Yesterday the question was asked how many petitions were still to be dealt with…the answer at noon was that 400 had been dealt with and there were 85 more to complete plus 11 General Conference Finance and Administration petitions. I have not counted the hundreds that will not even be considered as many times when…

General Conference May 17, 2016 So I left you with the thought that something was going to happen, and it has.  Tuesday morning at the  7 am Jurisdictional meeting, five of our bishops joined us and shared on the explosion that occurred on social media about the UMC splitting.   They assured us that the media was once again printing …

Every morning there is a lot of information and special presentations that occur. This morning John Street UMC in New York City was highlighted as we celebrated its’ 250th Anniversary. The early history began with a card game and a woman from Ireland interrupting that game by throwing the cards into the fire. She was…

Greetings from the General Conference at Portland, Saturday was a full day of legislation after the 7 am Jurisdictional meeting, the 8am worship service, and the plenary where all the current reports and announcements were shared, and then the full Young People’s Address was given.   It was a very inspirational message.   By 10 am we…

Greetings on this Friday May 13, 2016 Yesterday morning the decision was made on the “Rule 44”, or utilizing Christian Conferencing, for certain petitions that the conference will be working on.    This decision is probably the best one at this time, as there is a real need for training and educating on how to facilitate…

Took some time to look around more this morning as the conversation and legislation on Rule 44 bogged down…again. There are many reasons why this rule is having difficulty being passed. Christian Conferencing works when people speak the same language,but here we are working with language and culture barriers, technological problems and fear of doing…

Thought I would comment to you on the worship service this afternoon.   Bishop Warner Brown gave a rousing sermon on “Jesus, We Are Here”, wonderful music in various languages (interpreters for nine languages is simultaneously going on for the 864 delegates from around the world), and a greeting and drumming from the Indigenous Peoples of…