Dear Glen Mar friends, 

This morning finds me in prayer for the family and friends of those affected by the plane crash at DCA. I’m lifting those in such pain right now into the light of God’s love and presence. Here’s a link to a letter from our Bishop expressing, more eloquently, her prayers.

I was recently selected to be one of only 2 pastors appointed to the Committee on Faith and Order, a Committee of theologians and bishops who do work assigned to it by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. We write theological position papers on things like what United Methodists believe about the sacraments, about mission, or about what it means to be “the church.” The General Conference meets every 4 years and gives our Committee assignments about what they need us to do in the time in between GC and then we send our work back to them for approval.  

In addition to the work we are given as a Committee, we also help the Central Conferences (which are the UM’s in Europe, Africa and the Philippines, etc.) in their work. So I went to Atlanta for the Central Conference Meeting, where our task is to begin to create a Book of Discipline (the United Methodist “Book of Order”) that would apply to ALL UM’s in the world and what parts can be modified for “regional” contexts. We worked with what principles and rules are core principles of what it means to be a United Methodist (grace, holiness, connectionalism, mission, service, worship, prayer, etc.) and what we would want regions to be able to decide (how many people on a committee, how boards interview pastors for ordination, etc.). It is an honor to be a part of this effort.  

This year, at Annual Conferences around the world (including the BWC’s Annual Conference), members of the AC will vote on allowing the UMC to have “regions,” which would allow the United States to become a “region” and would allow for the flexibility to adapt some things to regional contexts. Several people from Glen Mar serve as our representatives to Annual Conference, and they will vote on this when our Conference meets in May. I am hopeful, and somewhat confident, even, that it will “pass,” so that we can be more vital as a global church for Christ.   

It was a great few days, but I’m also glad to be back!  

See you in Church, 

Pastor Mandy