A Word from Pastor Lisa: North Central Jurisdictional Conference
One piece I love most about The United Methodist Church is that we are connectional. We share resources, history, theology, clergy, and episcopal leaders in our conferences, jurisdictions, and global church. At First Methodist, we are part of the Southeast District of the Indiana Conference. In turn, the Indiana Conference is part of the North Central Jurisdiction (NCJ), which includes United Methodist churches in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. I’ve had the privilege of serving as an NCJ delegate since 2012.
Typically, the North Central Jurisdictional Conference meets every four years. With the pandemic, the last time we met in person was 2016. In 2021, we met virtually to pass a Covenant to Build Beloved Community. This Covenant, which is based on our baptismal vows, creates the Church we desire to be around racial equity and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. That Covenant also served as an umbrella to shape the work we did as an NCJ conference from Nov. 2-4 in Ft. Wayne.
Our primary responsibility at this conference was to elect three new bishops. This is a process that began months ago with candidates providing paperwork, interviews, and conversations with different delegations. One of my colleagues aptly described this work as “a whole lot of politics, and a little bit of Spirit.” He’s not wrong. While there are a lot of politics involved, I pray the 167 of us who were voting were prayerfully discerning the movement of the Spirit. We selected the following new bishops:
Rev. Kennetha Bigham-Tsai from Michigan, appointed to Iowa
Rev. Lanette Plambeck from Iowa, appointed to Minnesota-Dakotas
Rev. Dan Schwerin from Wisconsin, appointed to Northern Illinois
All three of these new bishops are committed to abeyance, which means holding complaints around LGBTQIA+ clergy and same-sex weddings without acting on them. This is an important move for us as a jurisdiction to ensure that our churches are safe, welcoming places for all people.
We were delighted to discover that Bishop Julius C. Trimble will be returning to the Indiana Conference until 2024, when he hopes to retire.
In addition, we worshiped each day with powerful sermons from our North Central College of Bishops. We engaged in conversation around Christian Nationalism and the harm done by the church to people who are LGTBQIA+. We heard important presentations on gun violence, Africa University, and the United Methodist Committee on Relief. We voted on Nominations and the budget report.
We also passed several important resolutions. It’s important to remember that all of the legislation passed by the jurisdictions is aspirational and non-binding. Even so, we joined all of the other U.S. jurisdictions in passing legislation around the following:
LGTBQIA+ empowerment
Formation of the U.S. as its own regional conference, which would allow us more flexibility around LGBTQIA+ inclusion
Ethics and integrity of delegates, which asks delegates who wish to leave The UMC to recuse themselves from governance roles in the denomination
There was a very different spirit at this jurisdictional conference than the two previous. While there is a lot of uncertainty that looms for our denomination, I sensed a deeply faithful commitment from these delegates to work toward a church that dismantles white supremacy, racism, sexism, and homophobia. I also witnessed a church that is hopeful for the future, not because we know what the future holds, but because we trust the One who holds our future.