{"id":6662,"date":"2013-06-27T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T00:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=6662"},"modified":"2018-11-13T01:23:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T01:23:32","slug":"standing-committee-special-session-with-oep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2013\/standing-committee-special-session-with-oep\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing Committee Holds Special Session About on Earth Peace Statement of Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
On Earth Peace executive director Bill Scheurer (at center, third from left) speaks with Standing Committee members during a specially called session on the agency’s Statement of Inclusion.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The Standing Committee of district delegates began meeting yesterday, June 26, prior to the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Charlotte, N.C. The meetings of Standing Committee are led by moderator Bob Krouse, assisted by moderator-elect Nancy Sollenberger Heishman and Conference secretary James Beckwith.<\/p>\n

Today the delegates from the 23 districts in the Church of the Brethren held a specially called session with On Earth Peace executive director Bill Scheurer to continue conversation about the agency\u2019s Statement of Inclusion.<\/p>\n

The session concluded with a decision to send a second Standing Committee delegation to meet with the On Earth Peace board \u201cto explore a way to attempt to find a resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns date back to 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Standing Committee issued \u201cA Way Forward\u201d statement of concern that \u201ctrust in leadership has been broken\u201d by three events, one of them being the Statement of Inclusion made by the board of On Earth Peace, which is an Annual Conference agency.<\/p>\n

The On Earth Peace statement reads: \u201cWe are troubled by attitudes and actions in the church, which exclude persons on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or any other aspect of human identity. We believe God calls the church to welcome all persons into full participation in the life of the faith community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cA Way Forward\u201d Standing Committee urged On Earth Peace \u201cto re-examine its statement of inclusion regarding \u2018full participation\u2019 so that it will be consistent with Annual Conference decisions regarding Human Sexuality from a Christian Perspective [the 1983 Conference statement] and the polity regarding ordination.\u201d (Read \u201cA Way Forward\u201d in full at www.brethren.org\/news\/2012\/ac2012-onsite-news\/a-way-forward.html<\/a> .)<\/p>\n

Since then, in September last year, a three-member delegation from Standing Committee visited with the board of On Earth Peace to talk about the Statement of Inclusion.<\/p>\n

Today moderator Bob Krouse and Standing Committee member Kathy Mack, who were both part of the group, reported back. \u201cIt is clear that the OEP board heard the concern expressed by Standing Committee,\u201d said Krouse\u2019s report, in part. \u201cHowever, the members of the board were unanimous in expressing their reluctance to change the language of the statement of inclusion,\u201d he added, listing several of the reasons expressed by On Earth Peace board members.<\/p>\n

Mack added that the On Earth Peace board also acknowledged the hard feelings caused by their statement, and the need to bridge gaps and restore faith in their board.<\/p>\n

After a discussion in which several Standing Committee members raised continuing concerns, there was a motion \u201cin the spirit of Matthew 18″ to approach On Earth Peace leaders to find a time for more conversation. The meeting took place this evening.<\/p>\n

OEP executive called to special session<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Earth Peace executive director Bill Scheurer readily agreed to\u00a0the specially called session, where he reiterated the conviction that because the agency does not marry or ordain, its Statement of Inclusion does not transgress Annual Conference polity and falls within the scope of the entire 1983 paper.<\/p>\n

He said he did not view the On Earth Peace statement as an attempt at prophetic witness or an attempt to direct action by the denomination, but simply a way of \u201csharing an immense pain and sharing what we heard in response to that pain. We\u2019re not telling anyone what to do. We are just one voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing Committee members responded by characterizing the Statement of Inclusion as a statement of advocacy, with the implication that it advocates for a change in Annual Conference polity. Scheurer acknowledged that the phrase \u201cfull participation\u201d means full inclusion in the church of people who he said are not fully included at present because of Annual Conference decisions.<\/p>\n

Several changes of wording of the On Earth Peace statement were offered as suggestions to resolve the issue, which Scheurer said he would take back to the On Earth Peace board, but did not hold up any hope that the board would make changes.<\/p>\n

Scheurer openly talked of the possibility of On Earth Peace losing its status as a Conference agency if enough members of Standing Committee push the issue, and it is brought to the full Annual Conference. He said that On Earth Peace recognizes that it is \u201cwell within the scope\u201d of Annual Conference \u201cto remove our agency status…and we would live with that. And we would still live and minister within the Brethren community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is conceivable it would come to that. We\u2019d accept it in goodwill and with a sense of innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he added, \u201cI would consider it a tragic step backward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The session concluded with a solid majority of Standing Committee voting for the officers to appoint another delegation to meet with the On Earth Peace board again, \u201cto explore a way to attempt to find a resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Standing Committee member who made the motion, Bob Kettering, said he hoped the delegation would be a next step in the Matthew 18 process for resolving differences in the church, and that a second delegation would take the conversation \u201cto the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today the delegates from the 23 districts in the Church of the Brethren held a specially called session with On Earth Peace executive director Bill Scheurer to continue conversation about the agency\u2019s Statement of Inclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1258,103],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-6662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annual-conference","tag-on-earth-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6664,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions\/6664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6662"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}