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Rev. Tami Coleman will be appointed at Annual Conference as the new Associate Director of Connectional Ministries. Tami is an elder who has served as pastor of South Shore UMC and as the Ashland District Ministry Consultant since 2008. She earned her undergraduate degree at LaGrange College in Georgia and her MDiv. at Asbury Theological Seminary. She previously served on staff at two churches in the South Georgia Conference – First, Albany and First, Warner Robins. Tami brings her gifts of team building, creativity, leadership, spiritual disciplines and ministry to this position. Tami’s husband, Jim Coleman, is also an elder who is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Asbury Seminary and the University of Manchester, England. Together they parent three boys – Josiah (13), Jonathan (11) and Jacob (6).
Having survived General Conference 2012 I am glad to be back in Kentucky. I am convinced now more than ever that the renewal of the church will not come through our human efforts to legislate, restructure or manage our resources. Renewal of the church comes only from our prayerful listening to the Lord and our obedience to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Ninety-nine percent of what is needed in our church must happen at the local church, district and annual conference level anyway.
Most of us left Tampa with varying degrees of frustration. Our General Conference system is highly resistant to change. In some way, maybe that is good. But I cannot help but feel that a legislative model governed by “Robert’s Rules of Order” makes it virtually impossible for “holy conferencing” to take place. I am confident that John Wesley would not, at times, have recognized what we did as holy or conferencing. Nor were we always especially loving toward one another. More than I can recall, it seemed that the agendas and strategies of the world were transforming us rather the other way around.
But I am a child of God, who forgives and restores, so after a few days of rest I am ready to acknowledge the good things that happened and to engage the work we have left to do here at home. So I am counting my blessings today.
1. Our delegation was faithful to the end. The folks who represented Kentucky and Red Bird were active leaders in the process of General Conference and served us well. Farley Stuart was elected as Secretary of the Interjurisdictional Episcopal Committee, and Bill Arnold was elected to serve on the University Senate.
2. Two choirs from Kentucky brought joy to our worship. The Cardinal Singers from Red Bird and the Kentucky Wesleyan Choir were fantastic. They were the best of the best.
3. Although the restructuring proposals were eventually ruled unconstitutional, I am grateful that there is a clear desire in our church to adjust our approach to ministry so we might develop more vital, healthy local churches. There is fresh energy about being a more faithful connectional church. But most of that energy needs to be lived out in our annual conference and districts. Nothing is stopping us from doing better than we have done. I am not interested in mere denominational well-being and effectiveness. I am fundamentally interested in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ so that people’s lives are transformed. Transformation of communities in our world always begins with changed lives. Our task is to bring people into the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life so that they can provide a witness which changes the world to be more like Jesus. The church exists not for itself but to save the world.
4. I was greatly encouraged by our delegates from outside the United States. They were more actively engaged in our conversations than ever before. Their statements of deep faith and biblical orthodoxy save us from ourselves. Their perspective is non-western but very Wesleyan. We need to listen more carefully to what these sisters and brothers are trying to tell us.
5. Our General Church budget is smaller, thus driving more financial resources back to annual conferences and local churches. Will we be good stewards? I also hope that our General Church agencies are understanding the message of General Conference. We need these agencies to continue to reform themselves. Four more years of business as usual will not be acceptable. This need for reform is nowhere more noticeable than in the Council of Bishops where our failures of leadership can do much harm to the church.
6. With the change in guaranteed appointment for clergy, I am encouraged that we are seeking better ways to appoint clergy for the missional needs of the Church. Although the Judicial Council still has to review the legislation to see if it passes constitutional muster, we will need to be involved in a conversation over the next year about the criteria for full-time appointment of elders. There is no need to move quickly here and we do not want to implement a system which is unfair, but I am confident that we can reach some understandings about our clergy covenant which will bear good fruit for the Kingdom.
Well, I look forward to the Red Bird Conference next week and to the Kentucky Conference in June. See you there.
Lindsey
Delegates and visitors gathering in the plenary hall Thursday morning were ushered in by the singing of the Cardinal Singers from the Red Bird Missionary Conference. Choir members, decked out in bright red robes, energetically sang for Christ.
The business portion of Thursday, May 3, began with presiding officer Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton from the Pittsburgh Episcopal Area reminding us of the importance of holy conferencing, stating that in our discussion of issues that were to come before the body we must "maintain unity of the spirit and a bond of peace."
