United Theological Seminary will hold a conference called “Theology, Eucharist and Ministry” on May 17 of this year. This conference is in honor of Kendall K. McCabe, a retiring professor who has taught at United for 35 years. Speakers and participants are as follows: William J. Abraham is the Albert C. Outler Chair in Wesleyan Studies…

The following petition was approved at the 2012 GC to raise awareness of people with disabilities in the church:  Each Conference shall designate that at least one Annual Conference session during the 2013-2016 quadrennium will have a theme centered on Disability Awareness to set an example for each District and Local Church.  Resources and guidance are…

A few years ago I received a message from Bishop Peggy Johnson regarding seminary offerings related to ministry with people with disabilities. While I had done research in this area, United, like many other schools, was lacking with regard to educational offerings in this area. This fall I will teach a course called Disability, the…

“Plan UMC,” a plan to restructure the UMC, has passed on the floor of GC. You can learn more about the plan here. This could end up going to Judicial Council, though. Update: It did go to the Judicial Council, which struck it down. So, no restructuring at this time…. 

With the demise of the Call to Action legislation, a new plan is being debated. There was a move to refer restructuring plans for further study, but it was voted down. And this means… something is probably going to happen here. To be continued….

The UMC General Conference has voted to approve full communion with the historically black Methodist denominations. This is an important and historic event. Hopefully it will lead to more substantive cooperation between denominations. At least it’s a step in the right direction. 

The “guaranteed” appointment of UMC elders was passed as a calendar item approved overwhelmingly in legislative committee. In the plenary session there was a motion to reconsider, but the motion failed. So… no more secured appointments for elders. This is a huge change in our polity with far reaching consequences…. It’s just not clear what…

Congratulations to Jan Love, Kasap Owan, William J. Abraham, and Bill Arnold on their election to the University Senate of the UMC at the 2012 General Conference.

GC 2012 has been…. eventful. It looks like the Call to Action legislation will not go through in anything like its original form. In all likelihood some much less drastic changes to the denominational structure will go through. I met with Bishop Peggy Johnson today. She is perhaps our most significant and visible denominational advocate for…

I have a lot of admiration for N. T. Wright. If you’re not familiar with Wright’s perspective, this a nice lecture which touches on some of the major themes of his recent work.