General Conference - What Happens Now?

 If you are reading this, you undoubtedly know the news is out that General Conference 2020/21/22 is now General Conference 2024. The news is fresh, but not a surprise. Most watchers fully anticipated that this would be the case, so some early observations seem appropriate:

1. Traditionalist leadership false outrage. Listen to this from the IRD: "This rushed decision ignores how many other major denominational assemblies and international conferences are meeting in person in America this year, how at least half of American annual conferences are back to meeting largely in person, and how even Africa is on track to get Covid-19 under control this year." Rushed? If anything, the commission took too much time! Comparing us to other denominations is fruitless. We are the most geographically diverse protestant denomination. Half of American annual conferences being back in person means another half are not, and the deciding issue apparently was visa availability, not covid concerns. For what it's worth, I was told more than one month ago that visas in Nigeria are backed up to the fall of 2023! The truth is traditionalist leadership was working hard on vaccines and visas for delegates that they believed would vote with them, hoping to get enough of them present at GC22 to accomplish their goals in a highly politicized process.

2. Bureaucratic Nonsense. That doesn't let the Commission off the hook. They met in closed session, which seems to against our open meeting policy, and then sat on their decision for a week. When an organization is in crisis, transparency is even more important. These meetings should have all been open to the media with a public decision announced the same day. 

3. Bureaucratic Nightmare. The completely bizarre organizational reality just became much more bizarre. My understanding is that the decision is to postpone, not cancel General Conference. Theoretically, that means we will hold the 2020 General Conference at the time previously reserved for the 2024 General Conference. Does that mean 2024 will be postponed to 2028? This is not just a theoretical exercise. If 2020 is delayed, then delegations are not reelected. That also, presumably, means that delegates will not be reapportioned based on membership changes over the last four years. Politically, I like that. I'm also not sure it's fair. 

4. The Traditionalist Playbook is clear. As expected, the Global Methodist Church will launch May 1st. You can expect tremendous pressure to join. Here's what else to expect:

• Lawsuits. Good News' accidental release on Wednesday makes it clear that they expect some congregations will go to secular courts (despite clear scriptural injunctions against this which these scriptural purists will choose to ignore).
• Despite their belief that a global conference should be able to meet, they will resist jurisdictional conferences meeting this fall because of fear over who will be elected as bishops.
• Some annual conferences will vote to leave. This may or may not be constitutional and, if it is ruled unconstitutional, I fully expect that some of these will go to secular courts.
• Selective support of "the spirit of the Protocol." We're hearing that, in the spirit of the Protocol, bishops should make it as easy as possible for churches to leave. I agree. I hope that there will also be support for the abeyance but thus far that has been lukewarm.
• They will continue to meddle even as they leave the UMC. This is really fascinating and probably deserves its own treatment. In 2019, traditionalists insisted on passing an exit path for churches that needed to leave. They still haven't taken it. Now, all the traditionalist groups are suggesting churches should leave using a different, easier paragraph in the Discipline that already existed prior to 2019. Simultaneously, they are advocating for passage of the Protocol in 2024 for those churches who have not left by then. It really doesn't need to be this hard. Act in good faith in accordance with the full spirit of the Protocol and we can get this done.

5. What should happen. We have been living in this limbo for two years now. We don't need General Conference to meet for us to all move forward. Here's how we do it:

• Bishops must all reaffirm (or in some cases affirm for the first time) the abeyance against charges for LGBT+ pastors and marriages.
• All parties should adopt the approach outlined in the document A Call to Grace. As a longtime reluctant supporter of the Protocol, A Call to Grace is the right Plan B. Now Plan B is all we have. Bishops, caucus leaders, conference trustees, pastors, and churches are going to have to all work together to avoid a nightmare. But the nightmare absolutely can be avoided. This is the path.
• Jurisdictional Conferences should meet as soon as possible. It's not tenable for our bishops to be serving two-point charges for two additional years even while some bishops are wanting to retire. Jurisdictional Conferences need to meet, and I'm convinced this is allowed under our current Discipline.
• Elect new delegations in 2023. Some of my friends won't like this, but that's OK. I don't think it's reasonable to ask a group of delegates elected in 2019 to act as delegates in 2024. I we have Jurisdictional Conferences, the current delegates should and would be seated. No annual conference should elect delegates in 2022 while churches and pastors are in the middle of deciding whether they plan on staying in the denomination. 2023 elections in all conferences would allow for the dust to settle a little while also acknowledging that we are now living in the beginning of a new era for the United Methodist Church.