|
Response
of Bishop Wills
August 12, 2005
Brothers and Sisters,
The decision to allow the Reconciling Ministries Network to meet at Lake Junaluska and the reaction of groups both within and outside the United Methodist Church to that decision bring us to a very difficult place as United Methodists in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, not unlike the difficult decisions that had to be made during the 2004 General Conference.
One of those decisions was to reaffirm the current prohibition on the ordination of self-avowed, practicing, homosexual persons. It was difficult because faithful Christian people within the United Methodist Church are deeply divided in their understanding of who qualifies to be a clergyperson in our United Methodist Church. Yet, at the end of the 2004 General Conference there was a commitment to hold our Church together and to build bridges of conversation and prayer among persons who hold differing convictions regarding this issue.
I am disappointed the Reconciling Ministries Network has chosen to meet at Lake Junaluska for their conference. The choice of this location appears to be agenda driven and not bridge building.
While the administration of the Lake Junaluska Retreat Center believed permitting this group to meet there was within the framework of the rental policy, I am sure they were under the impression they were doing what was right. In fact, the following paragraphs in The 2004 Book of Discipline were used to help the SEJ Administrative Executive Committee make the decision they did: # 612 and # 806.
Lake Junaluska did not initiate or plan, nor has it endorsed, the RMN conference. The booking office at Lake Junaluska received a request from RMN to rent housing and meeting space. Junaluska is a retreat center that is open to Christians of all denominations and organizations, even those with whom United Methodists may have differences on some points of doctrine or practice. In his statement to the United Methodists of the SEJ, Rev. Carr cites the paragraphs in The 2004 Book of Discipline that pertain to RMN's request to rent space.
My concern is long after this gathering is over, neither the groups in favor of or opposed to the purpose of this event, nor the media who will be drawn to it will care what happens to Lake Junaluska or the ministries of the Southeastern Jurisdiction.
In times like these, evil wants to take control of God's Church by breaking any unity within the Body of Christ and thereby diverting our energies from our primary mission of making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Evil seeks to take the love that Jesus has put in our hearts and make us mean-spirited to others around this issue. I do not believe God will honor words and actions that come from mean-spiritedness in our hearts.
Even though I do not support the decision to hold this event at Lake Junaluska, I must pray that God will keep my heart pure in times like these. Like Ezekiel, I pray that God will remove from us any heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh so that we will have a spirit to follow God's will for our lives, our ministry and our church. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
As your Bishop, I support and will uphold The 2004 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church and our current stance on the ordination of self-avowed, practicing homosexual persons. While holding this conviction, I also know that God wants me to keep an open heart to conversation with persons who see this issue differently in order to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I am aware that the Reconciling Ministries Network does not reflect the convictions of the majority of the United Methodist people, The 2004 Book of Discipline, or the program and ministries of the Southeastern Jurisdiction. This is one group, among many caucus groups, related to the United Methodist Church.
I call upon the people called United Methodists in The Nashville Area to pray that God will give us loving hearts as we confront this difficult time and to express their convictions with a Christ like spirit. I urge all of us to be deeply in prayer for each other and for the leadership of our Jurisdiction that together we might fulfill our commission of making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
In His Love, Dick Jer. 29:11
|