Several items of business were enacted during the morning session, including
• supporting a measure to direct United Methodist boards and agencies, annual conferences, and local church groups to consider the school schedules of young people when planning meetings and events;
• rejecting a motion to set a time for discussion of a petition directing the General Board of Church and Society and the General Board of Global Ministries/Women’s Division to withdraw membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice;
• voting to change the name of Lay Speaking Ministries to Lay Servant Ministries; and
• recognizing two General Conference delegates who were hospitalized May 2. Jessica Ireland, Iowa Conference, was struck by a car—driven by another General Conference delegate—while walking back from dinner.
Aside from acting on many items, the body also became entangled in trying to work through language around the issue of human sexuality.
After more than an hour of passionate debate and clear disagreement, two items stating Christians have different opinions about homosexuality were not approved by the 2012 General Conference, leaving the current language in The Book of Discipline intact.
Paragraph 161.F of the Discipline states: “The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”
The Rev. Adam Hamilton of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., and the Rev. Mike Slaughter of Ginghamsburg Church, Tipp City, Ohio, proposed a substitution for part of the paragraph that sought to clarify that United Methodists disagree on whether homosexual practice is contrary to God’s will and urged unity over division and respect for coexistence. Their substitution would have replaced the last paragraph of a petition submitted by the Global Convocation of Young People after its 2010 conference.
Jen Ihlo, a Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference delegate, worked on the Church and Society Legislative Committee’s subcommittee on human sexuality. She said there was lengthy debate about where the church is on homosexuality.
“This petition represents that compromise; it states our positions are vastly different,” Ihlo said. “I am a lesbian and a child of God. I strongly urge the body to adopt this compromise so gay youth will recognize the church loves them and the pain will stop.”
The Rev. Maxie Dunnam of the Kentucky Annual Conference spoke against the substitution saying, “I see no reason to state that we disagree. If we’re going to state what we disagree about, we might as well put that as a headline on our Book of Discipline.”
The vote on the Hamilton-Slaughter substitution defeated it 441-507, and the main motion failed 368-572.
As time for the mid-morning break came, members of Reconciling Ministries, the Methodist Federation for Social Action and others led by Common Witness Coalition, a gay-rights group, gathered within the bar of conference.
Upon reconvening, presiding bishop Mike Coyner from the Indiana Annual Conference asked the protesters to clear the bar. When they did not, he cancelled the rest of the morning session. Protesters stayed within the bar of conference to sing and serve communion throughout the break.
During the break, a group of bishops met with the protesters and worked out a compromise where one of the protesters would be allowed to pray for the gathering from the dais and then the protesters would leave peacefully.
After that, the business of General Conference got back on track.
During the lunch break, the Cardinal Singers sang again, this time in the lobby of the convention center. Corbin District Superintendent and his wife, Terrie, were among those enjoying the singers. As the Cardinal Singers were finishing their selections, the Lake Junaluska Singers asked to join them onstage, and the two groups performed a gospel song together.
Business in the afternoon plenary sessions included approval of the restated Clergy Retirement Security Program, which combines a defined benefit component with a defined contribution component. Delegates did not approve a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed General Conference to designate a committee to reallocate funds between sessions of the quadrennial gathering.
The day ended with worship service. The theme of the night was "Feed."
Tuesday was a busy day for the Kentucky delegation, both on the floor of the conference and outside of the plenary hall. Legislatively much was debated and voted on, but one of the most surprising pieces of legislation that passed was the vote about "guaranteed appointments" for clergy. The surprising fact was that the proposal was brought to the floor as part of a consent calendar and was passed as such.
After passage there was an attempt to lift the item from the calendar but that effort failed. So the 2012 General Conference voted to discontinue guaranteed appointments for ordained elders. Bishop Lindsey Davis understands that there will be some anxiety going forward.
"I want the clergy in Kentucky not to be fearful about this process; we are going to do this carefully and methodically, as Methodists tend to do,” Bishop Davis said. “We are going to have lots of conversations, and we'll try to implement it in a very careful way.”
Dr. Tom Smith, Director of Ministerial Services, spoke about the reactions to the legislation that he has seen so far, "I really thought it would be divided along age lines, but some of the young clergy here are upset with it and some of the young clergy here are applauding it. I think it goes both ways." Dr. Smith went on to point out that being in ministry is unlike most other positions that one may hold. "This doesn't change anybody's call. People do this not because they have security of appointment but because God's called them to this ministry."
Tuesday also marked the day that Southeastern Jurisdiction (SEJ) episcopal candidates introduced themselves to delegates from the 13 SEJ conferences. Seven of the 14 candidates spoke on Tuesday and the remaining seven, including Rev. Debbie Wallace-Padgett of Kentucky, will have their turn on Wednesday.
