My Walk with Jesus and his LGBTQ Followers

I’ll be offering a few reflections in advance of General Conference 2019. In some, like this one, I will share memories of my own journey alongside LGBTQ siblings in the Church. In others, I’ll work to answer questions that I am hearing in my role as your bishop. I hope each will offer you some insight into my thinking as we walk this road together over the coming months.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. – Ephesians 4:10-6

Let me take you back to 1971, when I was a 17-year-old high school senior at Bellevue High School (go Wolverines!). It was two years after the Stonewall Uprising which protested a police raid at a gay bar in Greenwich Village and marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement in America. But I didn’t know anything about that. It was a year before the General Conference of The United Methodist Church would adopt language stating that it considers the “practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching.” I would attend that conference as a young adult observer. But that’s a story for another time.

I was just an awkwardly tall, unusually curious, teenager. A member of Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF), I served on the district youth council. We planned retreats and fun events and studied the issues of the day. As I got to know youth from many backgrounds, life experiences, races and cultures, my horizons expanded quickly, and my faith was tested and stretched in a thousand ways. I never felt far from God during these years. I never felt I was being pulled away from faith. I always turned to my personal faith, and the community of faith to help me understand what I was experiencing, and to respond as a follower of Jesus.

One day I was on the phone – you know (or maybe you don’t), the one-and-only-heavy-black-dial-phone that sat in the living room, where anyone in the family could hear your side of the conversation and speculate about the other side. I was talking to a 16-year-old boy from a neighboring church on youth council business. We were both sexually inexperienced, but through youth ministry, we had become aware of the emerging struggle of lesbian, gay and transgender people to be understood and accepted. Somewhere in the conversation, Michael said, “I think I might be gay. And I don’t know if there is a place for me in the Church.”

Michael didn’t find his gay identity outside the Church. He didn’t come to the church as an invader or a reformer, trying to change the Church. He grew up in the Church. He was baptized in the Church. He was formed and shaped by the Church. And as he began to understand himself as a sexual person, before he had been in a sexual relationship, it was within the church that he searched to find his place in God’s good creation. I didn’t know how to respond, but I knew that in the Church we embrace one another, and we stay in relationship, and we walk together. So, I found Michael some gay Christians to help him find his way. And I knew from that moment on, that I would work in the Church to understand and to welcome, and to learn from brothers and sisters who did not fit the sexual norms I had grown up with, but who loved God, wanted to serve God, exhibited life-giving loving relationships in their lives and were members of the household of the Church.

I hear people claim that the movement for full inclusion of LGBTQ people is a secular movement, driven by outsiders who want to control the Church. I don’t know many secular people who care very much about what the Church thinks or teaches. But I know lots of LGBTQ Christians like Michael, whose sexual identity unfolded right alongside their Christian identity, as they grew into adulthood as members of the Church. Because I know this, when I go to a General Conference, and I see people with anguished faces, mouths taped shut with rainbow duct tape in protest of the Church’s persecution, I see Michael, and other dear sisters and brothers in the family of Christ, weeping and yearning to be heard, understood, embraced, treasured, included.

Michael taught me that the Church’s struggle to understand God’s will regarding human sexuality is not a struggle of US vs THEM. It is a struggle of US with US. It is a family struggle. Baptized children of God talking to other baptized children of God, with Jesus as mediator.

A bright star in the night sky

CrossOver reflection for Watch Night, Epiphany • December 30, 2018
We Make the Road by Walking, Chapter 18

By Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky

A baby was born who turned the world on its head. Lives are changed by Jesus, who opens our eyes to God’s transforming love and justice. We celebrate his birth extravagantly, because we understand that his life, death and resurrection are awesome in their creative power—maybe even awe-ful in their disruptive power. They show us that life is not in vain, that the most violent powers of sin and death cannot snuff out the hope that burns in our hearts, even at times like a small, flickering flame.

The story of Jesus turns us inside out as we sing, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” I pray that your very personal hopes and fears are met by Jesus in the New Year.

This week, United Methodists will carry our very public hopes and fears from 2018 into 2019 as the year turns. A special session of General Conference in February will seek a way forward out of decades of strife over whether and how the Church will welcome and include, or reject and exclude, people based upon their sexual identities and orientations.

What are the hopes that delegates will bring to the Conference?

