Opening Day!

It is about 12:15 am, and I got back to the hotel about 1/2 hour ago, and I need to be back to the convention center by 8:00 am, so I will be quick, but there was a lot to cover today.WOW, where do I start?

United Methodists everywhere
Riding back on the bus alone a few minutes ago with the bus driver telling me that he has been a United Methodist for all his life and he did not know that such a gathering happened. He was dating his wife 40 years ago, she was an EUB and he was a Methodist, then the two groups merged and they have been United Methodist ever since.

My tie today - Save the Children rainbow tie.

The First Amendment offered at GC 2008
The first person to offer an amendment during the 2008 General Conference was . . . you guessed it - ME. We were adopting the Plan of Organization and Rules of Order and I thought I saw a way to get in the plan that Rod and I have been trying for 8 years to get passed by amending the Rules to have the General Conference Correlation and Editorial Revision committee get some prices and report back in 2012 - no cost involved. So I offered the amendment. By the current rules, any proposed amendments are referred to the Rules committee for them to study and report back the next day. So after the session ended, I asked when they were going to meet - right away! So I went to the meeting and briefly explained what I was proposing, heard some general approving sounds, and some caution that it really would cost some money - but not the way I proposed it. Then someone said that I was trying to tell them "how" to do it . . . duh. As I left they were beginning to discuss it. We will find out tomorrow. After mine, there were several other proposed amendments, so that committee could be meeting for a while.

Notes on Legislative Procedure - How Delegates Speak
When we registered we were given a packet that included three 8 1/2 x 11 cards. A Yellow one that says, "Parliamentary Inquiry or Question", a Green one that says, " Speech For", and a Red one that says "Speech Against." The idea is that you hold up whichever card applies and the presiding bishop calls on you to speak. I used the yellow one for my amendment. I had alerted one of the members of the committee about what I was going to do so when they got to that section they said something that I believe was referring to what I was about to do. The green and red are because if we are debating something the rules allow 3 speeches for and 3 against any motion. This way the bishop can alternate the speeches.

Interesting legislation ...
We had one motion to send a question to the Judicial Council. It was about 6 petitions that would in some way specify a minimum number of some class of people that would have to be on some church body. Such as one that would require 30% of the members of general agencies be from Central Conferences (those from outside the US). The Judicial Council has consistently ruled these to be wrong because by specifying a minimum of one group, you are - by definition - denying other groups membership in that group. The hope is to get a ruling before committees get too far into the legislative process and pass something that has no chance of being enacted. It only needed 20% to be referred, and it passed 544-334. That only totals 878, and there are supposed to be 992 voting delegates - don't know where the rest of them are, or if they just chose not to vote, or invalidated their vote in some way.

40 Years Since the Merger
Since today was the 40th anniversary of the merger of the EUB and Methodist to form The United Methodist Church, they showed a short film/video of the proceedings from April 1968 in Dallas. I will try to find out where that resides and see if our local church could borrow/rent it. Rod Osborne's father was one of the big shots during those proceedings and he might be in some of the scenes.

Reconciling Parents' Network
I had lunch with the Parents Reconciling Network today at the First Christian Church a few blocks from the Convention Center. The historical plaque on the building says that Rev. Drew (I think that is his name) came to Ft. Worth in 1855 with a Hymn book and a pistol and founded the church. Retired Bishop Ray Chamberlain spoke, and at one point mentioned that he had invented a new Beatitude: "Blessed are they who break a leg - for they shall receive a casserole." He mentioned that people ask him about a lesbian being his daughter, and he corrects them to say that he has a daughter that is a lesbian, and his other children are different. He also noted that his 38 year old daughter has 2 children, and is still a virgin - "Take that Pope Benedict." The other speaker was Rev. William Taylor who is the former pastor of the First UMC of Conroe, TX who was forced to leave his growing church after his son announced that he was gay. The church leaders demanded that he denounce his son, and when he would not many members left the church.

Opening Worship
The opening worship was excellent - from 6-8 p.m. and full of great music of all kinds. One very neat anthem was "The Day is Coming" by Words - Laurie Zelman, and Music - Mark Miller. It was excellent, and we should get it for LaGrange. The musical groups that were part of the service were from: Hurst, TX, Mansfield, TX, Southlake, TX, Ft. Worth, Korean Contral United Methodist Fellowship, Timbuktu African Drummers, Ft. Worth, and the Revelation Praise Dancers, Arlington, TX, and other dancers from Tennessee, New York, and South Carolina.It is now about 1:15, I have used this time to unwind, and I will spend a couple minutes going through all of the new paper/documents that were passed out to us to see what I do NOT have to carry back with me tomorrow.

Keep my wife, Deb in your prayers - she should be on her 2nd plane by now, leaving Frankfort, Germany on the way to Lagos.

Peace to all of you, Jack