The body also celebrated the adoption of the full communion agreement, which was voted on Monday, with six other Pan-Methodist denominations. The United Methodist Church is the last of the denominations to adopt the full communion agreement. Bishops from two of the other denominations and a representative from a third joined in the celebration during the afternoon plenary.
In other legislation, delegates opposed a longer preamble proposed for the Social Principles by a legislative committee. They agreed with a minority report that affirms “our unity in Jesus Christ while acknowledging differences in applying our faith in different cultural contexts as we live out the gospel.”
Voting 532 to 414, delegates added a clause, “We stand united in declaring our faith that God’s grace is available to all – that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”
Some delegates argued against the added sentence saying that belief and action can separate us from the love of God in Jesus. Others suggested that there is a difference between God’s love for all and human response to that love.
Delegates also revised the Social Principles statement on abortion to say, “We mourn and are committed to the diminishment of high abortion rates.”
Churches were encouraged to support “crisis pregnancy centers and pregnancy resource centers that compassionately help women explore all options related to unplanned pregnancy.”
The body also voted to create a new episcopal area in the Congo.
Monday began with morning prayer and then right into the plenary session. The morning plenary began by dealing with agenda items and passing 9 consent calendars. The body then moved onto a request that was brought by the Council of Bishops.
The request from the Council of Bishops asked for a non-residential president of the Council of Bishops. The legislation involved a change in the constitution which requires bishops to be appointed and serve within a specific jurisdiction. The bishops were asking for a change in language which would allow the election of a “fulltime president of the Council of Bishops.”
The conversation on the floor was heated and split between those who had sympathy with the request and those who believed it was creating a new executive officer for The United Methodist Church. While Bishop Goodpaster, the outgoing president of the Council, assured the conference that the non-residential bishop would have no additional powers beyond that of the current part-time president, delegates worried that this office would obtain new powers. This was a special concern for non-US delegates, who spoke with passion against the measure. In the end, the measure had a majority of the votes cast, but could not obtain the 2/3 needed to approve a constitutional amendment.
A proposal was made to move from the system where bishops are elected to the episcopacy until their retirement to a system where an Episcopal term would be eight years with the possibility of one re-election. Initially the item had received the required 2/3 votes in the legislative committee but had received the required twenty signatures to be pulled from the consent calendar and brought to the floor. After debate on the floor, the proposal did not have the required 2/3 votes to become a constitutional amendment.
In other legislation, two clergy and two lay persons were elected to the Judicial Council. The two lay people are N. Oswald Tweh, Sr. and Beth Capen. The six laity alternates are Sandra W. Lutz, Kurt Glassco, Randall Miller, Deanell Reece Tacha, W. Warren Plowden, Jr. and Reynaldo V. Abdon. The clergy persons elected are J. Kabamba Kiboko and Dennis L. Blackwell.
Jan Love, Kasap Owan, William J. Abraham and Dr. Bill T. Arnold, a clergy delegate from the Kentucky Conference, were elected to the University Senate. The University Senate is made up of 25 voting members who at the time of election are actively engaged in the work of education at an educational institution. The four will serve four-year terms.
The order of the day was a celebration of Higher Education. After a presentation during the afternoon plenary session, a choir from Africa University took the stage and then literally took delegates, bishops and visitors to a reception one floor down as they led a musical procession through the hallway, down the escalator and into the reception.
The choir of Kentucky Wesley College was one of the featured choirs that sang during the reception. The choir decked out in tuxedos and long dresses was one of the most nattily attired and also one of the most well-received choirs. The crowd surrounded the stage and clapped and moved in time with the music of the choir.
The night ended with the evening worship service titled "Embark". The night was hosted by Dr. Larry Hygh and Bishop David Kekumba Yemba preached the sermon.
Hello Dear Friends of the Kentucky Annual Conference!
Lisa and I have settled in well with the Methodist Church of the Caribbean in Belize. It is hard to believe we have been in this appointment for almost a year.
It is a joy to serve with the Ebenezer Circuit. Rev. Papouloute, who is the President (Bishop) of the district, has five churches in his circuit. I am helping to alleviate some of his preaching schedule. Most of my time is spent with a village called Burrell Boom.
The worship service is much more formal than what I am familiar with. The photo shows me in the white cassock which was a gift to me from the Wilmore UMC. It is very hot to say the least! I am also trying to get used to the clergy collar. Some of my peers in the Kentucky Conference have made jokes about the collar, but it has opened many doors for ministry with the people of Belize.
Holy Week and Easter was a wonderful experience. Belizians take it very seriously. Businesses shut down for “Holy Friday,” and the school system shuts down for two weeks the week before and after Easter! It is a busy time for clergy. I preached or otherwise participated in 6 worship services starting on Maundy Thursday and through the Easter weekend.
