Trust of Bishops

(Written 5/20 and submitted to UM-Insight where it was published 5/24)

From a variety of writings on blogs and in articles in the American church media, it appears that some bishops are having the blues.

“They don’t show bishops respect any more,” complained one American bishop.

“I have never felt distrust before as much as I did at this General Conference,” said a bishop from another part of the world.

“Why don’t they trust us?” another American bishop asked.

Well, let me count the ways.

One, the Council of Bishops projects the attitude that everyone else is to blame for the problems of the American Church.

Two, it has been estimated that two thirds of what the General Conference had before it in plenary came from the Council of Bishops or from bishops heading boards and agencies.

Three, many bishops and their cabinets tend to listen to the churches’ complainers and not to the pastors when there is trouble. Pastors feel that Cabinets look upon clergy as expendable.

Four, many bishops are too busy to take time to deal respectfully with most pastors and churches. They often don’t respond to requests for help or information.

Five, no matter how long and distinguished a pastor’s or Local Pastor’s career, Cabinets show no cognizance of those records when a complaint comes up that sounds serious or when the Cabinet wants to make a move.

Six, many bishops tend to make appointments without consultation, contrary to the Discipline, and the Council of Bishops does not have a will or a way to hold them accountable.

Seven, at least one bishop put his picture up on the right side of the cross in the conference center’s chapel. Jesus’ picture is on the left side.

Eight, complaints brought against bishops about administrative violations of the Discipline are dealt with by their colleagues on the College of Bishops and are never held accountable.

Nine, bishops tend to take authority over areas of church life that have not been assigned to them by the Discipline.

Ten, as stated in another posting on this blog site, “we have not challenged our leaders about their focus on the world as their parish. They can so easily fall into the temptation of not minding their parish here!”

No, enough American bishops show little or no respect to the pastors and churches under their charge that they have lost the respect of their annual conferences. Whatever reservoir of respect the bishops have drawn upon for generations is mostly empty.

Bishops face having to earn respect. They can no longer presume upon it.

Maybe that’s why some of the most respected bishops in the world-wide connection are the ones who are term-limited by their Central Conferences.

General Conference Is a Big Deal

Many that I know from my work as an advocate are really skeptical that everything institutional in the United Methodist Church is at best a show and at worst a cynical distribution of power and money to the elite with no thought to the mission or the saints (most local church people) of the Church. Our experience seeing the underside of the denomination gives my friends solid grounds to be skeptical.

I am inches away from their skepticism and would disregard General Conference myself for the same reasons except for one thing. I met a saint in 1984, my first General Conference as a lobbyist for church people in trouble with church leaders. His name is Richard Wright, then a superintendent from West Virginia. He encouraged me to keep on with what I was doing. But he suggested I consider working on more positive things like writing about better ways to do things, like being more supportive of those trying to do things right, like discussing responsibilities along with rights of pastors.

By the way, Rev. Wright is alive and well in retirement, a delegate from West Virginia told me.

Every General Conference since then, I have met some other remarkable people whose very existence keeps me from despair.

The big deal about General Conference is that there are a lot of those kinds of folks and they are meeting each other! Somehow, annual conferences elect not only the ambitious and cynical who know how to game the system but some real caring, insightful, capable people.

And I knew this General Conference was going to be big because I would have a chance to meet some of those kinds of people from outside the United States.

Lobbying - Preparations

There are a lot of things that need to be done to lobby at General Conference.

First and foremost were getting my petitions in on time and in proper form so they would be printed for all to see in the publications for delegates.

There were the logistics of a place to stay, a place to park the car, meals to get, and connecting to the internet.

Then there was connecting with key delegates and church agency staff, considering which delegates may be sympathetic to my petitions and what legislative committees they were on, which of my friends was going to be there and what they intended to do, and what help I could be to all of them.

Then there was the task of studying the board and agency petitions related to what mine address, tracking my petitions and those of friends, and reading up on the major proposals the delegates would face during the plenary.

Finally, where would I be when? When lobbying, one has to be available and yet be where the most critical actions were taking place. From my experience at previous quadrennial meetings like this, I had some ideas that were a little unconventional.

And as one retired bishop reminded me before we went to Tampa, we have to know where the bathrooms are!

Let me post a brief review of each of these responsibilities. Then you can grade me on how I did and see what you as a lobbyist should not do.

