It has
been my goal to make it this entire annual conference without buying any food
for myself, on Friday I broke my streak and bought some mini corn dogs (they
were delicious in case you were wondering). Anyhow, yesterday the Mary Ann
Kaiser dramatic saga concerning her ordination being discontinued by a vote of
clergy I’m going to call it “NGAM” or “No gays allowed movement”. Reverend John
Elford of University United Methodist Church in Austin requested a ruling of
law on the matter of the Book of Discipline being ignored as clergy took action
that was unconstitutional (for our Church). The Bishop has 30 days to make a
ruling and will then send it onward to the Judicial Council. Also the national
branch of Reconciling Ministries hopped on board to support Mary Ann as well as
GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). At 2PM CST hundreds of
people tweeted their support and their demands for justice for Mary Ann, a
reminder of how global our Church really has, and how many of its people are
seeking justice for all.
But, I’m
getting ahead of myself, my day started at 6AM as I headed to the Methodist
Renewal Movement breakfast where Rev. Wendy Deichmann spoke about the renewal
that has been taking place at United Theological Seminary. Her speech at some
points sounded lie a really long commercial for her seminary, but I still found
myself inspired by the beautiful work that the Holy Spirit did through her to
save UTS. Also, their breakfast tacos
were delicious and filled with plenty of God’s perfect gift to mankind, bacon. I
also got to briefly catch up with Rev. Ryan Barnett of Saint John’s UMC in Corpus
Christi, who also happens to be a founding member of the Methodist Renewal
Movement, he’s a really busy guy so it was a blessing to get to run into him.
The
first two plenary sessions were rather boring and uneventful with the exception
being the call for legal review. I had a
lovely dinner with the Reverend Abby Parker, and her boo-thang JD Herrera. Then we went
onward to a Young Adult hangout where we all sat around and discussed our lives
our hopes and our dream, and of course our evil plans to overthrow the elderly
(just kidding). It was a wonderful time of fellowship and I was blessed by the
new friends I made, as well as the wonderful encouragement it was to see that I
wasn't the only person in the conference that didn't have gray hair. Saturday
is a new day, and we shall see which way the Spirit is moving.