Full Inclusion. The Simple Plan would remove of restrictive language in the Book of Discipline to enact full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life and ministry of the Church. Sexual identity and orientation would not be a standard for ordination. Same sex weddings would be allowed. [Learn More|Proposed Legislation]
Obedience to scripture and discipline. The Traditional Plan reaffirms the traditional teaching that marriage between one man and one woman is the norm. “Self-avowed practicing homosexuals” would be prohibited from ordination and same-sex weddings would be prohibited, with stricter enforcement of each. [Learn More|Proposed Legislation]
A new definition of Connection. The Connectional Conference Plan is the most complicated of the three proposed by the Commission on a Way Forward providing for three overlapping conferences which share some services but have more theological autonomy. Of the major plans, if provides the most space for theological differences but probably has the least support due to the number, and difficulty, of the changes proposed. [Learn More|Proposed Legislation]
Room for contextual adaptation. The One Church Plan offers less legislated uniformity and allows clergy, local churches and annual conferences to set standards and practices appropriate to their ministry context and exercise of conscience. [Learn More|Proposed Legislation] I have publicly joined other bishops and leaders of the Western Jurisdiction in support of the One Church Plan. [Press Release]

Depending on the outcome of the Special General Conference, our United Methodist Church could enter into a season of wrenching schism, with some churches leaving whatever the new form is that emerges, or we could experience a tectonic shift as differing standards are set in conferences and churches across the denomination.

There’s a lot at stake. Feelings run high. Opinions about what scripture says, and how determinative it should be, run deep. At times there is more heat than light in the conversations.

This week we will celebrate Epiphany, which means the manifestation of God to gentiles—people outside the Jewish community of faith. Matthew tells the story of Magi whose astrological faith traditions led them to follow a star to Jesus. It teaches us that people don’t have to think or believe alike to recognize God’s transforming presence in the world. It shines as a bright star in the night sky. It shines on the just and the unjust. It is universally accessible to all.

So, if God’s revelation is visible and accessible to people of many faith perspectives. And United Methodist Christians are led on their journeys with Jesus to very different understandings of human sexuality and standards for participation in the Church, then how are any of us to find our way through the complex and contradictory proposals under consideration?

Here’s what I’m going to do, and what I invite you to do with me.

As a way of searching our own hearts and inviting God to speak to us for what lies ahead. On or around New Year’s Eve, take a quiet time apart to experience John Wesley’s Watch Night Covenant Service. First, prayerfully read through the service (Click here to review and download) and write your reflections and personal commitments and prayers. Then, alone or with others, pray through the service. This is a time-honored new year’s practice of Methodists—a time of reflection, humility, re-dedication. Brian McLaren, author of We Make the Road by Walking, describes it as one of the treasures of the Church.
If you aren’t already participating in the year-long study of We Make the Road by Walking, January 1 is a great time to jump in. Go to greaternw.org/crossover/ to learn how. Especially subscribe to the “CrossOver to Life” blog by following the link on that page.
From now through February, pray for the Special General Conference. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be present to bless and guide our Church for a future of faithfulness and fruitfulness.
Follow the events of the General Conference at http://greaternw.org/gc2019/. As the time grows closer, up to date coverage will be posted here.

What we know for certain is that on February 27, we will have neighbors to love and to welcome, and we must be prepared to carry our ministries forward no matter what.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.

Elaine JW Stanovsky serves as the resident bishop of the Greater Northwest Area including the Alaska, Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest Conferences of The United Methodist Church.

Call to prayer, giving, for those impacted by major earthquake in Alaska

Good people of the Greater Northwest,

…the heavens and the earth shake.
But the LORD is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people.
Joel 3: 16

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Alaska just north of Anchorage Friday morning. We know what a terrifying and destructive force is unleashed when the earth groans and stretches.

I’ve been in touch with Alaska Conference Superintendent Rev. Carlo Rapanut who shares these details:

Initial reports say there is no major damage to any of our churches or parsonages, but power is still down in many locations and there is lot of damage to roads and bridges. We thank God that tsunami warnings in Seward and Homer have been lifted.

Please hold us all in your prayers. We will keep you posted as updates and needs arise.

