Report of the Lay Delegate to Annual Conference
Report of the Lay Delegate to Annual Conference
The New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church was held at Manchester, New Hampshire from June 18th to 20th. Anyone is welcome to read an official accounting of the proceedings and watch recordings of the sessions at the conference website at http://www.neumc.org/. The notes I have recorded below are not an attempt to create a full accounting of the proceedings, much of which concerned subjects that were of esoteric or regional interest and are therefore, frankly, largely irrelevant to the concerns of this church. Rather I have gathered my thoughts on those decisions that seemed to me to be of greatest interest to this community over the coming year. They can be divided into three categories: the Act of Repentance, the election of lay delegates to General Conference, and the adoption of certain resolutions.
An Act of Repentance
On Thursday afternoon the Reverend Thomas White Wolf Fassett led Conference in an Act of Repentance in recognition of the historical wrongs the United Methodist Church perpetrated against the indigenous peoples of America. His sermon detailed the campaign of genocide and cultural obliteration that has characterized the relationship between Anglo-Americans and native peoples for centuries. Conference leaders then pledged to follow policies in future that will, where possible, restore land and resources stolen from native peoples. At the end of the service, conference delegates were invited to take up stones scattered about the room to serve as reminders of the longstanding Native American presence on this land that we have so recently adopted. I will present one of these stones at Charge Conference.
I left this service inspired to do what I can in the year ahead to highlight our own church’s historical relationship to indigenous peoples, and the repentance we owe to them.
Election of Delegates
On Thursday and Friday elections were held for delegates to the 2016 General Conference and the 2016 New England Judicial Conference. As a lay member of Annual Conference, I voted for three lay delegates to General Conference, three lay delegates to the NEJ Conference, and three alternates.
The three lay delegates elected to General Conference were Bonnie Marden, Ralph Oduor, and Lorene Wilbur. The three lay delegates elected to the NEJ Conference were Steven Cry, Oscar Harrell, and Rebecca Hewett. The alternates were Roberta Bragan, Sean Delmore, and Christy Wright. The election process yielded an accurate representative sampling of the Conference, with an even balance between men and women, a range of ages, and fair representation of racial minorities and LGBT people.
Over the course of the next several months, as General Conference approaches and the major controversial agenda items become clear, the laity of this church should note the names of the elected delegates in the event we should wish to petition them with any concerns.
Resolutions
The vast majority of the resolutions passed at Annual Conference pertained to the regular functioning of the body and therefore appeared in the consent calendar, all of which can be read in the pre-conference booklet available on the conference website. Several resolutions that did require a vote pertained to the closing or sale of certain properties, among them Covenant Hills Christian Camp in Vermont, the Episcopal Residence in Reading, Conference Headquarters in Lawrence, and six churches.
On Saturday afternoon, after most of the conference had been consumed in hashing out petty details on matters of trivial concern, several resolutions were adopted by the remaining delegates which addressed broader social and political issues, some which may be passed on to General Conference for its consideration. I voted in favor of all of them. They included resolutions to end the War on Drugs, to divest from occupied territories (e.g. Palestine), to enforce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to stop the criminalization of communities of color, and to avoid investments in fossil fuels.
There was a brief attempt to bring a resolution called “Do No Harm” to the floor. This resolution essentially called for the conference to violate the Discipline on all matters pertaining to the inclusion of LGBT persons in the life of the church. The resolution had been ruled out of order by Bishop Devadhar prior to the Conference, but copies were distributed as delegates left. I have a copy on hand if anyone wishes to see it.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jim Bennett
Lay Delegate, NEAC 2016
First United Methodist Church of Melrose