FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Living in God’s Liberating Light — the Epiphany Statement on the
“Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation”
January 6, 2020
downloadable PDF
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 26, 2019
THE ADVENT GATHERING, a collaborative conference for United Methodists envisioning and working toward creating a new, liberated Methodist church, will take place at St. Andrew UMC Highlands Ranch, Colorado on December 3 & 4th, 2019.
Sponsoring organizations Methodists in New Directions (mindny.org), St. Andrew UMC (gostandrew.com), and UM-Forward.org (um-forward.org), along with participants from across the country will imagine a thriving and liberated church, one that actively lives out the Gospel while exemplifying Jesus’ radical love ethic of full inclusion and affirmation for all God’s beloved children.
The Advent Gathering offers laity, clergy, and organization leaders the opportunity to connect with others seeking affiliation in a new, vibrant expression of John Wesley’s Methodism. Participants will share resources and partake in discussions that will best equip clergy, laity, and congregations along their discernment journey during this time of transition and opportunity within the denomination.
Keynote speakers, Rev. Dr. Jennifer S. Leath, Iliff School of Theology Assistant Professor of Religion and Social Justice, and Rev. Dr. David Anderson Hooker, University of Notre Dame Associate Professor of the Practice of Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding, will share their expertise in transformative thinking and provide forward momentum for the emergence of a dynamic future.
As an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Leath’s deeply Wesleyan-rooted ministry experience, coupled with her research in womanism and the politics / ethics of sexualities, informs her expertise in guiding congregations and pastors in the discernment and affiliation process. She will help us envision a Wesleyan revival grounded on personal piety and social holiness.
An expert in the study of intersectionality, Rev. Dr. David Anderson Hooker will educate attendees in the challenging work of engaging in courageous conversations and coalition building. Dr. Hooker will share insights on how best to facilitate mutuality, the dialogue across the difference, in order to move forward while shifting ingrained societal norms to create a new beginning.
Living in a world enveloped with divisive politics and exclusionary tactics, Advent Gathering participants uphold God’s expansive and liberating love and an Open Table inviting all into Christ’s community. We believe in a church free from injustice, oppression, and institutional discrimination in which each human being is loved, accepted, and treated as God’s beloved and sacred child.
Advent Gathering participants affirm that all people—including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual + persons (LGBTQIA+), people of color (PoC), disabled persons, and women—are created in the Divine Image, are of inherent sacred worth, and shall be fully included in the life, ministry, practices, and leadership of the church. Participants reject any institutional policy that would deny the full participation of persons in the church based on age, nationality, race, class, culture, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, and ability. Importantly, all attendees commit to upholding Methodism’s historic emphases on grace, personal holiness, and social justice, over and above loyalty to institutional identity.
TO REGISTER: www.theadventgathering.com
CONTACTS:
UM-Forward, Joy Butler: joylbutler@gmail.com & Rev. Dr. Jay Williams: jaywilliams@post.harvard.edu
MIND: Methodists in New Directions, Rev. Melissa Boyer: revmelissaboyer@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14th, 2019
THE ADVENT GATHERING, a collaborative conference for United Methodists envisioning
and working toward creating a new, liberated Methodist church, will take place at St. Andrew UMC Highlands Ranch, Colorado on December 3 & 4th, 2019.
Sponsoring organizations Methodists in New Directions (mindny.org), St. Andrew UMC (gostandrew.com), and UM-Forward.org (um-forward.org), along with conference participants from across the country will together imagine a thriving and liberated church, one that actively lives out the Gospel while exemplifying Jesus’ radical love ethic of full inclusion and affirmation for all God’s beloved children.
The Advent Gathering offers laity, clergy, and organization leaders the opportunity to connect with others seeking affiliation in a new, vibrant expression of John Wesley’s Methodism. Participants will share resources and partake in discussions that will best equip clergy, laity, and congregations along their discernment journey during this time of transition and opportunity within the denomination. In addition, time will be spent preparing for and evaluating potential legislative outcomes of 2020 General Conference.
Living in a world enveloped with divisive politics and exclusionary tactics, Advent Gathering participants uphold God’s expansive and liberating love and an Open Table inviting all into Christ’s community. We believe in a church free from injustice, oppression, and institutional discrimination in which each and every human being is loved, accepted, and treated as God’s beloved and sacred child.
Advent Gathering participants affirm that all people—including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual + persons (LGBTQIA+), people of color (PoC), disabled persons, and women—are created in the Divine Image, are of inherent sacred worth, and shall be fully included in the life, ministry, practices, and leadership of the church.
Those joining to collaborate reject any institutional policy that would deny the full participation of persons in the church based on age, nationality, race, class, culture, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, and ability. Participants commit to upholding Methodism’s historic emphases on grace, personal holiness, and social justice, over and above loyalty to institutional identity.