When disaster strikes, United Methodists respond. While it is too early to know the work that will be needed, be assured that we will be there. Our United Methodist churches in Girdwood, Homer and Wasilla have opened their sanctuaries for who might need to evacuate. St. John is standing by as needed. So, let us be inspired by their good example! Until then, I join Superintendent Carlo in asking you to:

PRAY for the people affected by this earthquake, and for those responding to its impact
And GIVE this Sunday or another Sunday in December through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to the U.S. Disaster Response fund (#901670). 100% of your gift will be used for relief and recovery work with no administrative overhead. You can give online at www.umcor.org/donate.

Our conference emergency response team coordinators (listed below) have already been in contact with each other as early assessments come in. We’ll continue to benefit from their dedication and expertise as plans form to offer the love of Christ to those in need in the coming days and months. As needs surface, and plans develop, we’ll share them with you.

Let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love.
– 1 John 3:18b (The Message)

Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky | Greater Northwest Area

Contacts:

Dan Wilcox, Disaster Response Coordinator, Alaska Conference, danielpwilcox@gmail.com
Jim Truitt, Disaster Response Coordinator, PNW Conference, umvimdrc@comcast.net
Dan Moseler, Disaster Preparedness and Response Coordinator, OR-ID Conference, djmoseler@gmail.com

Tight Fists or Open Hands?

CrossOver reflection for Week Zero • Beginning November 25, 2018

by Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky

The Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time.
Reception of Members, The Methodist Hymnal, 1935

Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing…
Isaiah 43: 18-19

Well, which is it? Is God enduring, unchanging, immovable, like a mountain? Or is God an innovator, creating new, unimaginable things, twisting and turning and even changing course like a river?

Does God call us to hold fast, dig in, preserve what we have inherited from the past? Or does God call us to engage the changes that surprise us, peer into an uncertain future, and then move beyond what we thought we knew, stretching, evolving, adapting?

Is God bound by these conflicting opinions? Or, might both be true in their own way?

What if God holds some eternal, immutable values that are true in every time and place, AND what if God expects us to recognize that these values may look very differently as they come to life in the changing circumstances we encounter in the real lives of people? What if, throughout our lives, God continues to call us to explore what is not familiar – what is strange or foreign, and to bring the eternal values of God’s love and justice, to situations that are new and challenging?

Clint and I met Robert when I was a seminary student. He was a hard-living, damaged soul in middle age. He drifted in and out of the reality I knew. Heard voices I couldn’t hear. Muttered under his breath to people I couldn’t see. Old West Church had become a safe place for him. On a sunny afternoon, you might find Robert sitting in the parlor emptying the tobacco into a pie pan from butts foraged in gutters and rolling it into fresh cigarette papers. Or, he might be setting the loose tobacco on fire right in the pan. Cigarettes were life to him. He lived from smoke to smoke. Bummed them off people on the street. When it came time to say good-bye after three years, I wanted Robert to understand that I really knew him and cared for him. So, on my last day at Old West, I walked to the corner store and did something I had never done before or since. I bought a carton of Kool menthol cigarettes – Robert’s favorites. Love came wrapped as a carton of cigarettes that one day in the spring of 1981.

Love is constant, like a mountain. Our neighbors change from time to time, necessitating that we keep fluid, like a river.

Our challenge is to know what is constant, and what is changing; to hold tight to God’s eternal values, and also to open our hands to put them to work in every situation we encounter in the world, and in the lives of the people around us. If we greet every change with a fist grasping the past, we’ll never even notice, let alone embrace, the new things God is doing.

Brian McLaren says, “You are ‘in the making.’ You have the capacity to learn, mature, think, change, and grow. You also have the freedom to stagnate, regress, constrict, and lose your way. Which road will you take?”

As we are Crossing Over to Life, I’ll meet you on the road, where “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

ETERNALLY FRESH!

Elaine JW Stanovsky serves as the resident bishop of the Greater Northwest Area including the Alaska, Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest Conferences of The United Methodist Church.

Responding to Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut

People who love God and neighbor in the Greater Northwest,

If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and the healing.

I Corinthians 12: 26, The Message.

Tragic death. Terror. Devastating loss. Heroic rescue. Miraculous generosity. Recovery.

When we watch the news coverage of Hurricane Florence on the Atlantic coast of the United States and Typhoon Mangkhut ravaging the Philippines and Northern Mariana Islands, we feel the hurt, and we see what it takes for healing to begin. In every natural disaster lives unravel in ways that take months or years to put back together.

