- Happy 60th Birthday, Jan!
- General Conference 2019 Calendar
- General Conference 2019 Presence & Witness
- Insights From the Portland Listening Post
- THANK YOU to our Auto-Donors!
- Ordering Stoles for GC2019
- #ICYMI...
Happy 60th Birthday, Jan!
Our Executive Director Jan Lawrence is turning 60 this week! We are wowed every day by her dedication and hard work.
Join us in helping Jan celebrate by making a donation to Reconciling Ministries Network as we continue our work for a United Methodist Church that fully includes LGBTQ people and their families in the life and ministries of The United Methodist Church.You can participate in saying thank you by making an additional gift through this link.
Click HERE to Donate & Sign Jan's Card
General Conference is now six months away! Here’s a brief look at the upcoming GC calendar:
- Judicial Council Meeting - October 23-26, 2018 where, among other agenda items, the JC will rule on the constitutionality of the three plans that were a part of the report from the Commission on A Way Forward.
- Advance Daily Christian Advocate release - No later than November 23, 2018 - will provide our first look (other than social media) at the other petitions that were submitted to the General Conference.
- Plan the agenda and required meetings of legislative committee(s)
- Identify the presiding bishops
- Review and consider the petitions that were submitted in addition to those in the Commission on A Way Forward Report
Like us, you’re probably anxiously awaiting General Conference 2019 and the opportunities for presence and witness at this historic General Conference. RMN is working with the Love Your Neighbor Coalition. Here is what we know so far:
LYNC is planning a witness of presence and hospitality. Details will be shared as we get closer. Our goal is to have a minimum of 864 rainbow-stole-clad UMs in the observation stands. If you are a delegate – be sure to pick up a stole to wear at appropriate moments!
If you are NOT a delegate, you will need to register as a guest/observer. This will be $7 in advance, $10 on site. Online registration for observers/guests is not yet available.
The morning AFTER GC closes, RMN is hosting a worship service and sending-forth for LYNC - WEDNESDAY, February 27 at 10:00 a.m. Location TBD. You may want to plan your departure travel accordingly.
LYNC has reserved some gathering space at the Holiday Inn near the Convention Center. We hope to have snacks, massages, music, and comfy seating. There will additionally be two small meeting spaces for groups that need them.
LYNC will NOT be arranging housing for this special session. If you are looking for housing for General Conference, here are two helpful links:
St. Louis Welcome Center
Trip Advisor
Insights From the Portland Listening Post
Reconciling Ministries Network staff recently participated in the 2018 Portland Listening Post, titled, “Listening with Open Hearts: Building Bridges and Deepening Relationships.” The event provided UMs from around the connection the opportunity to share issues and concerns related to our respective contexts, deepen mutual understanding and relationships, and create an environment of intentional listening. Here, two RMN staff share their thoughts on the event.
“Going into the frenetic preparations for General Conference 2019, I take one lesson from this gathering: seeking positive change in the church flows from building genuine relationships, not from slogans and rhetoric.” (Izzy Alvaran, Western Jurisdiction Regional Organizer)
"To spend such quality time with United Methodists from around the globe was a gift for which I am extremely grateful and an experience that I won’t forget. By design, we were a small and diverse group living in an intimate retreat setting and together for most of 6 days. Those days were long and the conversations were rich – light and heavy, simple and complicated but all were real and really important. Our facilitators were skilled and caring, and the collective courage was abundant. My eyes were opened to inaccurate assumptions making space for new truths to be unveiled. I learned a lot. Genuine friendships quickly formed and then, before we knew it and without effort or organization, a community organically emerged. I am deeply grateful. Deeply grateful.
"The tiny glimpse into how each of us lives out our calling in our unique setting provided new insight that is continuing to shape my understanding of connectionalism. These new friends are utterly committed to God, the teachings of Jesus, and the United Methodist Church. I expect us to be connected for life." (Laura Young, South Central Jurisdiction Regional Organizer)
THANK YOU to our Auto-Donors!
