The following statement was read aloud by Kim Ingram, a deacon from North Carolina who serves on the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, on the closing day of the United Methodist General Conference.
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Association of United Methodist Theological Schools: Statement delivered during plenary session of the United Methodist Special General Conference
February 26, 2019
I stand to speak on behalf of the Association of United Methodist Theological Schools, which voted yesterday morning to authorize this statement. The Association is composed of the heads of the 13 seminaries of the UMC: Boston [University] School of Theology, Candler School of Theology at Emory, Claremont School of Theology, Drew University Theological School, Duke Divinity School, Gammon Theological Seminary, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Iliff School of Theology, Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Perkins School of Theology, St. Paul School of Theology, United Theological Seminary, and Wesley Theological Seminary.
Ever since the 2016 General Conference in Portland, our United Methodist students and those who are considering seminary have been waiting to see what will happen here in St. Louis at the Special General Conference. Most of our students are young, with the majority under 30 years old. Public opinion polls in the United States clearly demonstrate that younger people in this country, including deeply devoted Christians, do not want to organize their spiritual and church lives around the question of excluding LGBTQIA persons.
It is clear to all of us as heads of seminaries that if the Traditional Plan passes, many students and prospective students may decide there is no place for them in this denomination. If the Traditional Plan passes, we may very soon lose an entire generation of leadership here in the United States. This may not be true in Africa or elsewhere in the world. But the future of The United Methodist Church in this country is at stake here today.
Moreover, according to the recent statement by the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church, many if not most of our colleges and universities and seminaries will separate from the UMC, and this denomination will no longer demonstrate its commitment to education for all leaders. These institutions of higher education will react not in anger, but in sorrow and resignation. The seriousness of such a direction of exclusion for our institutions of higher learning cannot be overstated.
Again, all of the heads of the official seminaries of the UMC want you to know that the future of The United Methodist Church in this country is at stake. Please, please vote against the Traditional Plan.
Dr. Kenneth Allen (GRS '67 & STH '67) passed away peacefully in Toronto, Canada on January 28, 2019 at the age of 89 years old. You can read his full Obituary here.
We invite prospective students to read the following personal letter written by Director of Enrollment Rev. Dr. Anastasia E. B. Kidd (STH'04,'18).
As a prospective student to Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) you deserve a word from our institution with regard to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC), which ended last night in St. Louis. Many of you may have followed the General Conference as it was unfolding, or perhaps saw the news on national media. With the passing of the "Traditional Plan," the delegates at the conference voted not only to affirm but also to strengthen the church's current bans on ordaining LGBTQIA+ people and officiating or hosting same-sex marriages. As our Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore offered in her Letter of Response to this outcome, "The vote of 438 (Yes) to 384 (No) was a stark and painful mark of deep divisions within the Church and institutionalized rejection of the full inclusion of LGBTQIA peoples."
First, please know that the Boston University School of Theology's mission statement, community principles, and statement on diversity stand as markers of this institution's "commitment to cultivate a culture that upholds the dignity of individual and communal differences in the human family," including those of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Students, faculty, and staff gathered this morning for Chapel Worship and Community Lunch, as we do each Wednesday of the school year. Together we grieved the pain that the General Conference's decision has caused. You can hear on our chapel Livestream Associate Dean for Students and Community Life, Rev. Dr. Teddy Hickman-Maynard's impromptu comments to the gathered congregation (forward to minute 19:35), which capture the sentiments of so many of us this day.
I personally want to join our Deans in offering a clear word to any prospective student who is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or a queer ally: BUSTH remains a seminary that welcomes and affirms your spiritual gifts, and where you can be trained to be a religious leader for a world so clearly in need of your giftedness.
If you are without a community in which you can process the decisions of General Conference and are in need of such support, we have many current students, staff, and faculty who would be glad to be a resource and listening ear. Please be in touch (sthadmis@bu.edu or 617-353-3036) to let us know how we can be helpful to you. This offer is made to you regardless of where you ultimately attend seminary. Though we hope you'll choose BUSTH for your studies, we offer our community for your support without any expectation in return.
You can follow our community on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, if you would like to do so, to see how our continuing response to General Conference unfolds. And may we all pray for those in the queer community, the UMC, and beyond who are hurting right now.
I write with a heavy heart at the close of the General Conference 2019. The United Methodist Church voted in the closing hours of the Special Session of the General Conference to adopt the Traditional Plan as the way forward for the denomination. The vote of 438 (Yes) to 384 (No) was a stark and painful mark of deep divisions within the Church and institutionalized rejection of the full inclusion of LGBTQIA peoples.
The Traditional Plan was the only plan before the Church that left no space for the ordination and marriage of LGBTQIA people and very little space for people who hold diverse views on LGBTQIA full inclusion, The plan is accompanied by an intensified enforcement of the restrictive language that is already in The Book of Discipline, thus closing spaces within the denomination for people who cannot in good conscience exclude the LGBTQIA community from full participation in ministry and the blessings of marriage. The result will likely be a considerable escalation of church trials and stronger consequences for persons who act counter to The Book of Discipline as a matter of conscience.