We have neighbors in North Carolina and in the Philippines, who need our love to put their lives back together. And we have United Methodist partners who can carry our love to heal what was broken in these storms.

On Sunday, September 23 or 30, please give what you can to put your love to work by giving to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). You can give through your local church by marking a donation to the U.S. Disaster Response fund (#901670) or the International Disaster Response Fund (#982450). 100% of your gift will be used for response work relief with no administrative overhead.

Or you can give online at www.umcor.org/donate. You can include your church name when you give so it will be recognized.

And as you give, pray for the people whose lives are disrupted and for those who are responding. Also say thanks for the United Methodist connections that give us confidence that our gifts are used wisely, for the purpose given, to benefit all God’s people.

Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky

Greater Northwest Area

CrossOver! A Year-Long Quest

This is your HEADS UP!

In a couple of weeks I’ll invite United Methodists and friends in the Greater Northwest Area to join a year-long devotional study beginning with Advent 2018. I hope many of you will form small groups to engage in this study together, but individuals can do it on their own. I hope that together we can renew our faith for the challenges we face in our lives, the Church, the nation and the world.

In We Make the Road by Walking, Brian McLaren introduces us afresh to the principles of Christian faith and bible teachings. Each week, in 3-4 pages, he invites us to revisit biblical principles and our lives of faith. We’ll create a blog to go alongside the study, with reflections and prayers by leaders of our Conferences, and a place for comments and conversation.

Some of you may already have your plans for Advent and beyond. If you can, I hope this Christian practice will fit into your other plans — especially since it will carry through this entire CrossOver Year. The CrossOver Year begins December 2, 2018 and ends November 24, 2019, with the special General Conference in February. I hope this notice is coming early enough that you can start encouraging participation now.

Watch for more information in the roll-out of the CrossOver Year — coming soon!

Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky | Greater NW Area

SEE, ASK, WATCH, LEARN, PRAY, and WITNESS

Look, I’m sending you as sheep among wolves.
Therefore, be wise as snakes and innocent as doves.
– Matthew 10:16

It’s hard to be a human these days.

The images. The stories of children being taken from their parents. They have been burned into our collective consciousness. I want to look away, but I can’t. Love doesn’t let me.

I want to do something, but I feel powerless. Does my voice matter? Has the church’s witness eroded so much that it makes very little difference? What are we left with? Only love.

The suffering of little children and their parents tugs on my heart and leads me to search for ways to put my love to work. Public policy isn’t all made in Washington D.C. or Salem, Olympia, Boise or Juneau. It is also made when the private love of many spills over into the collective compassion and outrage of a nation and its people. Public safety and national security are not only the responsibility of law enforcement and Homeland Security. They are also our responsibility when systems of authority and power fail. Infants taken from their parents is a matter of public safety.

Love has no magic to shake away depraved policy or fix cruel laws. But it is so very powerful. Love is our lifeline to humanity.

As your Bishop, I implore you to not look away. Love needs our help.

SEE the pain of those at the border, in tents in the desert, behind chain link, and huddled under space blankets. But don’t stop there. If you SEE something SAY something – on Facebook, to a friend or family member. Share what you see and how it looks to you. Ask yourself, WHAT CAN I DO TODAY? Don’t get trapped in believing it has to be something big or that your action needs a certain number of Likes or Re-Tweets to have meaning. Speak to neighbors. Talk about what you see. The collective actions of individuals have drawn attention to this crisis and changed public policy already.

Remember that God is with you. Act and speak (and text and Tweet) with confidence, knowing that love is never the wrong answer. Life is complicated and so are the many laws that define how we relate to each other. Be clear about what you know, but also be humble about what you don’t.

When I first heard that undocumented immigrants are held at a prison in my neighborhood, I was outraged – 174 women, some who have been separated from their children. I wanted to have my own private protest: make a sign, and go walk up and down the sidewalk. I wanted to write them all letters, saying I’m here, I know you are in there, I’m your neighbor and I care.

Earlier this week I attended a community meeting in my neighborhood, where 206 undocumented immigrants are housed in a Federal “Detention” Center 2 ½ miles from my home and from my office. Approximately 300 people turned out. We heard from high school students who live in terror of their parents being deporting leaving them to care for younger siblings. Of one mom arrested by ICE when she responded to a request for an interview, leaving her 3 children without a parent. We listened with love and pledged our love and support to stop family separations.