Lobbying - Petitions

The primary task of a lobbyist is to provide grist for the legislative mill so that there are specific opportunities for an idea to be processed by the General Conference. I’ve been doing petitions (additions or corrections to passages in the current Book of Discipline) since 1976.

Last fall, I turned in something like 68 petitions ranging from finessing some paragraphs of the Discipline to complete rewrites to satirical ones to recommendations on theology.

I did not try to send any through Annual Conference because the committee that reviewed them and recommended them invariably recommended non-concurrence. No one on those committees had ever been through a personnel process against them to realize what was actually going on. Discussion on the floor of my petitions invariably was either done when everyone was tired or was not done at all.

I also was very aware that the General Conference rarely had time to consider any petitions but the ones from the boards and agencies of the denomination and those from the Council of Bishops. Even petitions from annual conferences seldom got consideration.

Rather than waste our annual conference’s time, I just sent in petitions on every paragraph I believe needed to be changed, based on my years of experience as an advocate. My hope was that someone would actually read them when they were printed in the Advanced Daily Christian Advocate. And maybe something would stick with someone. And maybe someday someone would include it in a board or agency petition as their idea.

Having gone to most of the General Conferences since 1984, I have seen that happen. So I once again cast my bread upon the waters.

Lobbying - Logistics

I have a friend who lives in Tampa and he was kind enough to invite me to sleep at his house and commute downtown from there. He provided bus routes and times. And he suggested the best restaurant within walking distance of the convention center. He’s been a computer geek so I would be able to use his wifi to connect with the internet.

By searching the internet, I found a lot of places to eat. I also found a handy location of a Florida grocery chain, Publix, that we like down here. There was an oriental grocery listed as a few blocks further up the street that might be good for those on diets and those from overseas.

In February, there was a pre-conference event for church and secular press at the Tampa Convention Center so I drove from my friend’s house downtown and realized that if it weren’t for my GPS, I would have been driving in circles. Tampa was laid out by the same surveyors who laid out my home town of Waukesha, WI. Tampa is on a large bay so most of its streets are not lined up north-south-east-west but on diagonals and curves. Even my GPS was confused when I left my friend’s house and it circled me back to the house during the first five minutes of my drive downtown!

I found a good parking garage downtown next to the convention center and decided I’d drive back and forth from his house instead of trying to work the bus system.

The basics were in place.

Lobbying - Connecting with Key People

For some of my previous lobbying efforts, I developed lists of 250 delegates to whom I sent by mail general suggestions about how things went and essays on the direction of the church as well as encouragement to vote for my petitions. Most I did not know, though many I did or had been recommended to me by AIA colleagues.

I discovered to my chagrin that even those I knew the best were unable to help my petitions because of the rules of General Conference, especially that once a petition related to a paragraph of the Discipline was passed by a legislative committee, all other petitions related to that same paragraph could be voted non-concurrence without any consideration even if they could have added a different idea. (Rule 31 [2]). And some sat on their hands at crucial points in discussions, leaving my petitions without support.

I figured that for this time, I would let my petitions stand on their own merit and not push any of a dozen or so delegates about any of my petitions. What I did was pick people who knew me pretty well and try to help them with things like the Publix store, how to reach me, how to preserve a petition that didn’t get forwarded to the floor, and any other helpful thing I could do for them. I sent the same materials to staff, reporters, and some friends I knew were coming to Tampa. I copied the notes to the AIA board.

My working list ended up being too short. But word somehow got around and I found a lot of folks in Tampa who somehow got that same information without my help.

I kept them posted of changes and some other things through “Brief notes” by e-mail during the two weeks of General Conference. And I got to see most of them, if only for a few moments.

Of all I sent to them, the one thing that had the most impact was letting them know about the Publix grocery store. It did a booming business while we were there.

Thanks to a $7 purchase at WalMart of a bright red jacket, I could be seen from anywhere in the plenary. That became important when delegates wanted to talk with me or when I sent notes to delegates and had the page point out me in my red coat.

One person with whom I connected is the editor of United Methodist Insight, an on-line publication project providing a wide variety of articles and views of General Conference. She invited me to be one of her contributors and encouraged me to write about what was happening the first week because she was not going to be able to come until the second week.

A friend from Wisconsin who taught at Africa University asked me to make contact with two of its graduates who were coming as delegates. I wasn’t going to do traditional lobbying anyway. So I added that to my agenda and, without my realizing it, it changed what I ended up doing at General Conference.

