RECONCILING UNITED METHODIST &
FRIENDS OF NORTH CAROLINA MINUTES
DECEMBER 6, 1999
TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
The meeting was facilitated by Lois Wright.
The meeting began as always with a time of introduction,
sharing, and support by all present. This activity is one of the primary
purposes for the existence of our group and each meeting begins in this
manner.
Items of business were as follows:
- Discussion of the letter from the Council of Bishops of the
United Methodist Church sent to "The United Methodist People Around the
World" after the Council met at Lake Junaluska, NC in November of 1999.
From the discussion the following point emerged:
- There are positive and negative aspects in the letter;
some saw in it reason for hope while others were much less optomistic
- The desire to send a letter to each minister in the NC
Conference urging him or her to act on the call in the letter for
"every congregation to fulfill the biblical and disciplinary
mandate of hospitality for all persons, including gays and
lesbians," and the specific "urge" to "every pastor
to reach out and actively seek to minister to and with all persons,
within the bounds of our Book of Discipline, as we move toward
being a more inclusive church." Helen King and Dean Blackburn
volunteered to work on such a letter.
- The need for our members individually to write to
Bishop Edwards urging him to hold accountable those pastors in the
conference who have written and spoken in vehemently negative terms
about and to g/b/l/t persons, especially in light of the fact that he
requested when he met with our group that no clergy person come out to
him.
- The desire of our group to support Laurie Coffman and
Calvary UMC. There has been negative fall-out over Jimmy Creech's
preaching at our worship service there, but the church has come out of
it internal struggle with a renewed conviction by those remaining to be
welcoming to all people. It was agreed by those present that
members of our group make every effort to worship at Calvary every
second Sunday of the month, and support their work with our gifts as
well as our presence.
- Vickie Pruett explained the function of the e-group
e-mailing system: we are to send e-mail to rum-nc@egroup.com
which goes to Vickie; she reads and approves, then sends to everyone in the
group. She will send out another invitation to everyone to become a
part of the e-group since some people feel that they did not get or did not
understand the first invitation. You will not get e-mail from
Reconciling UM and Friends of NC if you are not part of the e-group.
- Matt Connor has designed a flier that annouces our meetings
and our worship services which will run in the NC CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE each
month.
- Matt presented a logo he developed for our group.
Nollie Apple moved that we adopt the logo and Dean Blackburn seconded the
motion. The vote was affirmative. This logo will be put on our
web page and, in time, on our mailings.
- There was concern expressed for the fact that Jimmy Creech
is in need of financial assistance. Anyone who wishes may send
contributions directly to Jimmy.
- There was much discussion around the two mission statements
that have been developed for our consideration. The discussion
continues. All input is welcome.
Helen King
note-taker