I have a feeling everything will start to run together starting today. We are now in plenary starting this morning and going through Friday night. Today we worked on legislation with financial implications so that the General Council on Finance and Administration can propose a final budget late in the week. We approved the creation of a Hymnal Revision Committee to present a new hymnal to the 2012 General Conference. We passed the National Hispanic Plan, Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century, and Native American Comprehensive Plan. We passed a resolution to form a study commission to present to the 2012 General Conference a plan for a new global structure. It was based around a plan proposed by the Council of Bishops and Connectional Table and a substitute motion by Arthur Jones of the North Texas Conference.
This morning were Judicial Council elections and the conference spoke decisively in electing gifted moderate candidates advocated by a broad coalition rather than the conservative candidates advocated by the conservative renewal groups who have been at the center of controversy recently for a their gifts of cell phones to central conference delegates. If you search or poke around methoblog.com you can read about all of these issues.
The highlight of the day though was the Hope for Africa Children’s Choir. This choir is made up of orphans from a United Methodist school in Zimbabwe and it was amazing. The story was inspiring and the children were energetic, excited, and adorable. It is remarkably already on youtube. I highly recommend it.
Tomorrow there is an address from President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She is a United Methodist and agreed to come and address the conference.
Tomorrow I’ll get to present legislation from the Discipleship committee to the plenary from the podium.
Out.
-Luke
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