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.

We Are Yet Alive

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

For as long as Methodists have gathered together to sing, we’ve sung one of Charles Wesley’s great hymns, “And Are We Yet Alive?”

I am thinking about it because we sang it yesterday morning at the Clergy Session of the North Texas Conference.

The first verse goes like this:

“And are we yet alive,
and see each other's face?
Glory and thanks to Jesus give
for his almighty grace!”

When I was a young pastor, I sort of thought the title a bit of a joke. Perhaps something akin to a scene from Monty Python.

“We’re not dead yet!!!”

But especially these last several years —as we have collectively lived through first a global pandemic, and now a sometimes painful church schism— I find myself thinking about it a little differently.

Almost as if our yearly gathering to sing this ancient hymn has a deeper meaning.

Like we’re getting together to say, “Hey! We made it! You made it! I made it! We’re back together, just as we always were….”

That is something of the the hope that we’re meant to have on Sundays in church, too, of course. We’re meant to breathe a little easier once we see familiar faces in our KPUMC sanctuary. We’re meant to be grateful that God has given us another chance at worship.

The third verse strikes me in a new way too….

“What troubles have we seen,
what mighty conflicts past,
fightings without, and fears within,
since we assembled last!”

What hit me today was, we could easily change-round the third line, and it would really fit our situation:

“fighting within and fears without…”

The song assumes a blissful harmony inside the Church. But that hasn’t been the case over the last few years. There’s been quite a bit of strife. Far too much denominational “fighting within…”

But our world is full of “fears without,” too. That also fits our time.

Here is my prayer:
That whomever you are, you find some rest and recovery this summer. The fall —with its looming election— portends to be full of “fears without.”

But perhaps this fall will also be a truly hopeful time for KPUMC. I believe we’re poised to welcome many new neighbors who will be visiting us soon, and my intention is for us to be ready for them.

More on this in coming weeks.

Thank God our denominational “fighting within” is over.

Let’s celebrate the fact that, through God’s grace, we are yet alive.

Eric

Reflections On Jonathan and His Work

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

This Sunday we say our formal “goodbyes” to Jonathan Palant as Minister of Music at Kessler Park. As we’ve noted previously, Jonathan is currently our longest tenured staff person, and it truly is the end of an era.

I put “goodbye” in quotes because I think many of us understand we’ll still continue to be connected to Jonathan and his incredible musical gifts even after he’s formally left us. Some of us will see him at Credo concerts and rehearsals, others at Dallas Street Choir.

But it is right for us to pause at the end of this era and mark the time.

In the weeks before I got to Kessler Park as pastor, a few of the folks I already knew from non-Methodist Dallas connections called me up. One of those was David Dunnigan who raved about Jonathan and gleefully told the story of Jonathan’s hiring to come on our staff. He was not the only member to express their gratitude and pride at having Jonathan on our staff. KPUMC folks have been proud to have Dr. Palant on our staff team for his entire tenure.

It was an edgy hire, to be sure. Openly gay and “openly Jewish” would likely have been excluding factors in many other churches, but Kessler Park loved these parts of Jonathan, just as they could also appreciate his incredible gifts and talents as a music minister.

My own sense of Jonathan is that he is better at coaxing great performances out of singers than just about any other choral conductor I have ever seen. That is his great gift. He has an ear for just what a choir needs to hear and the sensitivity to communicate what needs saying, in just the way it can really be heard.

We have truly been blessed by his week-to-week conducting of our sanctuary choir, and by the skillful way he wrangled guest musicians on “high holy days.”

The most common response I have heard to Jonathan’s leaving has been something like, “He’s such a busy guy. I don’t know how he lasted this long…”

And it’s true. Until after Sunday, Jonathan has been working four jobs every week. That’s a lot of driving, scheduling and planning for a father of two wonderful kids. So I know you’ll celebrate the fact that he *should* have a bit more time for the family.

There is a big Sunday planned with lots of music and some folks making a special effort to join us as well. We’ll have a potluck in Fellowship Hall afterwards to celebrate. So please do be sure to join us for this special day.

There is one final blessing I have received that I know most of you have not, and it has to do with where I (and the choir) are usually situated while Jonathan Palant is conducting.

The final blessing I get from Jonathan is: watching his face as he works.

Just check out the picture here and see this moment of joy.
This is how I shall remember him.

No, not every moment was this way.

But enough of them were. Because Jonathan enjoys the work…enjoys the music…and loves the people. And it shows in everything he does.

I have been blessed by the enjoyment of Jonathan’s enjoyment of his ministry with us.

Jonathan, from our shared history comes this blessing most often used in your tradition:

“May you be blessed in your coming in and your going out.”

God’s speed, friend.

Eric Folkerth