Thursday

Yesterday was a much better day. We had Alice Ridgill preach for us. I've never heard her give a bad sermon. She is such a dynamic preacher. I wish I could preach like that! Her style is not unlike Dr. Jerry Cannon's. The music we've had all the way around has been great and uplifting. All the resolutions that passed yesterday are ones I can live with. Some, such as finally taking a strong and comprehensive stand against racism, I truly celebrate. It's about doggone time! I never figured out how LGTBQ "rights" became more important than combating racism. The "apology" became an acceptable "regret." I would have even been happy to make a modified apology because we do need to apologize for elevating same-sex sexual acts as "worse" than other sexual acts outside the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or as worse than any sin, period. We need to apologize for using derogatory language. We do need to apologize for making people feel unwelcomed and unloved in our churches regardless of their background. What we do not need to apologize for is our belief on marriage. In our belief on ordination in that sins do not preclude one from being ordained, but that embracing sin of any type does preclude one from being ordained. We do not need to apologize for believing that celibacy is possible, and indeed, can be a call, and a God-honoring way for one to live. We commissioned our new international mission co-workers. I went to a dinner celebrating wonderful Christian work among the Armenian people, both diaspora and within Armenia. I've met lots of great people and reconnected with many others. The only regret is that we voted not to renounce our alliance with the RCRC, a great move that the Methodists just did at their General Conference. This was a commissioner's resolution based on the Methodist vote. It was a valiant effort and generated debate, but still failed miserably. Yesterday was incredibly long, (we did not end until 11:25pm) but overall good. We are all running low on sleep and have another long day ahead. I hope they cut out some of the blither-blather special reports, so that we can move on with business.