Friday, July 11
Business

[Highlights | Photo]

The Standing Committee of district delegates met in the Richmond Marriott Hotel. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

Standing Committee held a consultation with the executives of the Annual Conference agencies and the district executives. Here On Earth Peace executive director Bob Gross (third from right) talks with a small group. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

Eddie Edmonds, board chair of the Association of Brethren Caregivers, was one of the presenters of the Resolution Urging Forbearance. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

The Program and Arrangements Committee brought a request for counsel to the Standing Committee. At the microphone is Kristi Kellerman, followed by Scott Duffey. At right on the podium is moderator Jim Beckwith, who presided over Standing Committee. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

The 300th Anniversary Committee sang a hymn to begin their report. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

Moderator Jim Beckwith (left) and moderator-elect David Shumate (right) prayed during a recognition for the work of the 300th Anniversary Committee. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

STANDING COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS BUSINESS ITEMS TO CONFERENCE
The annual Standing Committee meeting of district delegates met for three days in Richmond, Va., before Annual Conference began. One of the major functions of the committee is to make recommendations on the new business items coming to the Conference.

Recommendations on New Business
Standing Committee made the following recommendations on new business items:

-- Recommended adoption of the “Update to Ministerial Ethics.”

-- Recommended adoption of the “Resolution on Ministers’ Medical Insurance Crisis.”

-- Recommended adoption of the “Resolution on Slavery in the 21st Century,” with the addition of the statement, “and change our personal lifestyle habits that support it (modern-day slavery).”

-- Recommended adoption of the concerns of the “Query: Conference Witness to Host City,” and that they be referred to the Annual Conference Program and Arrangements Committee to coordinate with the host district in order to provide an opportunity for meaningful witness to the host city of Annual Conference each year.

-- Recommended adoption of the “Resolution Urging Forbearance.” The resolution was initiated by the Association of Brethren Caregivers (ABC), and brought jointly with the General Board and On Earth Peace. It was presented to Standing Committee by Kathy Reid, executive director of ABC, and ABC board chair Eddie Edmonds.

Discussion focused on concerns some district delegates reported from district meetings. South Central Indiana District delegate Jeff Castetter reported fears that the resolution will circumvent a decision made last year that a district can hold a particular congregation “in check.” “There are certain things that some of us feel strongly about, that we will not budge on,” he said. “The biblical truths need to be in there...to keep us in check.”

Garry Clem, delegate from West Marva District, said members of his district are concerned that the resolution not be misunderstood or misused, and also called for care not to depart from biblical truths. “Remember that we do have the gospel of Jesus Christ to share and that we speak the truth of Christ in love,” he said.

The resolution is intended to speak to times when people speak the truth in hostility, not in love, Reid responded. “The deep love we have for each other should supersede the differences that we have,” she told Standing Committee. “In the midst of dialogue we can somehow hold each other together in the body of Christ.”

“This paper is not intended to speak to specific issues,” said Edmonds. “It is rather a resolution that talks about our behavior and how we work through these issues with our brothers and sisters.”

Program and Arrangements Request for Counsel
(An update to this item of business will be posted on the Saturday Business Page, for July 12. The update reports a revision to the Standing Committee decision on this item.)

A request for counsel from the Program and Arrangements Committee prompted a discussion of whether Standing Committee should recommend the denomination revisit the 1983 Annual Conference statement “Human Sexuality from a Christian Perspective.”

Standing Committee voted to accept the Program and Arrangements concerns and to pass them on as a query to the 2009 Annual Conference, to be treated as a special response query. Special response queries are those deemed to be particularly controversial. The Standing Committee entered into a closed session this evening to discuss wording of the query to come in 2009.

The Annual Conference exhibit hall has become a “battleground” between those who are for and against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) community, said Program and Arrangements Committee elected members who requested counsel, in a prepared statement. The elected members are Kristi Kellerman, Scott Duffey, and Sarah Steele.

The Program and Arrangements Committee holds logistic responsibility for Annual Conference, including processing requests for exhibit space. For two decades, the group has denied annual requests for exhibit space from the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Concerns.

Now the Program and Arrangements Committee statement said the group feels pushed beyond the limits of its responsibility, and the issue has become bigger than a debate over exhibits. “The issue is about relationships within the body of Christ. We believe a resolution of these issues is beyond the responsibility of this committee. We believe this issue belongs to the whole church,” the group said.

Specifically, the group asked whether it is possible for Annual Conference to review the 1983 paper and engage the denomination in study and dialogue to clarify the church’s response to homosexual persons. The group asked for assistance with “dissonance” in the 1983 document, reporting that every year the discussion of exhibit space highlights inconsistencies between the 1983 paper and the exhibit hall guidelines, and inconsistencies within the 1983 paper itself.

“That is what is making our decisionmaking so difficult,” Kellerman said. “We are a planning committee, not a polity committee.” She added that the committee would like to see discussion of the issue on the floor of Annual Conference. “That’s the best way...this conversation needs to happen. It belongs on the floor with the body.”

District Follow-up on Intercultural Ministries and Diminishing Membership Concerns
Standing Committee created a report about district responses to two of the business items from the 2007 Conference, emphasizing work over the last year on intercultural ministries and the concern for diminishing membership and faithfulness to the Great Commission. On its first afternoon of meetings, the committee spent two hours sharing reports about what districts are doing in response to these two recent Conference decisions. The report will be shared with the Annual Conference delegate body.

Other Business
In other business, Standing Committee approved a revision of a paper on processing controversial issues, which will come as a new item of business to the 2009 Annual Conference; held a consultation with the executives of the Annual Conference agencies and the district executives; recognized the 300th Anniversary Committee for its work; reviewed the unfinished business items returning to the Conference this year; elected the nominating committee and appeals committee; and held an envisioning session with reports from districts.

International Mission
A report on the international mission work of the denomination was brought by General Board staff R. Jan Thompson, interim executive director of Global Mission Partnerships, and general secretary Stan Noffsinger. The report emphasized progress in mission in Brazil and Haiti, developing relationships with partner organizations in Sudan in preparation for placing mission workers there, and concern about the shrinking value of the dollar overseas.

Standing Committee questions, however, focused on issues around past appointments and resignations of staff of the Sudan Initiative, and why the program has been going through a reevaluation. Responding to the questions, Noffsinger said that the General Board had made mistakes in moving too fast on the Sudan Initiative.

“The events that have transpired in Sudan have really tugged at all our hearts,” he said. “In my zeal to want to be in Sudan, I encouraged our staff to move quickly. There were mistakes made along the way. Are we going to make the same mistakes (in the future)? No we are not,” he said. “We are going to be very very cautious.”

Noffsinger explained that the reevaluation of the Sudan program has been carried out in order to clarify the program’s purpose and to clarify the work of mission staff. A reevaluation also has been necessary in the new world environment, he added. “We are struggling with how to do mission work in the 21st century. As Americans and as Christians the door is just not open to us in many places.” He also reassured the group that funds already raised for the Sudan Initiative lead team are being held in a designated account to support the mission workers in Sudan, when they are named.

Asked whether the philosophy of the Sudan Initiative has changed from an evangelistic approach, Thompson responded, “We’re doing both-and. We’re being invited to walk with and share our faith, in a holistic approach.”

The General Board is in conversation with Reconcile, a Sudanese organization which has had previous connections with the Church of the Brethren, to be an initial partner in the mission, it was reported. “The invitation from Reconcile is to come be peacemakers with us,” Noffsinger said. “It’s a legitimatization of our being in the country, because we have a trusted relationship.”