Last night on my way home from the grocery store, I drove to the SeaTac Detention Center. As I came near, I looked at the many levels of narrow windows rising into the blue sky and prayed for the people, whose faces I could not see through those windows. Then I turned into the parking lot, passing signs warning that anyone entering the property could be subject to search. I followed the signs for visitor parking, and drove past three large white buses, with U.S. Government license plates. Later on TV I saw similar buses transporting separated children to detention facilities in Texas.

Why did I go there? What difference did it make? I went to SEE the place where my neighbors are living. To IMAGINE their lives. To WONDER if there are separated children in that facility as well as adults. To ASK God what it means to love with my whole heart, soul, strength and mind?

And now I’m asking you to engage.

LOOK at the children. PRAY for all who flee violence in their homeland, desiring a better life. Look at the facilities where they are being held. If you are flying, NOTICE if there are unaccompanied minors traveling with escorts. LOCATE the nearest detention facility. Notice if buses are coming and going. FIND OUT who is organizing concerned people for public witness and policy advocacy. READ the attached resource from our Board of Church and Society. And WATCH for how to put love into action.

I don’t know what my next step is. I’ll talk with others who are already involved.

Finally, pace yourselves. While yesterday’s executive order may reverse the most egregious policies, it does not resolve the separations, or the crisis on the border, or the terror people across America live in.

We will need the love that never ends. We need to be committed for the long haul.

May we be the real, living presence of Christ in the world as we SEE, PRAY, READ, SPEAK and ACT.

Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky | Greater NW Area

Our witness cannot stop now

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, June 20, 2018

In response to President Trump’s executive order, the general secretary calls on United Methodists for further action on immigration.

Because of persistent public pressure, President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday reversing the administration’s practice of forcibly separating children from their parents. I thank God for the faithful witness of thousands of United Methodists reflecting Christ’s love and compassion into this broken world.

This action does not, however, solve the problem.

While this executive order ends the practice of family separation, it continues what the administration calls a “zero tolerance” policy. This now means that families seeking refuge in the United States can be held together, in detention, indefinitely.

Our United Methodist Social Principles and Resolution #3281 are clear: we support policies that compassionately welcome immigrants and respect their human rights.

Policies that jail families — whether separately or together — fail to reflect our shared values of compassion, dignity, justice and love. Our options are not limited to jailing families together or jailing parents and children separately.

Alternatives to family detention, such as the Family Case Management Program, have been shown to be compassionate and effective. The administration terminated this program last year and instituted “zero tolerance” policies in its place this year.

We must continue the outpouring of compassion and action that ended the administration’s immoral and unjust practice of family separation. We must continue to work for a world in which:

Children who are detained are compassionately cared for.
Families who are separated are reunited.
Families will not be held indefinitely.
Workers should no longer fear workplace raids disrupting family and community.
Survivors of domestic abuse and gang violence have asylum protections reinstated.
DACA recipients are cared for through a legislative solution that leads to a pathway to citizenship.

The current state of our immigration policies is anything but compassionate and effective.

The U.S. House of Representatives is voting today on immigration legislation. Call your member at 202.224.3121 and make sure your voice is heard. You can share that The United Methodist Church calls for “the United States government to immediately cease all arrests, detainment, and deportations of undocumented immigrants, including children, solely based on their immigration status until a fair and comprehensive immigration reform is passed.“

Our Church calls us to welcome the migrant, and we must do that in our churches, communities and governmental systems.

Our witness cannot stop now.

Dissecting The Anatomy of Peace

Tomorrow, my husband Clint and I fly to Alaska for the Alaska Annual Conference in Seward, the first of three in the Greater Northwest in the next few weeks. I invited members at all three Conferences to read The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict. The book was recommended by the Commission on A Way Forward and the Council of Bishops, as a tool to help people know each other at a deeper level, so that they might discover a way to live together peacefully, despite deep difference. As a church, we are seeking a unity that is deeper than our differences.

