? The things we count upon as most enduring may be the very things which need to adapt most rapidly, and if they do not, we are pouring our energies into something either useless or counter-productive. I read a theologian once who remarked that our ethical and prophetic responsibilities could be summed up in this way: to observe our situation, to critique it, to propose an alternative, and to demonstrate this alternative. This is the value of the image of the Reign of God.
It is also our difficulty with the Reign of God. Can we actually see our situation? From what vantage point can we critique it? What new dream have we?
How much energy and risk will we invest in what is not already established in our time?
Thoreau is right. Humanly speaking, it is not what we imagine to be everlasting that matters, but what is just ending or just springing up. A free person knows the difference between what dies and what lives.
How rarely I meet with a man who can be free, even in thought! We live according to rule. Some men are bedridden; all world-ridden. I take my neighbor, an intellectual man, out into the woods and invite him to take a new and absolute view of things, to empty clean out his thoughts all institutions of men and start again; but he can’t do it, he sticks to his traditions and his crochets. He thinks that governments, colleges, newspapers, etc., are from everlasting to everlasting.
What will it take for us to re-imagine our world, our schools, our churches, our nations, our entire global climate? The things we count upon as most enduring may be the very things which need to adapt most rapidly, and if they do not, we are pouring our energies into something either useless or counter-productive. I read a theologian once who remarked that our ethical and prophetic responsibilities could be summed up in this way: to observe our situation, to critique it, to propose an alternative, and to demonstrate this alternative. This is the value of the image of the Reign of God.
It is also our difficulty with the Reign of God. Can we actually see our situation? From what vantage point can we critique it? What new dream have we?
How much energy and risk will we invest in what is not already established in our time?
Thoreau is right. Humanly speaking, it is not what we imagine to be everlasting that matters, but what is just ending or just springing up. A free person knows the difference between what dies and what lives.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
"Repair My Church..."
At the edge of the hilltown of Assisi in Italy, there is a basilica. Within the basilica, there rests a very small, stone chapel: San Damiano's. This is the chapel which Francis of Assisi thought he was called of God to restore, when exactly 800 years ago this week, the figure of Christ spoke to Francis from a cross saying, "Francis, repair my church which, as you can see, has fallen into disrepair..."
He did begin to restore that chapel. As it turned out, however, the "Church" Saint Francis of Assisi was to repair or restore was none other than the entire Christian church, which he helped to rebuild by what we would call spiritual renewal, a return to the image of Christ: prayer, simplicity of life, service, environmental care and gratitude, and by the preaching of the Gospel by word, certainly, but moreso by deed.
About three years after his conversion to this work for Christ, Francis' new movement was permitted by the very worldly Pope Pius III to become a monastic Order. Ironically, the little "chapel" and foolishness of Francis is remembered and imitated today more than the basilica-like worldliness of the Pope who presided over a church in spiritual disrepair. The Christian movement always needs humble people of prayer, as small chapels, to be the true, living heart of the immense basilicas and churches of Christianity.
He did begin to restore that chapel. As it turned out, however, the "Church" Saint Francis of Assisi was to repair or restore was none other than the entire Christian church, which he helped to rebuild by what we would call spiritual renewal, a return to the image of Christ: prayer, simplicity of life, service, environmental care and gratitude, and by the preaching of the Gospel by word, certainly, but moreso by deed.
About three years after his conversion to this work for Christ, Francis' new movement was permitted by the very worldly Pope Pius III to become a monastic Order. Ironically, the little "chapel" and foolishness of Francis is remembered and imitated today more than the basilica-like worldliness of the Pope who presided over a church in spiritual disrepair. The Christian movement always needs humble people of prayer, as small chapels, to be the true, living heart of the immense basilicas and churches of Christianity.
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