Praying our way forward - Rev. Catherine Nance

(This article from Rev. Catherine Nance can be found in the 9/25/17 edition of The Church Bell)

The paragraph below is a request for prayer from our Bishop, Mary Virginia Taylor:

Dear friends, I am asking you to pray for our United Methodist Church that we will truly seek

God’s face and wisdom. During the week of September 24-30, 2017 let us [the Holston

Conference] unite our voices humbly asking God to bless and

empower our Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the

transformation of the world and praying for God’s guidance for the

Council of Bishops and the Commission on the Way Forward.

This 32-member Commission has been working for two years to

clarify the Church’s understanding of human sexuality and how

God is calling us to be in ministry with all people. The General

Conference will meet in St. Louis, Missouri on February 23-26,

2019 to make decisions based on the findings of the Commission.

The United Methodist Church has been debating, conferencing, arguing, dialoguing, studying and exploring the issues of human sexuality for over forty years. At this past General Conference, the body said to the Council of Bishops, “Figure out a way for us to continue to be a denomination in the midst of our differences.” As a result, the bishops appointed a 32-member Commission on a Way Forward to assist them in exploring ways to lead the church forward amid the present impasse related to human sexuality and resulting questions about the unity of the church.

At first, it seemed there were two choices: stay united or split. It’s not that simple. Even if those were the only two choices, we would be left with a myriad of unresolved conflict on one hand and a host of organizational mayhem on the other. The members of the Commission have spent weeks in prayer, group-building, and in study. They have met in Atlanta, Chicago, and most recently, Berlin. The group will meet with the Council of
Bishops in Nashville next month. The Commission is representative of our global church and is comprised of laity and clergy. (listed at the bottom of this post).

The question before them is how can we move forward as the people called Methodist? How will we be organized? What is our purpose and mission? They will present their proposal(s) to the Council of Bishops in 2018 in preparation for the called General Conference in 2019.

A book I would highly recommend for you to read is FINDING OUR WAY: Love and Law in the United Methodist Church. It is a collection of eight essays, each authored by one of our Bishops. The book strives to “enunciate and clarify pathways that represent faithful, responsible, and constructive ways forward” (quoting from the book cover). It is published by Abingdon Press and can be ordered on several online bookstores. If you are not a cyber-savvy shopper, give me a call (865-982-1273) and I will be happy to help you get a copy.

There is more at stake here than just ‘are you for or against’ this or that. We are a connectional church; all of the ministry we do (UMCOR, camps, seminaries, missionaries, colleges, etc), we do together. If we divide, what happens? If we stay one family but with different understandings, how do we work together? I appreciate the voices of the bishops as they struggle with these questions. You can find out more about the Commission’s
work at umc.org/wayforward. 

Rev. Catherine Nance

Below are the members of the United Methodist
Church’s Commission on the Way Forward.

Jorge Acevedo
USA, Florida, elder, male
Brian Adkins
USA, California, elder, male
Jacques Umembudi Akasa
Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, laity, male
Tom Berlin
USA, Virginia, elder, male
Matt Berryman
USA, Illinois, laity, male
Helen Cunanan
Philippines, elder, female
David Field
Europe, Switzerland, laity, male
Ciriaco Francisco
Philippines, bishop, male
Grant Hagiya
USA, California, bishop, male
Aka Dago-Akribi Hortense
Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, laity, female
Scott Johnson
USA, New York, laity, male
Jessica LaGrone
USA, Kentucky, elder, female
Thomas Lambrecht
USA, Texas, elder, male
MyungRae Kim Lee
USA, New York, laity, female
Julie Hager Love
USA, Kentucky, deacon, female
Mazvita Machinga
Africa, Zimbabwe, laity, female
Patricia Miller
USA, Indiana, laity, female
Mande Guy Muyombo
Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, elder, male
Eben Nhiwatiwa
Africa, Zimbabwe, bishop, male
Dave Nuckols
USA, Minnesota, laity, male
Casey Langley Orr
USA, Texas, deacon, female
Gregory Palmer
USA, Ohio, bishop, male
Donna Pritchard
USA, Oregon, elder, female
Tom Salsgiver
USA, Pennsylvania, elder, male
Robert Schnase
USA, Texas, bishop, male
Jasmine Rose Smothers
USA, Georgia, elder, female
Leah Taylor
USA, Texas, laity, female
Debra Wallace-Padgett

USA, Alabama, bishop, female