Last summer, during worship at a training event when the leader asked us to “turn to your neighbor” and share, I met United Methodist pastor, coach and trainer, Brian Brown. Brian said he wished that every clergy person was introduced to The Anatomy of Peaceat the beginning of their ministry. I learned that he was a passionate evangelist, and certified teacher of The Anatomy of Peace. I bought the book that day, read it immediately, and later invited Rev. Dr. Brian Brown to teach and lead us into the practices of The Anatomy of Peacefor our annual conference sessions in Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest. Rev. Donna Pritchard will be leading a condensed workshop in Alaska.

Last week a controversy erupted over the book, when Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner blogged a provocative critique of The Anatomy of Peace, unmasking issues about its sources that are hidden in shadows. Why is the author listed as the “Arbinger Institute?” Why aren’t they transparent about the authors? Why is it written as if the people and situations are real, when they are fictional? Are a group of mostly white men competent to give advice about how to resolve conflict among people of diverse ethnicities and cultures, some of whom are oppressed by systems of injustice?

I asked similar questions in the early 2000s when I first read Leadership and Self Deception, also authored by the Arbinger Institute. I liked the book, but I felt queasy, so I did a little online fishing and discovered that the Arbinger Institute was founded by Terry Warner, a scholar and member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. I used the insights of the book personally, but was reluctant to share it with others, not so much because of its source as the lack of transparency. If there’s nothing to hide – no deception – why not reveal? I’m not going to presume to know the answer, and I’m not going to make excuses for the people who made these decisions.

In her blog, Hannah seems to imply that there are original sins of deception and racism that disqualify the book for our use. So, do we reject The Anatomy of Peace? Or, with awareness of its limitations and flaws, is it still a useful tool? Can we use it to invite newer, deeper understandings between people? Does it offer a way for conflicted United Methodists to venture beneath the surface of our set positions, seek a deeper understanding of one another, and explore how we might live together as we continue to journey together toward the fullness of God’s mission?

I find the book’s approach useful. Written in a narrative style, The Anatomy of Peace is an easy read and helps me see how, acting from a “heart at war,” I sometimes shut down relationships, or put others in a limiting “box” of my own creation. Instead, it helps me see that I can learn to act with a “heart at peace” to go deeper with a spouse, an undocumented immigrant, a transgender co-worker, or a United Methodist who likes a different style of music, to listen and understand. This kind of curious, humble, respectful conversation is at the core of Christ’s teaching that we should love neighbor as self. And I trust Brian Brown and a host of others who have practiced what The Anatomy of Peace offers and found it to be helpful for individuals who are stuck in conflicted relationships. It’s one way of striving to better love God, and neighbor as self.

Frankly, I can’t wait to see United Methodists leaning into a small circle of colleagues, listening, clarifying, and seeking new understanding. We don’t have to love the way the tool was produced, or apply it where it might do harm. But, where two or three are gathered . . . peace can break out.

A letter from Bishop Stanovsky as the Council of Bishops offers its recommendation to The UMC

How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!

For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
life forevermore.

-Psalm 133:1, 3b

Today, the Council of Bishops strongly recommend that United Methodists stay together as ONE CHURCH.

Together, the council agreed to recommend that the 2019 General Conference make room for individuals, local churches and annual conferences to exercise conscience as they choose whether or not to ordain gay and lesbian clergy, or to perform weddings for couples of the same gender, by removing prohibitive language from the Book of Discipline, and letting Annual Conferences set standards for ordination, and same gender weddings.

This recommendation emerged out of honest anguish and disagreement, as well as patient listening and fervent prayer, as we met in closed session. We make this recommendation despite deep and painful differences in our understanding of God’s will for LGBTQ people and a recognition that the “contextual” teachings and practices of the church in one area not only makes ministry more difficult in other areas, but can cause real harm to people.

While forces around the world are sowing distrust and driving wedges to divide people against one another, we hope The United Methodist Church can be a witness to the whole world that people can live together in peace and love each other, despite profound disagreements, even as we continue to discern God’s will and way for the whole human family.

Living in hope,

Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky | Greater NW Area

Click here to read the Council of Bishops Press Release.

