Another Celebration Weekend - May 3, 2024

May 3rd, 2024
by Jennie Edwards Bertrand

Dear Hope Church,
For my entire life I have been United Methodist, with an asterisk beside it. I've been proud of the rich history of honoring Scripture and Science, Women in Ministry, Creation Care, Personal Spiritual Growth, and Rich Justice Ministries. However, my entire life, there is has been the one thing ... and so, I joined LGBTQ+ inclusion and resistance movements starting in college waaaaaay back when Kurt Cobain was just starting to create music. Ultimately, as you know, I planted a fully inclusive church. And yet, our official rule book, the Book of Discipline, still contained harmful language that made it hard for queer clergy to be out and for any pastor to offer the ministry of marriage to ALL of their people.
Over the past two weeks, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Charlotte, NC has followed the painstaking process of Robert's Rules of Order so we could, one by one, remove all of the harmful anti-Queer language in the Book of Discipline. It was not just one vote, it has been vote after vote because 52 years of harm has meant there is language in many different legislative sections. We technically have 2-3 more votes tomorrow to finally remove it all.
However, the party has already started! The phrase that stated any human being was "incompatible with Christian teaching" is gone, gone, gone. Weddings and ordinations have opened up! I said the party has started -- this justice movement has taken long enough that some have passed away and some needed to walk away. For them, this is too little, too late.
This change is for our children and youth and college students!! It is for the church we are creating. Hope was a little ahead of the curve, but soon simply being a United Methodist will be synonomous with being LGBTQ+-inclusive!
In Sunday's worship Hope Church will offer a prayer of lament for harm. And then we will celebrate! It's another week where we need to pack the place.
Invite your friends to be part of this historic worship service!!
Love, Jennie

We're Not Alone
Celebration at Springfield Douglas Avenue UMC Sunday Evening
This kind of radical change only happens once in a lifetime. Our friends at Douglas Avenue UMC in Springfield are holding a party Sunday at 6pm.
I'd love for you to join me at this event! Ryan and I plan to bring our kids and join the fun!
P.S. Douglas Avenue UMC became a reconciling church this year, and one of the ways they celebrated was to take a love offering for us, which is part of how we installed flooring in our Gathering Space