{"id":1472,"date":"2017-11-10T06:32:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2017-11-10T06:32:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:32:00","slug":"nov-10-united-methodist-commission-on-a-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=1472","title":{"rendered":"Nov. 10 \u2013 United Methodist Commission on a way forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"shariff\" data-title=\"Nov. 10 \u2013 United Methodist Commission on a way forward\" data-info-url=\"http:\/\/ct.de\/-2467514\" data-backend-url=\"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/wp-content\/plugins\/shariff-sharing\/backend\/index.php\" data-temp=\"\/tmp\" data-ttl=\"60\" data-service=\"gftr\" data-services='[\"googleplus\",\"facebook\",\"twitter\",\"reddit\",\"info\"]' data-image=\"\" data-url=\"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=1472\" data-lang=\"en\" data-theme=\"colored\" data-orientation=\"horizontal\"><\/div><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/111017_1131_Nov10Unite1.png\" alt=\"\"\/>\n\t<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">The 2016 General Conference created a &#8220;Commission on a Way Forward&#8221; to research and bring potential resolutions to our inner conflict over sexual identity and practices with in the United Methodist Church.  A special session of General Conference will meet in St. Louis, MO in February of 2019 to take action on the report.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Since loyal people of faith hold positions that are diametrically opposed to each other on this topic; this is a daunting task.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">The commission has published an interim report.  It does not state what they will propose in detail.  It does share their guiding principles and goals for the process.  What follows below is my summary of an 18-page report.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\"><strong>Purpose of the Commission<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Simplicity of Proposal<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Resolution of Impasse<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\"><strong>Goal for the Future of the Denomination<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Allow for Contextualization of Structure<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Enable people with contradictory convictions to flourish<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Concerns and goals related to human sexuality vary widely across the globe.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Conferences are not of one mind on ordination and marriage of LGBTQ persons<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Some changes within the U.S. church may pose a potential threat to the vital mission of our Central Conferences<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\"><strong>Changes to be Made to Allow Implementation<\/strong><br \/>\n\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">It may mean multiple versions of the Book of Discipline<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Maintain global connection in loosely configured structure<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Allowance for those who don&#8217;t adopt a revised structure<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">The way forward cannot be an extension of our path of conflict<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">We value simpler structure and processes and a thinner Book of Discipline.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">We need enough structural freedom so that no one has to compromise their deeply held beliefs<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">Schism would be a tragic weakening of our mission while the current reality is also harming our mission<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Verdana; font-size:16pt\">I will be very interested to read the final report when it is available.  I post summaries of the proposals on this Blog as time and space allow.  We need to pray for the work of the commission.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2016 General Conference created a &#8220;Commission on a Way Forward&#8221; to research and bring potential resolutions to our inner conflict over sexual identity and practices with in the United Methodist Church. A special session of General Conference will meet in St. Louis, MO in February of 2019 to take action on the report. Since &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=1472\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nov. 10 \u2013 United Methodist Commission on a way forward<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1473,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}