Lobbying - Studying the Materials for General Conference

Good lobbying requires reading everything one can before attending the conference. Because I was invited to write for the special project called United Methodist Insight (http://um-insight.net), I read most of those essays over the weeks just prior to Tampa.

There were a lot of things to study: key issues, where my petitions were referred, who was on which committees of the General Conference, the rules of the General Conference, the schedule, and who all were delegates.

I could have done that on-line because all the pre-conference materials were posted there (www.UMC.org/2012General Conference). I was able to skim through the lists of delegates and who were on the legislative committees.

But to work through the legislation, I found that too difficult to do on-line (my dufferishness came out). So I postponed all that, deciding to see if I could purchase the hard copies at Cokesbury in Tampa when I got there. They would all be up-to-date where some of the on-line lists were incomplete.

All I looked at from then on were articles in UM-Insight, UMNS Daily reports, and the UMC.org website.

Let me say that after years of mostly seeing fluff and PR materials among the traditional UM news outlets, I was seeing some articles that were very critical and journalistically more sound. That was a refreshing experience. I know several of the news staff and found them to have come through those years with their integrity intact. This was a good year for them.

I confess I spent more time writing than reading. After reading several articles, I submitted comments that were accepted.

One such piece was divided in two by the UM-Insight editor, with the two sections being filled out with more background and data. They were published there and I put them in this blog (see below April 5 – “Where Do We Find God’s Spirit in Our System” and April 11 – “What Are They Ignoring?”) I resurrected an article from 2008 that went into UM-Insight and this blog on April 13 (see “Priorities for General Conference” of that date below). One of my comments on an article in UM-Insight also made this blog as well on April 21 (“No Large Southern Church Left Behind”)

This seemed to me to be an odd way for a lobbyist to prepare for General Conference.

Lobbying - Plan B, C, and . . .

Being set does not take into account things that could happen. I needed no Plan B for myself until a couple days before General Conference. My friend called to say that something came up and he could not let me stay at his house.

Plan B? Cheapest motel would still have been over $80 a night. Friends who live in Clermont, FL, have invited us to use their house in case of emergency. But that was 80 miles away. My home was only a 100 miles and that made as much sense and in many ways would be a whole lot handier.

And then there was the weather…

And then came the problem of meeting the two African delegates. One had a roommate who only spoke Portuguese and a page told me I couldn’t send a message to the other because I was not a delegate!

And then Google bought Blogspot and changed the protocols so that I couldn’t format or copy and paste as I had been able to do just days before conference started.

Lobbying can strain one’s resources and creativity!

April 22, The First Day - The Site

On Sunday morning, thanks to directions from a Florida pastor friend, I found the parking garage next to the convention center. With my carry-on suitcase holding my laptop, books, and papers trailing behind me, and wearing my bright red jacket, I started out to get the lay of the land.

I walked across the street and walked through the whole building. In the foyer on the second floor, the registration booth was being put up along with ones for first aid and information.

On huge placards on both sides of the foyer were printed the icons of sponsors of the General Conference. That astonished me. Previous General Conferences had their expenses covered by amounts in the quadrennial budget and from registration fees of visitors.

As I walked passed those sponsor signs up to the main area where the conference was to be held, the only other people in the area were two bishops that I knew quite well and their wives. The Council of Bishops had been meeting all week in Tampa and they had just finished. We exchanged pleasantries, commented on how odd it was to have the conference paid for by sponsors, and I went on to explore the site.

Many of the sponsors are denominational institutions: a couple seminaries, an insurance company, and some UM foundations. Some were not: United Health Care, the cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater, a local hospital (that may have been one of ours years ago?), and Travel Portland (where General Conference will be held in four years).

I wondered if the Koch brothers might be involved….

At the third level of the center, agency displays and Cokesbury were also under construction on the west end of the great hall. On the east end, there were piles of round tables on the floor in the plenary area that workmen were putting up. The distance from where the main stage/podium was to the furthest table had to be over 100 yards. I thought having binoculars would be a good idea.

April 22 - The Grocery Store

It was still fairly early Sunday morning so I decided to walk, travel case in tow, to the two grocery stores I had told my contacts about. It began misting. The weather I predicted (70 at night and 85 during the day with no clouds) changed. It was 65, the wind was out of the north, and the light rain was almost enough to get your clothes wet. But I was doing okay as I crossed the bridge over the Hillsborough River next to the center.

