The Missional Wisdom Foundation Responds to the United Methodist Church
The Missional Wisdom Foundation affirms that we care for and love all people.
The decision by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church to continue selectively excluding persons based on their expression of human sexuality causes us great pain, and we would like to offer this prayer for peace and unity during this time of lament.
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:20–24
We affirm that those who identify as part of the LGBTQAI+ community are part of the the church. You are the church. We are the church. And we are one as Christ and the Creator are one.
We resonate with this statement from the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church:
We have long appreciated the richness of the global diversity of our United Methodist Church and have embraced opportunities to join with you all in the work of making disciples for the transformation of the world.
We also understand the purpose of the Church to be in mission and ministry. Consequently, we in the West have been functioning for years as One Church committed to full inclusion, seeking to be a home for all God’s people.
Today we acknowledge the fracture of this body, yet we worship a God who tells us that the body of Christ has many parts, all equally valued. Rooted in Wesleyan tradition, grounded in Scripture and committed to mission and ministry, the Western Jurisdiction intends to continue to be one church, fully inclusive and open to all God’s children, across the theological and social spectrum.
We know from experience we are stronger when we live together as progressives, traditionalists, and centrists in our Church. Many times during this Conference we have sung or prayed or blessed each other with the reminder that we need each other.
We also know there are others who feel the same way today, so we invite you to be in dialogue with us as we move forward together into a future with hope.
May God continue to bless us for the sake of the world. Thank you.
Today we will stay in this liminal space, but tomorrow and the day after that, we will begin to work, for we are resurrection people because God is a resurrection God.