TO REGISTER: www.theadventgathering.com
CONTACTS:
UMForward, Joy Butler: joylbutler@gmail.com & Rev. Jay Williams: jaywilliams@post.harvard.edu
MIND, Methodist in New Direction, Rev. Melissa Boyer: revmelissaboyer@gmail.com
St Andrew UMC, Sarah Davis: sdavis@gostandrew.com & Rev. Akilah Bixler: abilxer@gostandrew.com
BAPTISMAL COVENANT CAMPAIGN SUPPORTS UM-FORWARD WITH JUSTICE FUND
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rev. Alex da Silva Souto
415.706.5397 | umethodistsfor@gmail.com | UM-Forward.org
Rev. Laurel Capesius
umc.resistance@gmail.com
Investing in liberationist efforts toward a future with hope, United Methodists who produced a “Baptismal Covenant” T-shirt have donated the proceeds from the shirt’s sales to support UM-Forward, the collective of United Methodists who have collaborated to center the lives and ministry of People of Color (POC) + Queer (Q) + Trans (T) in naming a new direction for the future church.
“We are divesting from systems of oppression to invest in liberation,” says Rev. Alex da Silva Souto, who is among UM-Forward’s leadership. The United Methodist denomination has included language in its Book of Discipline that prohibits LGBTQIA+ persons from serving as clergy; in February, language that has harmed LGBTQIA+ United Methodists since 1972 was affirmed and punitive measures tightened at a specially-called General Conference.
“At this time between Special Conference Session earlier this year and next year’s General Conference, some POC+Q+T clergy are experiencing their livelihoods at stake” da Silva Souto says, “and those under complaint for their very identities need our tangible support.”
“Resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves” is the message on the resistance T-shirts, language taken directly from the baptismal vow United Methodists make. Donations from the first round of shirts is directed to a fund created in support of POC+Q+T clergy under complaint (it is hoped that future resources can also support allies under complaint for practicing marriage equality) and liberationist efforts by UM-Forward.
T-shirt creator Rev. Laurel Capesius says she reimagined a shirt that was created by the Iowa Annual Conference “Do No Harm” Reconciling Ministries chapter a few years ago, but she “did not imagine how far-reaching this message would be – this message of upholding our baptismal covenant to resist the evils, injustices, and oppression within the UMC,” she says.
“In this liminal space in the denomination, our financial support is provided knowing that the burden and spiritual violence runs deep,” according to UM-Forward leader Rev. Kai Greer. “Clergy trials can result in loss of credentials and livelihood – including income, housing, health insurance, and pension plans. Many clergy going through the process of complaint endure a drawn out process that can have an impact on their mental health and spiritual lives. As much as we envision and labor towards a church where POC + Q + T clergy are not put on trial for whom they have been created to be, this is not our current reality,” says Greer.
Committed to funding travel costs for required meetings when “under investigation,” necessary medical expenses (including counseling or spiritual direction), housing, and other needs, the UM-Forward and Baptismal Covenant Campaign Justice Fund “seeks to provide financial support in a holistic way that gives each POC + Q + T person the manna they need,” affirms Deaconess Irene DeMaris, another UM-Forward leader.
“This partnership is especially fitting,” says DeMaris, “because the baptismal vow is our ultimate commitment toward one another as Christians.” The UM-Forward grassroots campaign to dismantle systems of oppression (racism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, classism) has been guided by an approach of love and liberation. “This T-shirt speaks to our UMC reality, but it also extends well beyond this current parochial struggle. Resistance to injustice is at the heart of liberation theology,” she says.
UM-Forward’s submitted legislation for GC2020 to birth new Methodist expressions, the New Expressions Worldwide (N.E.W.) Plan, imagines a future church exempt from such violence, one where “God’s family is equally beloved, called, and celebrated in the fullness of our lives,” according to UM-Forward. The NEW Plan proponents see the value of separation into at least four possible expressions of Methodism as a healthy future for the denomination.
According to UM-Forward’s FAQ page for the NEW Plan: “While the details of many other plans were drafted behind closed doors by handpicked or a self-chosen few, we believe that the details of the future of Methodism should be worked out in a representative and transparent fashion. Our main goal is to establish a Transitional Council that collaboratively develops the Plan of Separation according to the values of self-determination, equitable distribution of general church assets, restorative justice, and reparations. Each new expression of Methodism will have the freedom to envision and structure themselves as they feel called. Therefore, we chose to focus on general principles as opposed to imposing and/or constraining the future of new expressions.”
UM-Forward, a collective of United Methodist liberationists fiercely committed to advancing POC+Q+T liberation through an intersectional, enfleshed, and anti-colonial framework, is rooted in its vision, mission, and values; sign on to UM-Forward’s “Loved and Liberated” Proclamation here.
Capesius says she is honored that “I, and all who invested in this outward symbol of resistance, can be part of this holy movement. I appreciate UM-Forward’s dedication to the mission of liberation, and it is this mission that I hope we will all continue to support in whatever ways possible.” If you are interested in helping UM-Forward’s efforts directly, you can donate online at the UM-Forward Facebook page or send a check to: NMUMC, 68 Danbury Road, CT 06776 (UM-Forward in the memo line). Shirts and other gear are still available for purchase at Bonfire.com.
Capesius says her “prayer is that those who believe in resisting evil, injustice, and oppression will have ears to hear and hearts to know that, even if they aren’t ready, POC+Q+T folks are. Liberation can no longer be delayed.”