And there was the Publix. It was an older store without a pharmacy but its bakery and deli were as good as the ones at home. I bought a salad for lunch, put it into my travel case, and headed out looking for the Asian market I had found on the internet.

The wind was blowing harder and the mist was getting heavier as I hiked back across the river and turned up the street. I headed for where the buildings would protect me from the weather as I walked northish. When I got to the address, there was no Asian store. The delegates were stuck with American vegetables from Publix.

April 22 - Looking for an African Friend

I walked back to the center which was across from the hotel where the denomination housed the delegates from overseas. I was still a little wet from the rain but figured the air-conditioning would dry me off.

The sun had finally come out as I crossed over to the hotel. I went to the desk and they told me how to use a house phone to call one of the African delegates my Wisconsin friend asked me to meet. The clerk said he had checked in yesterday. I called, got no answer, and left a voice mail saying I would be in the lobby with my red coat on, hoping to see him soon.

As I sat waiting, warm and moist, in the midst of dozens of people from all over the world, I pulled out a book to read and I fell asleep. I must have dozed undisturbed for about a half hour. The Asian gentleman in a chair across from me got up and I assured him I would watch his things until he returned. He smiled and left.

A few minutes later, he returned. We introduced ourselves. He is a bishop from an Evangelical Methodist denomination unofficially related to the UMC. He said he was very interested in seeing how we did things, resolve issues like homosexuality, kept records, and made decisions. I told him a little about Associates in Advocacy and then I shared (unloaded, is more like it) some of my concerns about the quality of personnel work I encountered in our denomination.

I apologized for being so negative but he was most gracious and understanding. He gave me his card and insisted I call him by his nickname rather than “Bishop.” I thought he was like my first bishop, Ralph Alton, only a warmer version, if you can believe that. I was deeply impressed with him as we spoke and hoped he would not fall into the trap our bishops have.

My African friend didn’t come down. I called him to say I would meet him upstairs at the orientation meeting in the hotel’s ball room but had to leave that message on voice mail once again.

April 22 - Orientation for International Delegates

April 22 – Orientation for International Delegates

After the bishop left, I realized I was dry. And I was hungry so I got out the Publix salad and ate it there. Then I went up to the ballroom for the orientation. I got there early, looked over the room, saw small packets of materials from one of the general boards at each chair around each table.

I guess I was looking for signs that one of the caucus groups was handing out materials but it looked pretty straight up.

I found a spot at the back of the room and in the center in front of what looked like translator’s booths. Leaving my travel case there, I walked over to the main entrance to the ballroom and met an older woman of short stature. Her name tag said “Iva Joyce.”

She told me quite a story as people began to come into the ballroom. I wrote it up in the following article for UM-Insight and this blog.

April 22 - One of the Saints

(First written May 4 for UM-Insight, revised 5/15, based on event of 4/22 but not yet published)

It was 1972 and General Conference was in full swing when Iva Joyce Hill from the Board of Missions noticed that delegates from the churches in Latin America were sitting there with frustrated looks on their faces.

"They were having a hard time understanding what was going on. While each knew some English, they were unable to keep up with the discussion in the plenary," she told me the day the orientation for overseas delegates began. “I realized something had to change before the next conference.”

The 1976 General Conference accepted French, Portuguese and Spanish translators from the Board of Missions who sat within the bar of the conference with the delegates, whispering the proceedings. Non-English delegates were finally allowed to have voice through translators.

"But some leaders still thought it was folly and an unnecessary expense," she said.

By 1984 booths with translators and earphones for delegates who didn't speak English were introduced, and German was added as a translated language. In 2008, the Advance DCA was printed in French, German and Portuguese.

By the 2012 General Conference there were 150 professionals and volunteers translating American Sign Language, French, German, Kiswahili, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish for the Legislative Committees and Plenary sessions.

"I am glad to see that now it is a natural part of what we do here, and, on top of that," she added with a big smile, “the current leadership has been extremely supportive. I'm very proud of our church for that."

Thank you, Joyce Hill.

April 22 - The Orientation Session

By the time the session started Sunday afternoon, all the tables in the room were crowded with delegates and others who had different colored name tags. The people at the table with me wore blue ones which I quickly learned designated translators. They were also getting oriented so they would be more effective when they worked in the legislative committees or in the plenary.

