Leslie Kellenberger and I arrived at General Conference this afternoon. I was at the special called General Conference in 2019, and the spirit here is completely different. There’s a sense of hope and optimism in the air, a feeling that now is the time for renewal in our denomination, and that the future is bright and God-blessed.
The links below cover the business of the day. I heard a lot of debate this afternoon about how the denomination will be funded going forward; we still have to pass a budget for the next quadrennium but there’s a lot of good and productive conversation about the challenges of funding ministry and the potential for new ministry and growth. The General Conference also voted to remove some of the discriminatory language from the Book of Discipline , celebrated the ministry of Africa University, and approved full communion with the Episcopal Church, which would allow us to celebrate the sacraments together and open a path to closer ecumenical relationship.
I also saw a number of friends and colleagues. Gray Southern was coordinating volunteers (Leslie said he was herding cats!). I met my friend Amy Forbus in person for the first time; we’ve known each other online for 18 years, but today we got to hug. Caroline Camp, who was our Duke intern during the pandemic, is around somewhere, but I haven’t caught up with her yet. Two women who earned their D.Min. at the same time I did are also here, each as delegates for their respective annual conferences. And tonight, I went to a United Methodist trivia contest with Rev. Casey Mursten, whom I got to know during my time in Roxboro.
The daily roundup by UM News is here: Daily Digest April 30
Our NC Conference delegation will post an update later tonight; last night’s is here: general-conference-update-1
I’ll post another update tomorrow!