An Open Letter to Rev. Tom Lambrecht, member of the Commission on a Way Forward

An Open Letter

To: Rev. Tom Lambrecht, member of the Commission on a Way Forward
From: Elaine Stanovsky, bishop of the Greater Northwest Area of The United Methodist Church

My heart is not at war. I am not using clergy and staff appointments to undermine the unity of the Church or the work of the Commission on a Way Forward. My heart was at peace when I appointed Rev. Kathleen Weber to my cabinet. It was at peace when I approved hiring Rev. Brett Webb-Mitchell by the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference. These are two deeply faithful, highly qualified, effective leaders, well suited for the ministry contexts they are called to serve. They were not chosen for their sexual orientation. I did not disqualify them because they are honest about their relationships.

I’ll admit that I felt defensive when I read your article, “Northwest United Methodist Defiance.”[i] “Poke in the eye,” “overt defiance,” “callous disregard,” “double-barreled assault,” “escalation,” “in your face repudiation.” Why do you think you know my heart? We never had a conversation.

So, I returned to the The Anatomy of Peace,[ii] recommended by the Commission on a Way Forward and the Council of Bishops as a way to disarming ourselves for the difficult conversations the Church needs to have. I re-read the section called, “From War to Peace,” and practiced the steps for “getting out of the box” of self-justification and blaming:

Look for the signs of self-justification and blaming. This was easy for me. You took two of my actions out of context, weaponized them with aggressive rhetoric, and lobbed them into the last meeting of the Commission. You misrepresented my motives. You never asked me what I believe, why I believe what I believe or why I lead the way I lead. And you didn’t even have the courtesy to send me your article. I first saw it when a friend forwarded it to me as an email distributed on March 16, 2018, three days before it was available publicly as a blog on the Good News Magazine You aren’t practicing the practices that the Commission recommends.
Find an out–of-the box place. There was a time when a colleague lashed out at me in a meeting, accusing me of racism. I broke into tears and retreated from the meeting and the accusation. A friend sought me out, listened to my pain and invited me to be the whole and well person he knew that I could be. My heart returned to peace and I was able to approach the person I had offended, and begin a long slow journey to healing.
Ponder the situation anew. What are this person’s challenges, trials, burdens and pains? How am I adding to them? Wow! I only know you as a guy who attacks from a safe distance rather than picking up the phone. Can I cultivate curiosity about what pain you bear? How are your opinions and actions shaped by your love of Jesus?
Act upon what I have discovered; do what I think I should do. I think I should not strike back. I should respond with curiosity. Yet, I think I should not remain silent. I invite you to play fair. I invite you to disarm. Despite deep misgivings, I will give you the benefit of my doubt – that you might want our United Methodist Church to be strong into the future and faithful to God’s leading as much as I do. I hope and pray this is true. If it is true, and we are willing, God can teach each of us to love the other as we love ourselves. I invite you to talk with me before you write about me. I invite you to send me a copy of anything you write about me before you send it to your email distribution list or post it on the internet. I will commit to abiding by the same standard in the future.

You are meeting with the Commission on a Way Forward as I write. I pray for you, Tom, and for the work of the Commission. I pray for the future of our church, that we will find a way to continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ, even as we continue to seek to understand the fullness of God’s intention for humankind. I hope that, as a member of the Commission, you are leading us in the way the Commission said it would at the beginning. Do you remember?

The Commission will design a way for being church that maximizes the presence of a United Methodist witness in as many places in the world as possible, that allows for as much contextual differentiation as possible, and that balances an approach to different theological understandings of human sexuality with a desire for as much unity as possible. – Commission on a Way Forward: About Us

We need a Church that aspires to this vision: one church, a variety of expressions; one body, many parts. In the Northwest we’re cultivating this spirit, in support of the Commission’s work, as we send 50 trained leaders across the area to facilitate Table Talks about the Way Forward between now and June, and dedicate 4 ½ hours during our Annual Conference sessions to The Anatomy of Peace and small group conversations. God is at work when two or three gather. I’m expecting miracles.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Sincerely,

Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky

[i] “Northwest United Methodist Defiance,” by Thomas Lambrecht, circulated by email from ifo@goodnewsmag.org on Friday, March 16, 2018, and posted as personal blog on Monday, March 19, http://tomlambrecht.goodnewsmag.org/northwest-united-methodist-defiance/.

[ii] The Anatomy of Peace, resolving the heart of conflict, The Arbinger Institute, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006.

Author: Elaine Stanovsky

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CrossOver reflection for Watch Night, Epiphany • December 30, 2018
We Make the Road by Walking, Chapter 18