#gc2012

Don’t blame bishops for General Conference ‘fiasco’

June 3, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 7 Comments

By William H. Willimon, Special Contributor… General Conference in Tampa made history as the most expensive ($1,500 per minute!), least productive, most fatuous assemblage in the history of Methodism. Sunday evening’s “A Celebration of Ministry” fiasco was a metaphor for our nearly two weeks at church expense: four hours of belabored supplication by the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, five Ethnic National Plans, Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century, United Methodist Men, Girl Scouts, Africa University and a number of other agencies I can’t [...]

Filed Under: Commentaries, General Conference 2012, Guest Commentaries Tagged With: #gc2012, general conference, umc, willimon

Dealing with ‘wounded’ United Methodist Church

June 3, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 4 Comments

By Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Special Contributor… Many good things happened at General Conference. They did not necessarily happen through legislative processes though some of the good came through our legislative work. Establishing a global theological education fund to help prepare persons for ministry, our commitment to mission and ministry around the world supported by a strong financial plan, the commissioning of missionaries to serve in a great variety of settings, our continued commitment to U.S. racial ethnic plans, our ecumenical work, and certainly our Service of Repentance and our clear [...]

Filed Under: Commentaries, General Conference 2012, Guest Commentaries Tagged With: #gc2012, minerva carcano, umc

No, Bishop Coyner, Judicial Council didn’t do us a favor

June 1, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

By Lonnie Brooks, Special Contributor… Bishop Mike Coyner offered us, in the Reporter, his views on the impact of Judicial Council Decision 1210 that struck down the plan for restructuring the [...]

Q&A: A self-described fanatic for ecumenism

May 31, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr., the senior bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, presides over the East Coast region for the 141-year-old historically African-American denomination. Long before his 2010 appointment to that post, he was known as a scholar and a leader in the Christian ecumenical movement. A former president of the National Council of Churches, Bishop Hoyt represented the CME Church at a celebration of Pan-Methodist full communion during the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa Fla. Earlier in the year he visited UM-related Duke Divinity [...]

United Methodists join Pan-Methodist covenant

May 27, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 2 Comments

Pan-Methodist full communion celebration

By Rich Peck, UMNS… TAMPA, Fla.—After several hundred years of separation, members of six Pan-Methodist denominations have committed to ministry together. The United Methodist Church is the last of the denominations to adopt the full communion agreement, which was celebrated May 1 during the 2012 General Conference. The affirmation establishes a new relationship among the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, African Union Methodist Protestant, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Union American Methodist Episcopal and United Methodist denominations. Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops, [...]

Congo family performs at General Conference

May 27, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor Leave a Comment

The Kamana 5 Singers from the Democratic Republic of Congo sing during worship at the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Fla. UMNS PHOTO BY MIKE DUBOSE

By Elliott Wright, UMNS… TAMPA, Fla.—Four brothers and a sister from the Congo took the United Methodist General Conference to its knees and brought it to its feet as they sang “O Happy Day . . . when Jesus washed my sins away.” The five Kamana children, ranging from 9 to 21 years of age, won the hearts of the people everywhere they sang, usually a cappella, during a four-day visit to the conference and churches in Central Florida. The group consists of Patrick, 21; brother Providence, 18; sister Dorcas, [...]

Looking back, looking forward after GC 2012

May 26, 2012 Posted by Alan Heath, CEO Leave a Comment

By Alan Heath, CEO, UMR Communications… Halfway through the second week of General Conference, I sat down to record my observations as a first-time attendee. I was not a delegate, only a very interested observer with little or no context other than attendance at many Annual Conferences in North Texas. I made some observations at that time which I would now like to revisit. First, I observed we are a global church. That was apparent as I observed delegates, especially from Africa, and heard several speeches for or against a [...]

On repairing broken trust in the UMC

May 23, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 9 Comments

By Ricky Harrison, Special Contributor… The first night of the 2012 General Conference opened with a grand worship service. There were bright lights, cool graphics, beautiful music, abundant prayer shawls [...]

Response to Bishop Willimon

May 19, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 2 Comments

By Jay Voorhees, Special Contributor… Dear Bishop Willimon, This morning the net was abuzz with commentary about your UMR essay “Church By Committee.” Frankly there was little in the article that surprised me for I’ve known you long enough to know of your disdain for the system that we are both part of. I have heard you speak pretty disparagingly about our shared denomination both “within the family,” and depressingly enough to me, with folks outside the United Methodist fold, offering them permission to dis’ our communion without a great [...]

Judicial Council did the denomination a favor

May 18, 2012 Posted by Special Contributor 2 Comments

By Bishop Mike Coyner, Special Contributor… You have probably heard the news that the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church (which is kind of like our Supreme Court) ruled that the new structure passed by the General Conference was unconstitutional. Thus the hours and hours of work by the General Conference were overturned, and we are back to our current structure. The General Conference then rushed to pass the proposals from all the general agencies (except for the General Board of Church and Society which had no proposal) to [...]