In the coming days, delegates from all over the world who have been elected to represent various conferences in the United Methodist Church will meet to make decisions about what our Book of Discipline will include regarding issues that affect our LGBTQIA community. So let me stop right here and make it clear that anything that is included in this message is the personal conviction of Claire Cox-Woodlief and as is always the case, it is simply Claire’s two cents and doesn’t necessarily reflect the thoughts of anyone other than herself and is certainly no declaration of where the leadership of the Capital District or the North Carolina Conference or the United Methodist Church stands on this or any other subject.
As I study the Civil Rights movement and the Women’s Suffrage movement, and look at the struggles that people of color and women continue to have as they struggle to be seen and heard for who they are and how they are called to serve in the United Methodist Church, I guess it shouldn’t surprise any of us that our LGBTQIA friends are struggling for full inclusion in the United Methodist Church.
It is now the time when the spotlight will be on the United Methodist Church and we have an opportunity to decide….are we a people who truly have “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” or are we a people still led by archaic understandings of texts that exclude some of our most gifted contributors. We can have debates until we are all blue in the face about some of the texts that exclude our LGBTQI friends, and we can at the same time be reminded of other texts that focus on grace and inclusion and acceptance, the ways of Jesus. I have NO desire to hear your debate on this, it’s old and outdated like some of the laws that Jesus clearly told us it was time to move on from. The text is to be understood in the context in which it was written, and we have a much better understanding now of the physical and genetic factors that must be considered.
The Bible is the LIVING word of God, meaning that it’s not stuck in one time and place. Jesus doesn’t say one word to exclude people, in fact the opposite is actually the case, and he often pointed to outdated laws that were no longer relevant. Hopefully we can all agree that God continues to reveal God’s-self to us in all sorts of ways and as things continue to be scientifically proven, it will help us better understand our neighbors who may have a different natural orientation than we do.
We need to remain open to better understand God’s word for us, and to the leading of the Holy Spirit. When we spend more energy defending a belief system that we inherited without asking questions about where some of these notions came from, and/or when we spend time making claims about the lives of people that we may not fully understand, we don’t show ourselves in the best light.
When we look back on this point and time in church history, my prayer is that we can rejoice as a time when we have moved forward towards full inclusion. When we fully embrace and live into our claim of having “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors”, our witness to the world will be strengthened.
However, as I said in the beginning of this message, this is simply my conviction and I recognize that it is possible that I am wrong. My hope and prayer as we approach this General Conference is that all of the delegates who will gather will set aside their fears and alliances to any coalition and will strive towards complete submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Please join me in prayer over the coming days for this to be so.
Peace y’all,
To print or share this message, you are encouraged to use this pdf:
Claire – Spotlight on the UMC
To read past editions – you are encouraged to follow this link:
https://capitaldistrictnc.org/claire-ificaton/
