Reconciling United Methodists and friends in Ne and beyond:
Here is the latest news from the group: "Wide is God's Welcome" the Reconciling folks in Kansas East Conference of the UMC -
Jeanette Grenz who wrote this reflection is from NE, a college friend, seminary friend and a long time friend - she sends us the good news ! Thanks Jeanette for taking time to write this up and share it with everyone!
We hope that local churches will send in LGBTQA Friendly Petitions this summer - to General Conference and also members of the UMC can do the same this summer!
None of our GLBT friendly Petitions in NE passed this year to send to General Conference 2012 but they were very close at about 50/50. The HIV AIDS Resolution to our annual conference in NE did pass. Almost 200 Rainbow stoles were also given out at the RMN table in NE too -- and lots of info - thanks Betty Dorr and friends!
It sounds like Kansas East had the SHOWER of STOLES on DISPLAY with the moving stories from the stoles!
The stories shared below on the KS conference floor are very moving! Telling the stories is so important as painful as they are to tell and share! Hopefully we can keep sharing the stories this year and next! The personal stories change the hearts and minds of people as they are told.
BE thinking of doing a STORIES of SACRED WORTH project in your local church or group - having people write their stories : allies and GLBT persons - copy them and share them locally and at the Reconciling table next June or share the stories at Reconciling Gatherings! HOPE, Healing and Hospitality!
Peace and justice Maureen Vetter Contact
PS Become a Reconciling United Methodist today - an RUM making a difference and raising your voice for others in the UMC! I found out today we have 380 RUM's in NE and we are very close to 400 RUM's - let's see if we can hit 400 RUM's by the end of summer and reach our Summer Email Offering goal too to support the ministries of RMN - to lend support as an RUM just go to the website : www.RMNetwork.org Then go to Sign on or Join us on the website.
There is no cost of membership to be an RUM per se -- just a commitment to work for a fully inclusive UMC!
There are cards you can sign too and send in to RMN offices.. you need to request those cards online or by calling RMN offices - sending email - or there are sheets you can print out to sign onto on the website as one of the RESOURCES too - www.RMNetwork.org Let us know if you have trouble signing up! mvetter@charter.net or wsmith28@gmail.com
----- Original Message -----
From: wigw-kc
To: wigw-kc@hotmail.com
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 6:20 PM
Subject: Petitions passed
From Jeanette last Friday, June 10, 2011 in KS:
Our petition passed this morning with an overwhelming majority! We were asked who would be presenting it and Frank stepped forward - once again I wasn't aware that someone who had submitted the petition would be expected to present it on the Conference floor. I was very grateful Frank was there to do that and of course, once again, he did a great job. Pastor Lane Bailey, serving Wellsville and Clearfield UMCs came to the microphone to speak. He said that he wanted to take this opportunity to share why he was wearing a stole but he had had to get the permission from two people first. He got their permission yesterday and he had two stories to share. The first was about his ex-wife, Colleen, the mother of his children. She surrendered her orders as an ordained elder several years ago because she said she could not serve under the current UMC Discipline. He talked about the painful affect of her needing to do this on their whole family. He also told a story about a young man, who at the age of 5 was cross-dressing, who was whipped by his mother and step-dad for doing that, who was eventually turned out on the street, ended up in juvenile detention where he was repeatedly raped, contracted AIDS and died at the age of 34. He had received the consistent message that God could not love him. Lane said it's time for this to end. Thank you, Lane for your testimony and please forgive any errors in my attempt to summarize.
There were some questions asked of Frank and he handled them well, including his rationale for removing the phrase, "created in the image of God." There was a motion to amend the petition to put this phrase back in, and that passed. Then the vote was taken on the amended petition and it passed.
This afternoon, a petition submitted by a study group from St. Paul's UMC in Lenexa was discussed. This petition was to remove all homosexual language from the Discipline. There was discussion about whether or not this would be ruled out of order by the General Conference Secretary. Bishop Jones read the rules for petitions and said that it would be up to the General Conference secretary (I think that is who does this) to determine whether it is out of order and our Annual Conference could go ahead and submit it and see what happens. It too passed with an overwhelming majority. Thank you, Jan Rhind, for presenting this petition.
I don't know how our General Conference delegates voted on these petitions but they are certainly aware of how the vote went in our conference and since they are representing us, hopefully they will be supportive.
I will be sending out individual petitions that you can sign and send to General Conference in a later email. Thank you for all your support and prayers.
Jeanette Grenz, Communication Chair
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of Wide Is God’s Welcome - KC is to strengthen the Body of Christ through the full inclusion in the United Methodist Church of persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
VISION STATEMENT
This mission will be fulfilled as we unite Kansas City area United Methodists for education, advocacy, and empowerment.
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