![]() Louis, Missouri at the America’s Center February 23-26, 2019. Guests and observers to the 2019 Special Session of the General Conference, The United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly, may now pre-register online. Feel free to share these with your congregation or ministry. Bush, along with other staff, has created a series of videos to help explain the Special Session of General Conference in 2019. This two-page summary of the ‘Way Forward’ models (One Church Plan, Connectional Conference Plan, and Traditionalist Plan) was prepared by Commission on a Way Forward member Dave Nuckols on October 21, 2018. The Commission on a Way Forward’s full report to General Conference, including all three plans that the Commission submitted to the Council of Bishops for their consideration. The 32-member Commission was appointed to examine paragraphs in The Book of Discipline concerning human sexuality and exploring options to strengthen the unity of the church. The purpose will be to act on a report from the Council of Bishops based on the recommendations of the Commission on a Way Forward. A Special Session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church took place February 23-26, 2019 in St. The Council of Bishops has called a Special Session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church to be held February 23-26, 2019 in St. It is the only body that can speak officially for the denomination. General Conference convenes every quadrennium (four years) to determine the denomination’s future direction. ![]() The voting membership consists of an equal number of clergy and lay delegates elected by the annual conferences. The General Conference is the highest legislative body in The United Methodist Church. Read Resources and Information on the 2019 Special Conference To those called in Christ’s name, who have yet to be born, we ask your forgiveness for our weakness and for the frailty of the Church’s witness to God’s abundant grace while we pray you carry on this struggle so that the Church in every age will have those who shine brightly the light of hope.Join Pastor Barb and Pastor Cody as we pray for the Special Session: Praying Our Way Forward until the conclusion of the Special Session of General Conference which ends February 26, 2019. To other allies in this struggle for the soul of the Church, we pray you strength that will not waiver as we stand with our sisters and brothers. To our LGBTQIA sisters and brothers in the United Methodist Church, we pray that you will remain encouraged and be that light. Having come this way we, I, know without question that in these moments when it seems that the powers of exclusion are triumphant, the need for God to have friends and the Gospel have witness who will be a bright light of hope and grace are never more urgent. Having come across these same waters several decades ago, we know the pain and its power to bring all things related to the Church into question even the presence of the Spirit’s power. ![]() We offer our support to those who have been wounded and left bereft by the decisions of the 2019 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. As we make clear in our Statement of Mission and Commitments: “We are committed, in a world governed by the presumption of heterosexual expression, to challenge homophobia, to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other individuals within the spectrum of human sex and sexuality, and to develop leadership to encourage faith communities to become more open and affirming.” ![]() Standing in this tradition, we reject the notion that one can honor the dignity of all of God’s children while casting out some because of a feature of their birth. CTS stands firmly in the tradition of the United Church of Christ which holds that baptism is the only qualification for ordination and that fitness then becomes the area in which the wisdom of the Church and the faithful is operative. My heart is always made heavy when the body of Christ bears the marks of the lack of human imagination and penchant for limiting the workings of grace in this broken world.Īs president of Chicago Theological Seminary, let me state unequivocally that we remain committed to the celebration of the full expression of non-predatory human sexuality that is a witness to God’s many splendored handiworks. I regret this path was chosen because the wounds of this struggle will not soon be healed, if ever. With the failure of the One Church Plan and approval of the Traditional Plan, a majority of delegates to the 2019 General Conference has said unequivocally that baptism is an insufficient qualification for the full exercise of membership in the Church. These are days of much hurt and sorrow for our sisters and brothers in the United Methodist Church.
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