Rushing through things

Last night (Monday) and this morning (Tuesday) we have been in plenary sessions having the whole body of General Synod pass the resolutions we had been debating and do other business that we need to do, like elect officers and pass the budget.

Like in our local church money is a little tight. Also, like in our local church the budgeting process is too complex for the body that is supposed to have oversight over the budget to be fully informed. I am glad that at FCS we have put in place to ideas to open our process to the full body.

This morning we did get a chance to work on the Unified Governance resolution that the committee had come up with. The resolution passed overwhelmingly, but that is not the interesting part to me. I felt like the debate on this important issue was cut short by a strict adherence to the rules that we use for meetings. I was saddened that as we debated the ways which we provide access to power in our national church, the rules of our governance worked to silence the voices of the minority. We did obey the rules as advertised, but there was a space for a pause and a chance to take some time, and even a call for prayer that were not taken. I hope to live, work and worship in a church were prayer is never deemed to be “Out of Order”.

The whole thing feels a bit dirty to me. I believe in the outcome, but in the process we failed to live up to our biblical call to love our neighbor. We became hung up on winning and not on loving. I pray that the rest of this process over the next 4 years can be more relaxed and able to listen to each other.

I should not let it go unmentioned that we are also passing some important resolutions publicly commenting on some very important issues. I can not list them all here, but after returning to Somerville (and after sleeping a bit) we will schedule a time to have a debrief and report from Synod. Watch your email.