A New Annual Conference
/by Rev. Eric Folkerth
Annual Conference was special for both Kessler Park and the North Texas Conference. I hope you’ll celebrate the story with me today.
This Annual Conference was our first without the “disaffiliated” churches who left during the past several years. The “feel” in the room was decidedly different and most definitely more positive. It felt like there was a hopeful Spirit loose among God’s people.
No, we don’t all agree on everything.
No, as I have been insisting, it’s not that the Annual Conference is suddenly “ultra-liberal.”
But the absence of those former United Methodists appears to have shifted things in profound ways that are a joy to experience.
Kessler Park was well represented by those in attendance at the Annual Conference: Ken and Colleen Kelley, Leslie Russell, Kurt Maerschel and Liesl DeVilliers, Kay Ash, Jon Campoverde, and myself.
Let me start with my two proud moments for Kessler Park.
First, our own Jon Campoverde presented, and helped pass, a resolution titled “RESOLUTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH IMMIGRANT-SERVING CHARITIES.”
As background, you may recall that our legislature recently passed a law (SB4) that can make it a crime to assist immigrants who may or may not have legal status in our country. Already, our state government has targeted an El Paso charity.
Such laws strike fear in the hearts of all Latinos in Texas for fear of being “stopped and frisked” for “driving while Brown.” They also targeted *religious-based charities* who seek to love and serve all God’s children, regardless of legal status. Our faith compels us to love others, period, no exceptions….and so this law very clearly interferes with the religious liberty of those who seek to love and serve all God’s children.
And so Jon’s own faith compelled him to create a powerful resolution that calls for the overturning of SB4.
It further says the following:
“the North Texas Annual Conference calls upon the office of Texas Attorney General to cease and desist from the prosecution of immigrant-serving charities; and…that the churches of the North Texas Annual Conference may serve as places of sanctuary for peoples of all races and ethnicities—regardless of their immigration status—by bearing witness to God’s amazing love as we provide them with physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual safety and support.”
This resolution passed with 99% support.
It’s an encouraging sign of how when we United Methodists say “All Means All” this also includes immigrants.
Congratulations to Jon! I am very proud of this activism on his part, and I trust you are too.
The second time Kessler Park took center stage was at the very end of Annual Conference. Our own Rev. Kay Ash was asked by our Bishop to preside over communion.
Perhaps some of you are not aware that Deacons (Kay is a Deacon) in the United Methodist Church have never been granted full sacramental authority the way Elders (I am an Elder) are. The recent General Conference of the United Methodist Church granted full sacramental authority to Deacons. And while this legislation technically takes effect next January, Bishops were allowed to declare it in effect immediately.
So it was that Bishop Ruben Saenz asked Pastor Kay to preside over Holy Communion as the nearly 1,000 delegates to Annual Conference took the sacrament at the end of our time.
Being able to preside over the table is one of the most powerful authorities granted to any Christian pastor. As you know, Pastor Kay has always assisted in Holy Communion at Kessler Park. But it was deeply moving to see this now replicated throughout all United Methodist Churches. Our Bishop symbolically stepped aside and invited Kay behind the table to lead this holy moment.
Again, another symbol of how we are one in Christ Jesus.
Finally, several more LGBTQ candidates were approved for ministry. As I hope you know, North Texas Conference has been a leader throughout the South in pushing for the full inclusion of Queer clergy. Now that ethos is the law of the land for all United Methodists. And for many of us as Reconciling United Methodists, it was deeply moving to see the name of LGBTQ clergy read as appointments were made, or as they were ordained by our Bishop.
For me personally, there is a story I have carried for several decades now regarding a man named Ed Upton. Once upon a time Ed was the Minister to Children at my then-home church (Lovers Lane) and who was, “once upon a time,” in charge of my confirmation. He was later outed as a gay man and left full-time ministry.
During this annual conference an out gay man from that very same church (Randall Lucas) was ordained as an elder. The confluence of these stories touched me deeply and I tell the whole thing in a longer post HERE.
Again, the Spirt of unity and hope at our Annual Conference was palpable and Kessler Park UMC and our ministries were a part of this new manifestation of our “connection.”
It’s a new day and through God’s grace, a beautiful one.
