Conference 2007

The 118th Conference of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa met in Cape Town last week. As an elected delegate I was asked to participate in discussions about the work of our church under the theme: Come Holy Spirit, heal and transform your church. We met for 3 days and considered a wider range of subjects including policy and doctrine issues, administration and finance issues, matters of advocacy and public concern and ministry to vulnerable groups. Amongst many issues we discussed the situation in Zimbabwe and called on our government to respond more assertively. Concerning floor-crossing, the Conference unanimously adopted a resolution calling on our government to scrap floor-crossing because of it's anti-democratic effects. We also firmly accepted that Poverty is our greatest threat. I think that if we take the lead from our Conference, we are being challenged to regard poverty as our number one concern. Conference also reminded local churches that HIV/AIDS should be on EVERY agenda in our church - another challenge for us as a local church!

Regarding debate about Same-sex relationships, Conference reaffirmed our previous position, which was that we are "a community of love rather than rejection" (2001) and that we embrace "many different and even opposing views on the issue"(2005). Conference accepted a resolution which expanded these values and encourages the whole church to be on a journey which acknowledges and embraces diversity and allows for ongoing conversation in the spirit of respect and dignity, always working to maintain the unity of the church. For a full copy of the Church's Position on this issue, go to our web-site. While there was a request from some ministers to apply to Home Affairs to be registered to perform Civil Unions, the Conference decided not to allow any minister to apply to Home Affairs. But the Conference did state that "in the interim, [it] expects Methodist ministers to continue to offer pastoral care" to people of homosexual orientation.

Our Presiding Bishop, Rev Ivan Abrahams, challenged us in many ways and offered good leadership, reminding us that we need to be listening as a church, especially to the voices that are usually not heard. You can read a Summary of events at Conference: here. Also, if you have questions about our church's position on matters, please don't hesitate to email me: barry@stjohnsmc.org.za