Unfortunately, the delegates appeared not to be getting translating during the first part of the orientation. The introductions, the worship, and some information about some of the issues were all in English. The translators were all at the tables in the back where I was and there wasn’t anyone in the interpreters’ booths. The leaders up front soldiered on with good UM stuff and the delegates were all polite enough not to look inattentive.

At the break, ear phones came out and interpreters filled the booths behind me.

Among other bits of information passed along, the delegates learned that the UM church world wide is 58% women and that only 33% of the delegates were women, The world median age for United Methodists is 26 but in the United States it is 57. Delegates were encouraged to speak up during General Conference. They were to use only the “holy handshake” and avoid any other kind of personal contact (no hugging, touching, commenting on clothing). Respect was to be shown to each other.

The delegates were then broken up into language groups, the French and Swahili groups were huge. The Portuguese was very large. The rest were much smaller. Each went to separate rooms. I decided not to go with any of them but went to see if I could register and get a colored name tag. I left a voice mail message for my African friend about what I was doing and when I would be back to the hotel.

At one of the tables on the first floor of the convention center, I saw a delegate I knew from several prior General Conferences. We talked about my petitions and about his experience as a superintendent. One of the most interesting stories he shared was about a fellow Cabinet member who shut down a church for six months. He said the pastor, a part-time Local Pastor with his own job and home, was okay with it. The congregation was too. The ones who couldn’t handle it were a clique of antagonists. They joined another church after about six weeks. When the congregation resumed, the antagonists did not come back and the church did just fine after that.

Registration was not open so I returned to the hotel without a name tag, looking for my friend. There was no answer to his phone at all, this time, not even a chance to leave a voice mail. Upstairs in the ball room, everyone had reconvened there for supper. One of the translators invited me to stay so I did.

At the table were one of the marshals and one of the pages whom I knew well from other times and places.

Having been up early that morning to make the 100 mile drive to Tampa and facing the return trip, I headed out after trying one more time to call my friend’s room, again leaving a voice mail about being back in the morning and attending the continuing orientation.

There would be no blogging tonight. I was very tired.

April 23 - Translators

My registration tag was yellow. The print for my first name was large. The rest was very small and to see it meant leaning down embarrassingly close. I learned, for example, that Iva Joyce was really Joyce Hill and that the name “Iva” which she never used was required when her legal name was asked. Someone made the decision to print only the first names large enough to see from three feet away and they printed hers with both first and middle names. – When I was trying to get her okay to print my article about her, it took the Board of Global Ministries two days to figure out who I was talking about!

I ended up printing my name, affiliation, and location much bigger. But I was still at the disadvantage of not being able to really see anyone else’s. For a lobbyist to have to give up trying to see who the delegates were turned into a pain, almost physical in its uselessness.

But sitting in back at the continuing orientation for international delegates that Monday morning, I was among the translators again. When I used the phrase “international delegates” with one of the interpreters, she pointed out that we all were international, including us from the US. I started using “foreign” and “overseas.”

I asked a Portuguese translator if by chance he knew the African I was most anxious to meet. He immediately left the table and brought back a second translator, saying both would be glad to see if they could find him. It was impossible in the room to ask a page to take a note to him because there was no assigned seating. How these two were going to find him, I had no idea. But they were so nice and so intent upon being of help to me.

After a break in the session, during which I successfully found the men’s room, I returned to a table full of different people, all with blue nametags, but speaking European languages. One was a clergy person seeking to join an American conference. He was very interested in what I did for Associates in Advocacy. He hadn’t been in our country more than a few months before he saw some of the lousy personnel work that was happening.

That afternoon, I sat next to a Swahili translator. I asked him about it. He said that Swahili has to use a dozen words to translate some American words. He said it was especially difficult to translate some of our denominational jargon.

As a colleague remarked later during a plenary session, “The interpreters are going to control the tempo of General Conference.” They did. Everyone who spoke from up front did so at a slower rate. On the floor, it could get dicey when a foreign delegate tried to speak and no translator picked up on what was being said. That could really slow things down for a few minutes.

Some of the translators were very good. But during the orientation and during other times, the acoustics were terrible and I could not understand either the delegate or the one repeating in English what had been said.

Someone said I should get a hearing aid.

