My Plea: Trinity Friends, Stay UMC.

 I am a United Methodist. If I live to January 1, 2024 I will still be a United Methodist. If my local congregation, Trinity United Methodist Church, and I both still exist on that date it will still be my home church as it has been since February of 1962. I'll still sing in the choir, attend worship almost every Sunday and choir rehearsal almost every Wednesday. My turn on the Church Council will continue. I will make donations toward my annual financial pledge each month.  Occasionally perhaps I'll still be asked to sing a solo. I love being a part of this church.

What a wonderful influence on my life my church has been!

• Of course my parents' sermons and witness were a great influence.

• The Sunday School teachers and Vacation Bible Schools at Antioch and Mackville and Midway and Sunnyside and Watkins Memorial and Trinity taught and inspired me.

• I attended Camp Glisson eight times in seven years as a kid and teen --- Holy Dirt! That great ministry of many decades is the result of strong connectional ties of many congregations working together.

• Sheila and I have belonged to Trinity UMC for over fifty years now! We have been blessed by a wide variety UMC pastors James Sanders, Scobie Branson, David Naglee, Paul Hanna, George Freeman, David Campbell, Nanci Hicks, and several others.

• Our daughters were baptized here and sang in Cherub, Children's and Youth choirs. They each attended Camp Glisson as well.

• Almost every Christmas eve I spend some reverent time standing quietly in Trinity's nativity scene contemplating Jesus' humble birth and what he has meant to the world, but much more personally to me and mine.

• From its inception our denomination has had a strong social commitment. The early Methodists opposed slavery, accepted women into ministry, and sought to minister to all.

• When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, we know our United Methodist Church, through its wonderful connectional ministries, will be on the scene with relief for suffering people.

Now the proverbial push has come to shove. You may have heard that in this divisive age even our "united" denomination is divided. It breaks my heart that some, even some that I dearly love, want to break away from our denomination. Some want to move toward a more congregational structure. Some are worried that the denomination will become more inclusive than they want.

The view from an upstairs window.

So a church conference has been called under a strange clause in our church Book of Discipline (as we call our denomination's rule book) that was added a few years ago to allow a large portion of a congregation to disband a church, take over its assets, and then, if they like, set up a new independent church which could then, if that group chooses, join some other denomination. Of course that leaves those who remain United Methodists churchless until they can find another congregation. 

At the conference next Sunday there will be no debate or discussion. It will be a simple vote of all certified members who show up in person. If 67% of them vote for this strange "disaffiliation" proposal, Trinity United Methodist Church, after 148 years, will be dissolved. In that case those like me who choose to remain true to our membership pledge to the United Methodist Church will be left without a church home. In effect something approaching a third of our congregation will have been kicked out.

There has been a very active campaign by the "anti-UMC" group over the last year or so to garner support for the dissolution of our congregation. I am very much afraid that they will succeed. If that happens it will be one of the very saddest times of my life.

Trinity UMC's choir, mid-nineties

So here on my little blog, read by very few Trinity members I suspect and most of those have already made ups their minds, I will try to have my say this week, for what it's worth. 

I will stay.

Trinity friends, I beg you to also "Stay UMC". 

Why?

I will try to discuss a few of my reasons for staying a United Methodist in my posts this week. Stay tuned.

Detail from one of the Pansy windows.

Some posts that I hope I can manage to write....

• We can accomplish more good together than apart.
• Holy Dirt!
• UMCOR Spells Relief.
• We are, after all, METHODists.
• Mary and Martha... and Burnita and more
• Jesus, John Wesley, and Papa

Trinity UMC's annual Nativity Scene