Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Today was much slower. We had a number of delegate ballots and some more technical difficulty. In the process of getting everyone to input the right numbers and getting the machines calibrated to their users, the clergy managed to elect the 10 General Conference delegates that we are allowed plus 4 or 5 Jurisdictional Conference delegates. The laity lacked one when we concluded business today. Tomorrow the clergy will elect the rest of the Jurisdictional delegates as well as 5 alternates. The laity may be there until Saturday. By the way, for those of you who don't know, Jurisdictional Conference is the intermediate level of structure between the Annual Conference and the General Conference. It is made up of a number of Annual Conferences. Oklahoma is in the South Central Jurisdiction. The most critical function of Jurisdictional Conference (not to say that their work isn't important) is the election and appointment of bishops. Each Annual Conference is led by a bishop. Togethe...

This morning I was listening to KFAQ on my way to Oklahoma City. Gwen Freeman, the morning host, gave a brief comment about an upcoming story. She said, "...we're going to be talking about a woman who has served as a minister at St. John's United Methodist Church for five years. She's been reappointed to the position as a man." That was all that was said. I didn't hear the story in the hour that I listened. So I was wondering about it all day. I spoke with one of my pastor friends to see if he knew anything about it and he knew nothing. So here are the facts that may have been presented at another time and I missed. St. John's United Methodist Church in Baltimore has been served by Ann Gordon for five years. This past year, Gordon received medical treatments to change gender and changed her name to Drew Phoenix. The bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference reappointed Phoenix to St. John's. That decision is being called into question by conservati...

For some reason many believe to be strange, I chose to commute to Annual Conference this year. That's 260 miles round trip for each of the 4 business days. So my keister is dragging. I got to AC right as the morning devotion was beginning. This year we have a special musical group sharing music with us. A group from Africa University is singing at some of the worship services. Our first ballot yesterday was declared invalid. Basically because of human error and technical malfunction the votes for yesterday were null and void. So this morning we took the first official ballot. Just to give you a clue of what we are working with, there are 1,950 voting members at this Annual Conference. This was the first day for reports from the different ministry organizations that are a part of the conference. On today's schedule there were three of the most moving reports at any Annual Conference: VIM (Volunteers in Mission), CJAMM (Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries), and Circle of Care. ...

I am going to try and keep everyone informed of the doings at Annual Conference this week. Annual Conference (for those playing along at home who don't know) is three things: 1. - It is the official name of a group of United Methodist Churches within a given geographical area. For Oklahoma, all of Oklahoma is the Oklahoma Annual Conference. 2. - It is the official rule making body for that region. So the Oklahoma Annual Conference makes the rules for the Oklahoma Annual Conference. 3. - It is the annual gathering of clergy (preacher types) and laity (real people types) where we decide on how we will conduct business within the Oklahoma Annual Conference for the coming year. Clear as mud, I know. But this week is Annual Conference. Our tradition is to begin on Memorial Day weekend. In the past we began work on Sunday. Recently we have only had a worship service on Sunday night and registration on Sunday afternoon. That means Monday is the first official work day. We begin Annual Con...

The news is now reporting that pop culture icon Paris Hilton will have her outrageously long and inappropriate (can we add cruel and unusual) sentence of 45 days for probation violation reduced by half. And get this. It is being reduced for good behavior. Rant point #1 - Where was the good behavior when she was stopped for alcohol related reckless driving? She decided to get blitzed and get behind the wheel of a car. She was not capable of making good judgment. Rant point #2 - Where was the good behavior when she violated probation by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle while having a suspended license? Obviously Miss Hilton does not understand that when the government who issues a driver's license suspends that license you don't get to change it. She was not capable of making good judgment in this instance either. Rant point #3 - Why, oh why, would she listen to her PRESS agent's advice on her legal situation? Might it not have been a better idea to call her lawyer (on h...

Read this article from ABC news GPS Used to Reach Transplant Recipient Police Use Cell-Tracking Technology to Find Transplant Patient in Time for Surgery The Associated Press Technology is a beautiful thing....sometimes. I announced Sunday that I would be out of town this week for a meeting The meeting was held at Canyon Camp , the Oklahoma Annual Conference owned camp outside of Hinton. The camp was a brainstorming event for a conference camp model. It was a small group that was meeting in the Lodge at the Camp. I left about 4:10 Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately I was below E on the gas gauge so I had to make a stop at QT. I was leaving when I realized I had left my cell phone and sunglasses at home. Turn around time (luckily I was still in Claremore). With cell phone in its holster and glasses on my head, I started again (4:25). Getting into Tulsa I noticed that there were storm clouds gathering. I flipped over to News 9's radio broadcast and heard that there wasn't anythin...

Beliefnet.com has a quiz called the Belief-O-Matic. You are asked a series of questions. You provide the answer as close to your personally held beliefs and to rank how important that belief is. Based on your answers, it compares your beliefs (as you have presented them) with their database of religious beliefs. This goes beyond the scope of just what flavor of Christian you are. This compares your answers among all world religions. Here are my results. 1. Orthodox Quaker (100%) 2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (93%) 3. Eastern Orthodox (92%) 4. Roman Catholic (92%) 5. Seventh Day Adventist (91%) 6. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (89%) 7. Hinduism (69%) 8. Liberal Quakers (69%) 9. Bahá'í Faith (65%) 10. Orthodox Judaism (65%) 11. Sikhism (65%) 12. Islam (57%) 13. Unitarian Universalism (56%) 14. Reform Judaism (54%) 15. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (49%) 16. Jehovah's Witness (44%) 17. Jainism (42%) 18. Maha...