I spoke at length with one of the translators and asked if he was being paid. I knew many Africa University students were translators in 2008 and many more came this year. I’m sure their expenses were all paid. But this one was in business in Virginia and did a lot of contract work for the State and Defense Departments. He said the Church was paying him the commercial rate. I was pleased with that because we need as many excellent interpreters as we can get for General Conference.

I asked him what the difference was between a translator and an interpreter. He said the two were usually interchangeable. But true interpreters did not even think about translating. They turned the concepts they were hearing in one language into the other simultaneously. It was a rare gift developed over years of doing it.

April 23 - "The African Caucus"

(Written on Monday, 4/23, revised Thursday 4/26 – submitted 4/29 to UM-Insight but not published)

The large meeting room at the Marriott was filled to capacity. It could have been more than 1,000 people. Delegates from overseas filled most of the room and the rest were translators.

The orientation of these delegates to the issues and processes of the conference were handled in a straight-forward manner by representatives of various boards and agencies and General Conference staff. Those needing translation were given earphones so they could have the benefit of several translators who sat in booths at the very back of the large room.

During the practice of voting procedures, there was no mention of the electronic voting to be used during plenary sessions. And the presiding bishop was “casual,” not really very helpful. In fact, conversations at the tables of delegates made it hard to hear what the bishop was saying.

For the end of the afternoon, the delegates were divided up into their respective regions to each speak among themselves. The African delegates stayed in the main hall and the others went to other rooms. The room was still more than half full.

Six bishops sat at the table on the stage facing the delegates. After prayer and a general word of gathering, one of the bishops began making some observations to the delegates.

“Be mindful of gifts with strings attached. There are those who will give you cell phones and free meals in exchange for your vote on certain issues,” she said. “Beware.”

“Watch out for people who take you shopping when you should be voting.”

Another bishop was quite concerned that the delegates keep in mind the needs of Africa. “Do not be absent!” he said. “Absent votes help the other side.”

“Africans understand what is to be supported and what is not to be supported. We do not want to be seen as only worried about African concerns. We stand before God. We are United Methodists. But we know what will help the African church. The rest will take care of itself in the future. PULL TOGETHER,” he concluded.

Another bishop focused on simple strategies. “Stay till the end of meetings. Don’t miss meetings. Vote right.”

Another urged delegates to spend their money wisely on meals so that they would have something left at the end of General Conference.

“The translators are here to help you speak, to give you voice in the meetings. Use them,” he said. He also urged them to be brief in making statements.

“And if you wish to try to speak English, do not be afraid of making a mistake, thinking your English is broken. BREAK IT!”

The last bishop identified some places where they needed to assert themselves. “We must be better represented on the Judicial Council and University Senate. We must be united on these.”

A period of discussion followed.

The first delegate to speak said he most appreciated his right to vote as he chose.

Another asked that the bishops offer them guidance on the issues. Interestingly, no bishop did during the session.

A delegate asked if there was a strategy to come up with candidates not only for the Judicial Council and University Senate but also for seats on committees, boards, and agencies all across the church. A bishop responded saying that a committee needed to be formed to come up with names for such positions and not to count on the bishops.

It was clear that the bishops called upon the delegates to vote in solidarity.

During the whole session, there was no mention of social issues. A translator later clarified what issues the Africans seemed most concerned about.

“They are deeply concerned about expanding educational opportunities, especially having greater seminary capacity to meet the astounding growth they are experiencing. They want a quicker process to ordination and conference membership. They need more representation at all levels of the denomination. They want help which facilitates travel and communication. There are things they have on their agenda far more important than social issues.”

A delegate later reported he also heard the delegate who was thankful for freedom of conscience to vote as they chose. And he said he heard the plea for guidance from the bishops. “These are both going on among the delegates,” he said. “There are some crucial things that Africa needs, education, seminaries, a quicker ordination process, better representation. These are our biggest concerns.”

April 23 - The Committee on Reference

In 1988, I observed at the Committee on Reference. Having sat in on the orientation of the committee led by someone from the Committee on the General Conference, I walked with him as he left after the break, questioning the rules about committee members controlling which petitions would be considered by the legislative committees they represented and that they could also determine the order in which those petitions were to be considered. I asked about the rule which said petitions could be dropped once a petition on that paragraph was accepted by the legislative committee. I pointed out just how manipulative that was. He simply said those were the rules passed by General Conference and he was only explaining them. When I tried to go back in to observe the meeting after their break, I was muscled out of the room. I learned many days later about Paragraph 721 which provides for open meetings with a very few exceptions. They really had no right to remove me. I guess my questions rankled someone, though to my knowledge no one on the committee was aware of them.

