I wrote a draft of this story that went down all kinds of rabbit holes. Weighing aspects of connectionality and what regionalization might mean in my context and beyond…

It was a horrible piece of writing. Principally it was bad because it betrayed the purpose of these letters. I am looking for beauty and the way that God is showing up at conference. While that certainly includes the plenary sessions… The legislation itself is just a tool and the session with it. The Spirit moves through them, but the Spirit is not contained there. I hope the difference is clear.

I have seen more prayer today than any other day – not to imply a lack of prayer anywhere else – but to testify to the amount of it today. People are worshipping and advocating and being the Church. Today that meant talking about regionalization. It also meant saying goodbye to the Eurasian Conference. Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, and Khazakstan… All no longer part of the United Methodist Connection. Yet, sent off with love and prayer and on good terms with the body.

I think the thing we lost in the last few decades (lets be honest since 1968,) has been the reality that we are all supposed to be working for the good of one another. We say that is our goal, but we are all guilty of putting ourselves first, and not just occasionly. Particularly in the UMC, the US has always been at the center of everything – we cannot be that any longer. We are not the fulcrum on which the whole world must pivot, we are a part of a much larger whole.

I am frustrated at times with our treatment of conferences outside the US. We tend to treat international members allies or enemies as frequently as we treat them as family. A central conference member that supports traditionalist ideas is lauded by that camp and a central conference member who supports the progressive causes is lauded by another, and to a certain extent that is natural – we like people who agree with us! Yet we often find ourselves promoting the voices of those who are politically useful to us and ignoring others. If I have an enemy in another conference they may be lifted up to become a target and if I have an ally they may be lifted up to become an object in my arsenal – but if I do not see them as a person and a sibling in Christ all is lost.

Throughout the last extended quadrennium, Africa especially has been a chesspiece in a lot of discourse about the UMC. They are not partners in ministries and peoples made in the image of God, but polictio-theological ideas to be supported or opposed. When we dehumanize others, however we do so, we break something deep seated in both our humanities.

During the United Methodist Association of Communicators meeting, I was introduced to the social media of the South African Central Conference. I do not follow it religiously, but I do take time to go there now and again to see what is happening there. Church, it happens, is happening there. The people of God are gathered together and proclaiming salvation, serving one another in a Spirit of love, and striving toward perfection as only Methodists have the language to fully name.

Our collaboration with other conferences, with other people, even with our immediate neighbors, is not always done with complete agreement on important issues. Yet, if all people are genuinely seeking to do good, a way forward will present itself. It requires repentance, it requires self-reflection, and sometimes an acknowledgment of the frustratingly long arc toward justice… but it can be done.

Regionalization will make it easier to be a global church, but we must not forget our international siblings or our immediate family in the midst these changes. We will still need to move beyond seeing others as political entities and not human beings.

As discussion of the constitutional amendment regarding regionalization came to a close, someone described our Church with a greek word – “oikos.” I have stolen that for the title of this entry. Oikos means “household,” or “dwelling place.” The word hit me as being apt for what the United Methodist Church is to me and many others. This is where we find ourselves fulfilled, where we are made into a family together. Home is the best word to describe what the UMC is.

We care and we fight and we fuss because it is our home. I would hope that as legislation continues to be discussed and as we continue to strive to work togehter for the good of all people, we do so as a family. I hope we come to embrace all members of that family – not ignoring any part because of who they are or where they are, but in all things regarding others as more significant than ourselves. Hopefully other parts of this conference’s work will establish the full extent of our call to love others in official writings and doctrine, but we will have to see…

I realize as I sit here, that I could never leave the United Methodist Church. Not just because I have no desire to, but because it is the place my heart has found rest. If home is where the heart is, I can never leave home. In the same way that I feel an overwhelming desire to be back among mountains and my own four walls and surrounded by cats and by my wife… I would always long for this Church if ever I tried ot leave it.