Faith, Hope and Post-Its: Raising the Bar at Annual Conference
Armed with 4,500 post-its, 1,000 armbands, 1,000 flyers, four helium balloon-suspended signs, one banner and one very controversial petition, PSUMC delegates set off for the New York Annual Conference (NYAC) meeting on June 1. They were backed by the entire congregation, which spent weeks cutting armbands and penning reconciling slogans, and months before that prayerfully discussing how to respond in action to the call of God’s radically inclusive love. Out of that deliberation had come our non-compliance petition—formally titled “The Church’s Call to Unified Action Affirming Full Inclusiveness”—which called on the entire annual conference to affirm justice and equality by committing itself to civil disobedience in defiance of the discriminatory rules of the United Methodist Book of Discipline. The petition, which was passed unanimously by our church council in March, became the centerpiece of a two-month campaign to gather support, network with other congregations and plan a powerful, unified reconciling witness. When it was all over on June 4, the PSUMC delegation returned exhilarated and exhausted. The petition cleared its first hurdle when it was passed, unamended, by the legislative section; 96 delegates voted for it, signaling their commitment to refuse to comply with the Discipline’s unjust rules excluding lesbians and gay men. On the plenary floor the next day, an amended version of the petition was ratified after extensive debate. And everyone saw the post-its; countless people came up and said “thank you for doing this.”A moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws
PSUMC’s non-compliance petition grew out of our conviction that the call to oppose the church’s unjust, exclusionary rules required us to move beyond words to action. NYAC voted all the way back in 1987 to call itself a reconciling conference and to “affirm the full participation” of lesbians and gay men in the life of the conference, yet as Beth Stroud’s defrocking made so painfully clear such declarations have done nothing to curb the wrongs committed against gay and lesbian Methodists. When we were discussing how to respond we re-read Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written in 1963 in response to eight clergymen who had criticized King for his use of civil disobedience. “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws,” King wrote.Once the petition had been drafted and discussed throughout our congregation, and then unanimously adopted by PSUMC’s church council, we began to share it with other reconciling activists and congregations in the conference and to exchange ideas about what to do at this year’s annual conference. A May 1 meeting brought together representatives from eight different churches as well as allies like the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) and the Parents Reconciling Network (PRN). We committed ourselves to helping each other’s plans and decided to reach out further to other churches. “Annual conference is not just for delegates!” the flyer we created declared.
The black fly strategy
One of the ideas enthusiastically embraced at the May 1 meeting was the “guerrilla post-it campaign.” The idea was to take thousands of 3x3 inch post-its with reconciling messages written on them and to post them everywhere throughout the conference—in meeting rooms, on the back of cafeteria chairs, in bathrooms stalls, everywhere. We were sure the post-its would come down quickly, but if enough people carried enough of them around, they would be just as quickly replaced. It would be, we thought, much like battling black flies: One black fly is easily dismissed and overcome, but if you’ve ever been in Maine in early June you know that these tiny insects can dominate your entire day now matter how many you kill or how quickly you kill them.The strategy worked. PSUMC delegates began post-it-ing the minute they arrived at the Hofstra University campus where annual conference was held, and they were eagerly joined by dozens of others who did the same. Most of the post-its where themed around the UMC’s not-quite fulfilled slogan of “open hearts, open minds, open doors,” and around the non-compliance petition, officially number 305 in the pre-conference book. “Open the doors!” “Knock knock” “Door jammed? Pass 305!” “WWJD? Open the doors” and so on. On the second day, delegates released four helium balloon-lifted signs in the dining hall before lunch (“Open hearts?” “Open minds?” “Open doors?” “Unlock, don’t defrock!”). Initially they weren’t much noticed because no one looked up, but they were literally in people’s faces as the helium depleted and they started to drift down. Two of the signs were then re-released, with fresh balloons, in the main arena where the plenary sessions were held.
By afternoon of the second day there were so many post-its that university officials were concerned about them creating a litter problem, and the bishop admonished the PSUMC delegates and told the entire conference there were to be no more post-its or balloons.