I have made it a point to attend as many of their sessions as I can ever since. In 2008, their sessions were the site of my having a kidney stone attack from which I ended up going to the emergency room. Up until that moment in Fort Worth, I had been impressed with the integrity of the group and its leadership. So leaving the committee was okay.

This Monday night in Tampa, I stayed long enough to learn that the person who chaired the committee in 2008 was elected to chair it again in 2012. I felt I did not need to return to observe any of their sessions.

Interestingly, the General Conference rules are much the same as they were in 1988 but I heard nothing like what was said back then.

Until the rules change, and if different people are elected the committee’s officers, that will be the first committee I will observe in the future.

April 23 - "Shadows"

Every committee at General Conference is convened by either a bishop or a key General Conference officer. They describe the function of the committee, introduce them to each other, and conduct the elections necessary to determine the officers for the group. Then they leave.

The Reference Committee was convened by the General Conference Secretary. He introduced himself and the Petitions Secretary. Then he introduced two young staffers that he called their “shadows.”

Not being one to waste a moment, he immediately explained.

“I believe in the ‘Mac Truck Rule.’ In an organization such as ours, we have to be able to function no matter what. So I have made sure each staff member in my team has a person assigned as a shadow that gets to know the job well enough that if someone is run over by a Mac truck, the organization will not miss a beat,” he said.

April 24 - Establishing a Routine

My African friend was off soon after we got together because he was also a delegation head and had to get to a meeting.

So I then started the routine I followed everyday when I came in. I went up to the message board at the information booth on the second level and checked for messages. I then went to Cokesbury where I picked up the first copy of the Daily Christian Advocate (DCA) and the printed version of the Advanced DCA volumes. I had not yet found an “office” so I went down to the first floor where newly arrived delegates and visitors were congregating. I spent time with two old friends and learned one was now on the staff of the General Conference Secretary. The other was there for the umpteenth General Conference as an advocate for Methodist Federation for Social Action.

“So you’re one of the hospitality staff,” he said, pointing at my red jacket.

“Naw, I just look like I am. The Florida greeters and helpers all wear a red vest. I’ve got sleeves.”

“Pass the word that they are as nice and helpful as the Texas bunch were four years ago,” he said.

I agreed. “They are characteristic of all the Methodists I’ve been meeting so far, from wherever in the world. They’re as nice as they can be.”

“Did you know that the food court over there has complimentary wifi?” my friend asked.

He had found my “office.” I was on-line in moments and found the chairs and tables a great place to be visible if anyone was looking for me.

That place also turned out to be where I met a lot of delegates and learned a lot about ministries and problems going on. Sharing a table led to many interesting conversations, passing of business cards, and establishing links for future contacts.

I had my entering routine: message board, Cokesbury for my DCA, elevator down to the first floor food court to check my email and meet others. Then I could head out to observe meetings or the plenary.

My leaving routine was similar. I checked out my email at the end of the day, checked the message board, and left for the day before it got too late for me to drive home safely.

April 24 - Opening Ceremony

One of the things I intended to do was establish a place where I could ordinarily be found in the visitors’ seating areas during plenary sessions. But by Tuesday night my feet and legs were killing me. Having walked through the plenary area earlier during a time when music for the opening worship was being practiced, I found the sound level was way too high for me. So I did not plan to stay for the opening of General Conference.

I did go in as people were gathering. Coincidentally, a group of people I knew from a congregation in Port Charlotte entered at the same time I did. They all had red t-shirts naming their church and hometown. With my red jacket, I felt like I was one of them for a few seconds. Then the one I greeted turned away as if I wasn't even there.

I went on to fulfill my main reason for being in the plenary area.

My Wisconsin friend who asked me to meet two delegates from Africa University let me know she would be in Florida the next afternoon and asked if I could arrange for them to go to supper with her. So before the opening ceremony began, I took notes up to pages in the plenary area to inform both pastors what I had arranged.

I’m glad I had on my red jacket. Both got their notes from the pages, turned, and waved to let me know they would make it.

I felt free to leave for home.