Holy Conferencing

Having just returned from our Annual Conference session, I am energized. I love the texture that comes to conversation and leadership when others are brought to the table. Each year, there are new pastors, new laypersons; and this year, a new bishop. There were many fruitful conversations throughout the four days of conferencing.

And yet, I wonder who we missed at the table. Our conference voted down the majority of constitutional amendments giving equal voices to those in central conferences, women and other minorities. Is it truly holy conferencing if we pick and choose who comes to the table ourselves, rather than remembering that it is Jesus who is the gracious host?

Some Pharisees and scribes once said of Jesus, "he sits and dines with sinners." The reality is that all of us are sinners and are invited to the table. All of us need God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness. When we exclude others from the table, do we deny them the opportunity to share in God's grace?

Perhaps we should remove the log from our own eye first, rather than focusing on the splinter in others'. We are all perpetual sinners moving on toward perfect love of God and neighbor. Maybe we would move closer toward perfection if we all gathered at the table together. Maybe then we would truly find the Spirit in our midst, and truly have holy conferencing.