The Great Divorce: Tension and Schism in the UMC

This blog post is part of a synchblog today on the topic of schism in the UMC. Please share your thoughts here, on the DreamUMC website, on your blog or facebook page, and tonight at 9 pm eastern on Twitter as we chat together. ----- Sadly, I have recent experience with splitting up. It's not…

Diary of a Delegate: rebuttal – Some More Equal than Others

I received a comment on my last post (and have received several mentions on Twitter) decrying my efforts with my colleagues as overly political, pushing an agenda, and even Machiavellian or Orwellian. My commenter wrote: "The only totalitarianism is the 'progressive' caucus forcing their will on the rest of the church. Disgraceful." Let me be…

Diary of a Delegate: in Opposition to Disaffiliation

... or, Why I Remain United Methodist In the midst of my preparations for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday this past week, I received a mailing sent to delegates of General Conference. It was a pamphlet entitled "In Support of Disaffiliation for Reasons of Conscience," speaking to a particular piece of legislation that…

What’s wrong with this picture?

A friend of mine on Facebook pointed out this telling picture from a recent United Methodist News Source story, and the way it captures the heart of the problem with the restructuring proposals coming out of the Call to Action (which I've critiqued here and for which I offered a different approach). The flip chart…

Inspiration and Hope: Why I am part of MFSA

I am part of the Methodist Federation for Social Action because it both inspires me and gives me hope. For me, MFSA lifts up the greatest strengths and addresses the greatest areas of weakness in my denomination. One of the biggest things that drew me to The United Methodist Church as a college student was…

Pastors only work on Sundays, right?

Today was one of those days. One of those wonderful, glorious days when it may have looked like I did very little to edit a church bulletin or craft a brilliant sermon, but the church and the people of God were foremost on my mind. I began the day with a meeting in Barre (next…

Local Press, and Pressing Issues

I recently attended a meeting in Montpelier that gained some local press attention. A group of team and agency members, local residents, and interested activists gathered to talk about the problem of lack of affordable housing in the Montpelier area, and the large and growing number of persons who are without housing, are marginally housed,…

When doing the right thing is wrong

Perhaps you may have read this week about the group of American Baptist volunteers arrested in Haiti for trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country (a longer article here). I confess that I'm of several minds about this, and don't really know what to say. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Mine…

Sermon: Many Gifts/The Greatest Gift

"Many Gifts/The Greatest Gift" (January 17, 2010) Much as I attempted a segue between the two-- right about 12m30s if you're looking for just the second half, this recording really contains two sermons, or one sermon and one 'special comment.' Each of us has a particular way in which we live out our spirituality, unique…

Connection

It's a big word in the United Methodist lexicon: connection. We believe that our connection (or as we like to say, connectionalism) makes us stronger, helps us do together what one person, or church, or regional body could never do alone. Making decisions as a global body is a pain in the butt, and doesn't…