And the Winner Is…
It was a race to the finish. The Call to Action/Interim
Operation Team (CTA/IOT) plan was an odds-on favorite, with Adam Hamilton as
the charismatic front man, months of advance PR, and a slick multimedia
presentation. The church is in
crisis! We’re declining! We must do something about it! Here’s the answer! It was hard to resist a buy-in, even
though we all had questions and general suspicions. Suspicion might be too
strong a word. No one suspects an out and out conspiracy – as though some
power-mad bishop is waiting to emerge as the “set-aside bishop” and mwah-ha-ha
rule the church. But people have been uneasy about a 15-member General Council
for Strategy and Oversight. Even with a 45-member Center for Connectional
Ministries and Advisory Board to elect them and watch over them, 15 seems like
an awfully small number for a 12 million member denomination. How could our
diversity possibly be taken into account in all of those decisions? People have
also been uneasy about the speed of the proposed change.
And probably a lot of other things, too, as right out of the
gate, the CTA/IOT plan was running neck and neck with Plan B, a second full-out
restructuring plan put together by an unofficial group of people from across
the connection. Plan B seeks to correct what it sees as representation issues,
liability issues that could come from consolidating assets of merged agencies,
and the power of the bishops, which were somewhat enhanced in the CTA/IOT
proposal.
In the General Administration committee, Plan B was almost
immediately chosen as the substitute for CTA/IOT proposal, which means that by
the rules of the GC, the committee picked one of the proposals to perfect. Plan
B.
The MFSA plan seems to have stayed even for a while, with
some of its good ideas being adopted. Honestly, I kinda liked the MFSA plan,
which skips the 15-member Council in favor of a 45 member council, groups the
agencies more or less into the 4 focus group areas (can you say EMT?) and
otherwise made sense to me.
So round and round they all raced this week, with
subcommittees amending amendments to amendments and debating them in front of
an increasingly amused and concerned audience.
But when they all rounded the corner to the home stretch
(which was 9:30 tonight for everyone) it was Plan-B-With-Amendments in the lead
with CTA/IOT 2 heads behind. MFSA keeping up with a steady gallop. But OH
– here comes the CTA/IOT With
Amendments (aka Uniting Our Church) which spurred forward to challenge the lead.
Plan B With Amendments surged forward, tripped and couldn’t finish the race.
The original CTA/IOT tried to make a comeback, but was bumped by the original
Plan B. You think you’re confused?
By 9:45 pm, when we walked in to see what was up in the only circus left
in town, NO ONE KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING. Even the authoritative Twitter feed
was mis-reporting. There was no
majority report, so no one could make a minority report.
So no recommendation goes to the floor. It is sad, really,
as there is no disagreement that we need change in size, flexibility, and
focus. And a lot of people put in a lot of time. However, as I understand the process, there are still ways
for them to get their proposals to the floor. Keep praying.
In other news, Church & Society B took the UMC several
steps back from being advocates for Reproductive Choice – voting to remove us
from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. This will go before the
plenary next week.
The Divestment Resolution from the Holy Land Task Force
received some serious alteration in Financial Administration. It’s barely the
same document. In its current form, it will be an excellent tool of diplomacy
for better relations with the Jewish community, but isn’t close to the strong action
item that was proposed. I doubt
we’ve seen the end of this one.
----------------
Not much in the way of good news tonight. Let me try
to end with some more hopeful shout-outs. Lots of Cal-Pac people are here – who
knew?
* Can I say how together MFSA has been? Richard Bentley,
Janet McKeithen, Mary Larsen, and a host of others have provided non-stop advocacy
for international delegates and organizing for an inclusive church.
* Lisa Gay Santiago is here as the President of the National
Association of Filipino American United Methodists (NAFAUM).
* Cynthia Abrams is in action as a member of our delegation
and staff person for the General Board of Church & Society. Her tobacco
legislation passed the Church & Society B committee tonight.
* Alice Knox of San Diego State’s Campus Ministry is here
for a book signing.
* Conference Treasurer Archana Carey is here present and
accounted for.
* Preston Price has his usual place on stage as part of the
General Secretary’s staff.
* Past Treasurer Dan Gara also made an appearance.
* Nestor Gerente & Krista McVey are here as a pages.
* Monalisa Tu’itahi is here as a member of our delegation
and director of Pacific Islander National Caucus of United Methodists.
* Ana-Haydee Urda is here as a member of our delegation and
monitor for Metodistas
Asociados Representado la Cause de los Hispano-Americanos (MARCHA).
* Mary
Elizabeth Moore is here as a member of our delegation and as the Dean of the
School of Theology at Boston University and part of the Association of United Methodist Theology Schools.
* Marjorie Suchocki is here as a member of
our delegation and part of the Worldwide Church study team.
* Ran into Allison Mark monitoring for Asian-Americans.
* Saul Montiel, our GBGM Border Missionary offered a
presentation.
* Saw Sione Veikoso
across a crowded room.
* Saw 2 people I recognize from CFA but I don’t know their
names.
* Tom Griffiths is here to offer a Judicial Council
training.
* Prof. Jack Johnson, Helena Titus, and a host of CST
students.
* Jerry Campbell is here as the CST President.
* Prof. Helene Slessarev-Jamir will be appointed to the
University Senate.
* Bishop Charles Jordan is here – volunteering as a helpful
parliamentarian.
* Kelvin Sauls is here doing all the things he does.
* Rosemary & Bob Davis are around.
* Nan Self is doing whatever she does.
And of course, Bishop Swenson is here hanging with the other
Bishops.
Your delegates – Tom, Molly, Cedric, Tricia, Mele, Ken, Jo
Ann, & Leanne get a break tomorrow and then head into a challenging week of
plenary sessions.
Your 1st reserve members Norma & Frank will
be here all week. And your other friendly adjunct members, Mark, Tonya, and
Paige are departing this weekend (or early next week).
It’s a party, y’all.
If you like your party with plenty of parliamentary procedure.
I move that we rock on.
Stay hopeful,
Paige
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