Still Hopeful

I have spent half my life since graduating from college as part of the reconciling movement in Virginia, endeavoring to make the United Methodist Church fully welcoming and inclusive of the LGBTQ community. This grassroots work has often been slow, plodding, difficult, and under-resourced. Virginia didn’t have its first reconciling church until 2009, about 26 years after the reconciling movement began. But the work has also been hopeful and transformational, propelled by the enduring belief that we are all beloved children of God and created in God’s image. After the disappointment and sadness of 2019 General Conference, I witnessed all those many years of sowing seeds of inclusiveness begin to reap a harvest. The message that God loves everyone had taken root. A groundswell of United Methodist voices emerged across our state and the country to reject the discriminatory penalties enacted in the Traditional Plan, and the number of new reconciling churches, communities and individuals has surged since last spring.

Against this backdrop, news that 2020 General Conference is delayed an entire year is both saddening and maddening; more of our LGBTQ siblings will continue to face harm and discrimination as strictures of the Traditional Plan remain in effect. For everyone, particularly those newer to this movement, who spent this past year dreaming of a new future for our church where all have a seat at Christ’s table, I want you to know that I am still hopeful. Let’s take this next year to continue sowing seeds and reaping harvests of love, belonging, and inclusion. Let’s double down on resisting the harm of the Traditional Plan, growing more reconciling communities, and envisioning a United Methodist church welcome to all. I know from my own experience that this work can and will make a difference. We can arrive at General Conference in 2021 even more organized and ready to birth a renewed church centered in Christ’s unconditional love. Finally, I also hold out hope that the spirit of belonging and coming together we are witnessing as the world responds to the COVID pandemic will also alter the dynamic for how delegates at General Conference work together, creating more fertile ground for positive, transformational change in our beloved denomination.

Mark Elder is a lay General Conference delegate and member of Fairlington UMC in Alexandria VA, where he currently serves as Reconciling Ministry Chair and on Staff Parish and Missions. Professionally he is a Medicare and health policy expert for the federal government. Mark is a cradle United Methodist and son of two retired Methodist clergy.