Allegiance to God’s law
On June 3, the third day, the non-compliance petition was debated in legislative section 3, “Ministries of Advocacy.” Our delegates gave a moving and heartfelt presentation of the petition, explaining the frustration and pain that made the call for civil disobedience necessary. That was followed by an immediate call for a "friendly amendment" that would change the language to urge members not to comply with the discriminatory rulings in the Book of Discipline rather than state a unified refusal to participate in exclusion. PSUMC members responded, making the point that anything less than non-compliance is complicity, and that softening the language would not merely amend the petition, it would undo its very purpose of moving from words to action.A passionate and spirited discussion followed among the 150 delegates. Opinions were expressed ranging from "Homosexuality is a sin and I pray for those people" to "Those bible verses you quote have been used to exclude women and people of color from the church. The interpretation was flawed then and is flawed now, too" and "I love this church and I'm afraid of division" to "This is exactly the action we've needed for years." The amendment was defeated by a vote of 66 to 58 with 25 abstentions. The original petition was then passed with a 71% majority, with 96 voting in favor, 38 against, and 15 abstentions.
It was an exciting and hopeful moment. When we first wrote the petition, people said that it would never get printed in the pre-conference book. But it did get printed. They said it would be ruled out of order and not allowed for discussion. But it did get discussed. They said it would never pass. But 96 NYAC delegates affirmed their allegiance to God’s law over the fallible human rules of our denomination and passed the petition out of the legislative section and onto the plenary floor, where the full conference would deliberate on it the following day.
Remembering those missing in ministry
That evening we handed out hundreds of flyers and blue armbands at the ordination ceremony. The flyers asked people to wear an armband in remembrance of women and men “missing in ministry”—those unable to serve because they’ve been barred from ordination, or drummed out of the church for who they are; those who’ve turned in their credentials in protest because their conscience can no longer abide their participation in a discriminatory institution; and those who pay a high price every day in their staying because they are not able to bring their full God-given selves to their ministry. An additional eight people from PSUMC made the trip out just for the night and between all of us we worked the doors, worked the floor, worked the clergy getting ready to process, and generally made ourselves unavoidable (very much the theme for the conference.) When the several hundred clergy processed into the auditorium, all in white robes, about HALF of them were wearing armbands! It was very moving. About half the audience was, too, but the blue on white, especially during the formal procession, was so much more noticeable. Two of the eight ordinands wore armbands, and several of the officials on stage did, too, which meant that when they did the laying on of hands during each actual ordination, there was a row of blue every single time, broadcast like everything else on the huge video screens.A call to action
On the fourth and final day, our petition was amended and debated on the plenary floor. There was some excited negotiating, several last-minute parliamentary maneuvers, and in the end substitution language on the "therefore be it resolved" part that passed along with the original text of the "whereases."As we had expected, the bishop ruled the petition out of order (because it calls on the conference to defy church law) but indicated he would entertain an amendment that could keep it alive. The amendment offered replaced the call for civil disobedience with language that said the conference "recognize[s] that persons may be called to acts of individual conscience to respond to God’s call to inclusive community of Jesus Christ.” PSUMC had hoped for much stronger language, since the very purpose of the petition was to move beyond words affirming justice to action opposing injustice. Thus an amendment to the amendment was offered, changing "may be called to acts of individual conscience" to "are encouraged to acts of civil disobedience." That amendment was ruled out of order. A second amendment to the amendment was also offered, simply striking the word "individual"—which would have underscored the point that groups, churches (and ultimately the church) are called to act, not just individuals. That was ruled out of order, too. Finally, a debate on the original amendment became a proxy for a debate on the petition as a whole, with opponents declaring homosexuality a sin and letting us know we'd burn in hell, and proponents urging an inclusive church true to God's choosing of each one of us as beloved sons and daughters.
In the end, the amended petition passed. We did not get the petition we set out to pass, but we do have some additional powerful language on the books that makes the moral and theological argument for an inclusive church. Particularly significant was the adoption of the following statement, part of one of the “whereas” paragraphs: “The Book of Discipline’s assertion that 'the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching' is unfounded in Scripture, unsupported by the lessons of the Gospel and indeed, itself incompatible with Christian teaching.” Furthermore, we once again made the issue unavoidable, and in fact, caused the bishop to adjourn the conference twice, once to figure out how to respond to the parliamentary moves, and once for lunch.
While our intended petition did not pass, the reconciling witness at the New York Annual Conference this year was unquestionably a success. Our petition challenged people to take up the call to follow Christ as a call to action, and in the end, it was the action of so many people at annual conference that made it powerful—the dozens who posted-it, handed out flyers, and staffed the Reconciling Ministries Network table; the hundreds and hundreds who wore armbands; the scores of activists who worked the months before the conference to make it a success; and the 96 delegates who declared with their votes that anything short of active resistance is complicity in injustice.
This report was written by Dorothee Benz and Carol Scott, PSUMC members. For more information, a copy of the non-compliance petition or updates on reconciling activism in NYAC, email Dorothee Benz, the chair of PSUMC's Reconciling Committee.