Yesterday was the first full day of plenary session! And it kicked my tail enough that I did not have the juice to give you all an update at the end of the day, sorry! I’d love to say that I am bright-eyed and restored this morning, ready to think and write clearly. But the truth is I’ve hit the General Conference wall and no longer can guarantee coherence or good grammar. I’m honestly surprised I made it this long. Your mercy is appreciated.
I spent a long chunk of time on stage yesterday, along with Bishop Palmer, as back up for Bishop Ruckert as he presented the petitions on new bishops in Africa. I didn’t speak at the mic once but it was exhausting. It might look like we are just sitting up there, as the presiding bishop presides, not so. It was really lively and took a lot of attention. We were listening, focused on everything that was happening on the floor, plus discussing among ourselves how to respond, plus trying to offer help to the presiding bishop who wasn’t at all familiar with the legislation. You might remember a few days ago we thought these petitions would come to the floor with Bishop Palmer in the chair. That would have been one million times better simply for the subject matter knowledge he would have had. I’m not throwing shade on Bishop Steiner-Ball. She did well on a hard debate. But still, the more you know, the easier it is to lead.
Anyway, it took a really, really long time but we agreed to fund two new bishops in Africa. One will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and one to East Africa, most likely to Burundi. The debate took a long time because, 1. parliamentary procedure is hard. 2. Some folks really wanted the 5 new bishops promised in 2016. This takes us to 22 bishops in Africa and we could benefit from many more. But two is what the church budget can support at the moment.
After, I heard from many delegates who were frustrated by how long it took to decide all this. I suggested, gently, we might remember that our central conference delegates spend hours and hours sitting through discussions that don’t directly apply to them. This gave us a chance to experience that. Even more important, I suspect there are a number of delegates from South Congo, North Katanga, Burundi, even Zimbabwe, and Nigeria, for whom this was the most important petition in all of General Conference. Taking some time with it was important.
Did I think deciding on new bishops in Africa would take all day? Nope. But it did and so, unfortunately, these were the only two calendar items we got done. We passed A LOT of other things by consent calendar, so it’s not like we aren’t accomplishing things. But we have over 50 more calendar items to debate on the floor and I don’t think we will get through them all. At some point last week a few people predicted that we would get done early. Ha! Instead, I think some things will die a calendar death by simply not being addressed.
Beyond our debate we heard several reports, from United Women in Faith and United Methodist Men (which was memorable only for the fake stack of pancakes it featured.) Wespath General Secretary (and his fabulous shoes) also gave the pitch for the new clergy retirement plan.
Certainly some other things happened yesterday but they fell out of my head. I closed the day at dinner with dear friends. We picked yesterday because we thought Judicial Council elections would happen on Monday and they could congratulate or console me as appropriate. You decide which of those would have been needed had I been elected! But since postponement is the theme of this GC, those elections will happen Wednesday afternoon.
As for today, I’ve already solved a minor but important problem that has been haunting my committee’s legislation. Winning! Let’s hope for a productive day.
Thanks, Amy. I’ve heard from a reliable source that you did an amazing job leading your committee. I was not surprised. Thanks for your faithfulness and we continue to pray for you all.