Help the Western Jurisdiction respond to the needs of United Methodists outside its boundaries. Fill out the survey here.
Holy Saturday Came Early
Lent is the liturgical season of 40 days leading up to when we remember Jesus’s death and resurrection. The last day of Lent is called Holy Saturday. It is the day after Good Friday where Jesus dies by brutal crucifixion and is laid in a tomb. Holy Saturday is the day before Easter, and many churches use a dark and lonely liturgy, reflecting the felt absence of our Savior.
This year for The United Methodist Church, reeling after an awful General Conference, Holy Saturday sure feels like it came really early. It feels like our hope is dead. Right now many people feel like the disciples sequestered away, their hope dead, their dreams dashed, and very identities marred.
We are waiting for the women to come and tell us that Christ is alive. We are sinking in the muck, the rain, the swamp of isolation and abandonment, waiting to be shown a glimmer of light that will remind us our hope is still alive for freedom.
A Light from the West?
At the last few minutes of General Conference, Rev. Donna Pritchard of the Oregon-Idaho delegation (full disclosure: I was a reserve delegate for the same delegation) shared this statement by the Western Jurisdiction:
We have long appreciated the richness of the global diversity of our United Methodist Church and have embraced opportunities to join with you all in the work of making disciples for the transformation of the world.
We also understand the purpose of the Church to be in mission and ministry. Consequently, we in the West have been functioning for years as One Church committed to full inclusion, seeking to be a home for all God’s people.
Today we acknowledge the fracture of this body, yet we worship a God who tells us that the body of Christ has many parts, all equally valued. Rooted in Wesleyan tradition, grounded in Scripture and committed to mission and ministry, the Western Jurisdiction intends to continue to be one church, fully inclusive and open to all God’s children, across the theological and social spectrum.
We know from experience we are stronger when we live together as progressives, traditionalists, and centrists in our Church. Many times during this Conference we have sung or prayed or blessed each other with the reminder that we need each other.
We also know there are others who feel the same way today, so we invite you to be in dialogue with us as we move forward together into a future with hope.
May God continue to bless us for the sake of the world. Thank you.
The Bishops of the Western Jurisdiction followed up with a video where they repeated the affirmations above and pledged to be in connection and support beyond our borders.
You can see more resources on the Western Jurisdiction website.
But what does it mean? What does it mean that the West will “continue to be…committed to full inclusion” and that it will “be in dialogue” with non-WJ laity and clergy and bishops “as we move forward together.” What does that mean?
Be In The Room Where It Happens
In March, conversations will be had with the Western Jurisdiction leadership as to what role the West will take in this Denomination that has ceased to be a Church for all people.
I’ve heard it expressed many times that we need to extend the fair treatment and open ministry that we practice in the West beyond our borders. So the question is what do United Methodists beyond the West need or want from the Western Jurisdiction?
This is where you come in.
As a blog that has a large readership in the South and Bible Belt among moderates and progressives (and masochistic Traditionalists), I’ve volunteered to ask you questions and get your direct and honest feedback as to what you want or need from the Western Jurisdiction at this time. To get you in the room where it happens so whatever is crafted is shaped by the needs of those in places of risky ministry and harm.
So…what do you need?
- What does your congregation NEED to continue its vital ministry?
- What does your pastor NEED to be safe and empowered in their leadership?
- What do you HOPE would come from the Western Jurisdiction?
- Do you HOPE the West will create a new thing that you can be a part of?
- Do you not need any of that, but just want liturgical or devotional resources to better serve the LGBTQ and progressive community you are in?
- WHO do you need to be connected with? People outside your context, or people closer in that need community and collaboration?
Please respond by filling out the Survey here.
And share this blog post (NOT THE SURVEY) so folks know what they are contributing to!
(Full disclosure: I’m not on the Western Jurisdiction leadership. I am gathering information to share with those elected leaders as they discern a way forward.)
Responses Are Private
Here’s the short survey Form. My pledge is that I will compile and pass on legitimate responses to the Western Jurisdiction leadership. I will not pass on names and identifying information, but I will retain them in case a follow up or response is desired, in which case I’ll send those privately.
In the past, I’ve been trusted with stories of pay disparity and #MeToo stories of clergywomen, so I have a track record of holding these requests and responses in confidence.
I hope you contribute to this conversation. And hurry: the form closes the evening of March 13th.
Your turn
Click here for the Google Form survey. It will be active until March 13th.
Thoughts?
Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing with your friends on social media.
We need the WJ to lead in the creation of a new denomination that retains our Wesleyan doctrine, but welcomes all. Numbers don’t lie. We can either put this off until we’ll kicked out, or negotiate a better deal to leave soon. That’s all I got.
Thanks for doing this, Jeremy. I have forwarded it on to some clergy friends who are in far less supportive areas.
We need the West to lead us to the promised land of a future Methodist church where the LGBTQIA community is as accepted and welcomed as any other members of the body. We need this jurisdiction to be unafraid of doing the hard thing, the right thing, and leading as the light of Christ to the world. From Ohio, I am absolutely counting on you and on Christ to lead us.
Yes. Communication and information so impotant. Christ qas inclusive as we should be.
You’d better be sure none of that personal information that we had to divulge in the survey or in the required fields below does not get hacked or accidentally revealed in any way. That aside, nothing less than full affirmation of all of God’s people will do in the future. If in the unlikely event that the United Methodist Church gets salvation from its hurtful, harmful, hateful ways, then it also needs a new name for that global church. “UMC” has been forever sullied and tainted by continuing to maintain its exclusionary past and by reinforcing that past with its ridiculous new policies that further entrench the merciless rejection of categories of God’s people.
The UMC has developed important ecumenical relationships with The Evangelical Lutheran Church and The Episcopal Church, both being inclusive denominations. By leaving the UMC these relationships will have to be renegotiated with a newly formed.Methodist Church. If the new church retains the essentials of UM doctrine, liturgy, and order that will make recognition and intercommunion easier to achieve.
This crisis is not over. The instigators of “Regime change” will be embolden by their success. Mainline denominations must work together to counter these subversive campaigns of disinformation, suspicion, attacks on leadership and exploitation of disagreements. We must expose these attempts and their funding sources. Counter their propaganda and expel their agents as troublemakers with agendas to disrupt the peace of the church. An ecumenical taskforce should be created and jointly funded to do this.
The West can form a church to transfer to for those who are kicked out or need to leave. Maybe a parachurch like the WCA for a starter that serves as a forum for forming a new church and a haven for those in need of refuge.
The bishop and those opposing the decision should be ashamed. Accept you lost your gambit. The decision was democratically selected and should be upheld. When discussing Christ-like values I’m sure one of them was not to fight, bash, and disrespect a fair process and decision. You talk of people no longer having a church to go? I don’t see that. I see progressive churches saying they won’t change their policy. So their lgbtqa members will still have a place to go. However, conservative members in progressive areas will legitimately have no place to go. Your position to fight is also selfish and shows no humility or respect on your part for the other side. I will end by voicing that antinomianism was labelled by or founder as one of the worst forms of heresy. So if you believe in such things. Then really you have no business claiming a Wesleyan heritage.