I am also a trainer for the equivalent of Safe Sanctuaries in Belize. We are starting from scratch, so it has been enjoyable being in the planning and training as well. Thank you Julie Hager Love for your help in that area!
Lisa is working with the Volunteer in Ministry mission teams coming from the states. The missionary from The Methodist Church in England, Sister Maggie Patchett, is the main coordinator. She is in England for several weeks for furlough, so Lisa is taking up the slack. The Methodist Church in Belmopan is building a new high school, and much work is going towards completing the school. The country of Belize depends upon the churches for educating the Belizian children. The Methodist Church has more students than any other denomination. The Burrell Boom Methodist School alone has over 300 children. The government pays the teachers’ salarie, but the churches are responsible for providing the schools. The high school in Belmopan will provide much needed space for the students. It is proving to be enjoyable work for Lisa.
Lisa Williams helps with a dental team from the U.S. at Burrell Boom.
Lisa has also been an advocate for a couple of children who need medical care. She has been active in raising funds to provide help for young child named Sanito, who has a rare form of cancer. He has been receiving chemotherapy for the last year, traveling to Merida, Mexico to receive the treatments. On a side note, Sanito and his dad, Santiago, in one of their last visits were actually hit by a fast moving car. Sanito had a serious head wound and Santiago was bruised up pretty badly, but they are okay now.
We have been grateful for all the friends and family who have provided much help for these two families. Sanito’s cancer is hopefully in remission as he just discontinued the chemotherapy. The little baby, who had surgery on his eyes, will be able to see some but is going to struggle.
The experiences of ministry have been life changing for us, and we would love to share this country with any VIM teams from Kentucky. Let us know if you have a group interested in coming. We have put together arrangements for food and housing that are very comfortable and affordable for teams to come work on the high school.
We are grateful to all who are lifting us up in prayer. There are times life is gets a little complicated living in a developing country, but prayer has pulled us through.
We are also grateful for all who have helped financially for us to serve. Although we are mainly self funded, the money that has come from donors has helped us in our ministry and travel expenses and work done on the parsonage in Burrell Boom.
If you would like make a contribution to help support our ministry there are four options:
1. Write a check that will go through the Board of Global Ministries of the U.M. Church. Payable to ADVANCE GCFA (General Council of Finance Administration). In the memo line write: Advance #982465 James and Lisa Williams. All volunteer missionaries use this same number so it must be designated specifically to our work in Belize by using our names.
Mail check to:
Advance GCFA
P.O. Box 9068, GPO
New York, NY 10087-9068
2. By Phone: Credit card gifts can be accepted by phone. The telephone number is: (888) 252-6174.
3. Donate online by going to The Advance page of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church and use Project # 982465: http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/advance/donate.cfm?id=3020917&code=982465
Scroll down to our names James and Lisa Williams to proceed.
4. Give through any United Methodist Church using the Advance #982465 AND our names, James and Lisa Williams. Make sure your church treasurer understands this process.
Jamie and Lisa Williams’ Website
williams4belize.org
Work on a high school being built by the Methodist Church in Belmopan
"Be Still" Retreat for those who have served with the ministry of Equipping Lydia this year
Saturday, May 19, 2012
For more information on this retreat visit www.equippinglydia.org
To Register for Equipping Lydia's retreats email scheduling@insightbb.com
Through the ministry of Equipping Lydia, individuals and groups are guided through the process of spiritual formation. Come and explore your understanding of God's love, healing and restoration through spiritual formation. Explore your understanding of God's love, healing and restoration through spiritual direction and Christian retreat experiences. For more information about upcoming events, see www.equippinglydia.org.
Saturday, May 19, 2012 at the Mary Kendall campus of the Kentucky United Methodist Homes for Children & Youth.
Annual Day Events
Auction donations are still needed:
Please call the Mary Kendall Campus if you need items picked up for the event 270-683-6481 ext. 201 or ext. 219
Portland Promise Center's Side by Side Banquet
Saturday, May 19, 2012
At Christ Church United Methodist
4614 Brownsboro Road
Louisville, KY 40207
5:30 PM
Reservations required
Please reply to Kathie Stoess at 502-776-2635 or kstoess@portlandpromise.org by May 1st.
Cost: $75.00 per dinner
Mail to Portland Promise Center
PO Box 11865
Louisville, Ky. 40245
3:00 p.m. at the Foundry
The Conference Board of Pension and Health Benefits will be hosting learning and listening events for all clergy and lay delegates to the Kentucky Annual Conference regarding the proposed Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP). Any interested laity are invited to attend as well.
This event will take place at the Covington District Conference.
Time and Location TBD