The Church also voted in favor of two dis-affiliation plans that are designed to allow churches to remove themselves from the denomination if they cannot remain in good conscience. The decisions made by the General Conference have been referred to the Judicial Council to rule on Constitutionality, and the results of the Judicial Council decisions will shape the enactment of the plan. It may also identify parts of the plan and the petitions as unconstitutional.
The Boston University School of Theology will continue to hold our statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion as our standard for a fully inclusive community. We are committed to build a future in which we enact our ideals with full commitment, honest critique of ourselves, and prophetic witness. We will continue to seek justice and compassion for all people – people who are LGBTQIA, people of diverse races and ethnicities, people who hold diverse theological commitments, people from all countries and regions, and ALL of God’s people! We commit ourselves to do justice and work for full diversity, equity, and inclusions in the church and society. We are not perfect, but we will continue to grow in our capacity to be the School of the Prophets – a vision that has guided our 180 years of existence and will continue to shape us.
I close with respect for all of you, whose views are as diverse as the stars. I close with determination to find a better way forward that does not deny the sacred worth or full inclusion of any of you or any part of the human family. I do this in full awareness of my own shortfalls and my deepest hope to live into the Wesleyan vision of growing always in love.
- Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean and Professor of Theology and Education
School of Theology Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore urged the United Methodist Church to “make space” within its community for those who identify as LGBTQ Friday. Moore published the message ahead of the church’s 2019 General Conference.
A special session of the General Conference is voting on competing plans to either remove or strengthen the church’s current ban on same-sex weddings and the ordination of gay clergy. The conference is located in St. Louis, Missouri, and began Friday and will finish Tuesday.
The final vote will take place Tuesday. A preliminary vote on Monday showed that the plan to maintain the existing LGBTQ policy received nearly 56 percent support.
Moore said that the church’s current language condemns homosexuality and the ordination of open members of the LGBTQ community. This language, she said, has been a part of the church for more than four decades.
“The restrictive language first entered into the Book of Discipline in 1972, and efforts to remove it have been unsuccessful every four years when we’ve had a general conference since then,” Moore said. “In fact, some of the language has become stricter.”
As many of us United Methodists head to General Conference, our denomination faces big decisions. Any decision will effect change in the Church but also in the larger cultures in which the Church dwells. When a young gay man commits suicide or a lesbian woman is thrown out of her home, something is badly wrong. When a trans person can find no job, no church home, no acceptance anywhere, something is badly wrong. The teachings of our Church bear much responsibility for these wrongs, both inside and outside the church, because our teachings give a rationale for rejection, hatred, and denying the full dignity of precious children of God. Whatever happens in this General Conference, the church needs to do justice. More than one plan can move toward that end, but I pray that justice will prevail – justice for all people, all of whom have been created in the image of God.
The General Conference also faces a huge challenge to make space – space in which people can share themselves, their diverse faith commitments, their humanness, and their love for God and other peoples across the world. The church needs space to find common ground. Such space has nothing to do with sameness or agreement, and it cannot be bought at the cost of one group of people. The church is God’s. God did not create the church in our images, but created us in God’s image. At its best, the church provides home for all of God’s children, with our beautiful differences. If sameness were the mark of the church’s faithfulness, the church would have died on the first Pentecost when everyone spoke in different languages; it would have died in the conflicts between Peter and Paul, or the differences in Corinth, Rome, and Ephesus.
God’s church can be a space of hospitality – bound by genuine love and deep-rooted justice Hospitality without justice is a veneer; justice without hospitality is not rooted. No matter what plan United Methodists choose, I pray that it will make pathways to do justice and to make space for one another. Without justice, we poison the community; without space, we close ourselves off from one another and from the in-breaking of God.
-- Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore, speaking for myself, as I hope each of you will speak. I am listening.
Dr. Iain Maclean passed on June 2, 2017 at the age of 61. While Dr. Maclean's final degree was from Harvard, he was a regular at BU and attended STH for several years. His full obituary can be found here.
A Guide to Ministry Self-Care offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of both the causes of stress and strategies for effective self-care. Written for both new and long-time ministers, the book draws on current research and offers practical and spiritual insights into building and maintaining personal health and sustaining ministry long term. The book addresses a wide range of life situations and explores many forms of self-care, from physical and financial to relational and spiritual.
Dr. Olson shares that A Guide to Ministry Self-Care has been selected as one of the top ten books for clergy by the Academy of Parish Clergy. Dr. Olson shares more of the story behind the book in a description that can be found here.
Rev. Ralph Shunk, age 92, (STH '52 & '53) died Sunday February 10, 2019 at his residence in Dublin, Ohio. A Memorial Service will be held at the Linworth United Methodist Church, 7070 Bent Tree Blvd Columbus Ohio 43235 on Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 3:00pm with burial to follow in Toledo, Ohio at a later date. Read Rev. Ralph's full Obituary here.
