Do Justice…Make Space: A Message about the United Methodist 2019 General Conference
DO JUSTICE … MAKE SPACE
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.