We want to say a hearty thank you to our auto-donors! These regular donations help us ensure that we can continue to be a voice for LGBTQ people in the United Methodist Church. We’re grateful for your generosity and vision. We have a goal of reaching 500 auto-donors in the next few months. Those of you who have supported us through auto-giving in months and years past are the foundation for that growth.
Ordering Stoles for GC2019
"The tiny glimpse into how each of us lives out our calling in our unique setting provided new insight that is continuing to shape my understanding of connectionalism. These new friends are utterly committed to God, the teachings of Jesus, and the United Methodist Church. I expect us to be connected for life." (Laura Young, South Central Jurisdiction Regional Organizer)
We want to say a hearty thank you to our auto-donors! These regular donations help us ensure that we can continue to be a voice for LGBTQ people in the United Methodist Church. We’re grateful for your generosity and vision. We have a goal of reaching 500 auto-donors in the next few months. Those of you who have supported us through auto-giving in months and years past are the foundation for that growth.
Ordering Stoles for GC2019
Stoles for the 2019 General Conference are available from the Parents Reconciling Network. You can order yours by filling out this form.
Email your completed forms to us at admin@rmnetwork.org (make sure to include STOLES in the subject line), or mail them to our office: 123 West Madison Street, Suite 1250, Chicago, Illinois 60602, United States.
Click HERE for the Stoles Order Form
#ICYMI...
ICYMI, or “in case you missed it,” our blog recently featured a prophetic column from Rev. Kalaba Chali warning against the neo-colonialism of today’s religious traditionalists, a beautiful poem from UMC writer and lyricist Lindi Thompson on the responsibility to justice that comes with creative gifts, and an honest and vulnerable look into the call to ministry by Brian Kleber.
Additionally, we want to highlight this statement from the Africa College of Bishops. We join them in seeking to continue shared partnerships in mission throughout our UM connection. Indeed, our lives are woven together in God's grace. The work of justice and peace around the world - inherent in the Gospel message - is our common mission as people of faith. It is our sacred trust.
Alongside the bishops, we acknowledge the difficult moment we are facing at General Conference. To live gracefully in this tension, we are invited to intently listen to each others' stories and bear each others' burdens with love. We come to our shared table with love for all, especially for our LGBTQ siblings throughout our connection who experience the pain of exclusion. We join our African bishops in fervently praying for our time together at General Conference in St. Louis. May it be a Pentecost moment when we are swept together by the Holy Spirit to seek the best way forward for our Church, where all of God’s children belong.
Email your completed forms to us at admin@rmnetwork.org (make sure to include STOLES in the subject line), or mail them to our office: 123 West Madison Street, Suite 1250, Chicago, Illinois 60602, United States.
Click HERE for the Stoles Order Form
#ICYMI...
ICYMI, or “in case you missed it,” our blog recently featured a prophetic column from Rev. Kalaba Chali warning against the neo-colonialism of today’s religious traditionalists, a beautiful poem from UMC writer and lyricist Lindi Thompson on the responsibility to justice that comes with creative gifts, and an honest and vulnerable look into the call to ministry by Brian Kleber.
Additionally, we want to highlight this statement from the Africa College of Bishops. We join them in seeking to continue shared partnerships in mission throughout our UM connection. Indeed, our lives are woven together in God's grace. The work of justice and peace around the world - inherent in the Gospel message - is our common mission as people of faith. It is our sacred trust.
Alongside the bishops, we acknowledge the difficult moment we are facing at General Conference. To live gracefully in this tension, we are invited to intently listen to each others' stories and bear each others' burdens with love. We come to our shared table with love for all, especially for our LGBTQ siblings throughout our connection who experience the pain of exclusion. We join our African bishops in fervently praying for our time together at General Conference in St. Louis. May it be a Pentecost moment when we are swept together by the Holy Spirit to seek the best way forward for our Church, where all of God’s children belong.
Copyright © 2018 Reconciling Ministries Network, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Reconciling Ministries Network
123 West Madison Street, Suite 2150
Chicago, llinois 60602, United States
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