A New Day is Dawning | Looking Forward
“What began as an impassioned plea for LGBTQIA+ inclusion from my own experience as a gay candidate for ministry on a secular undergraduate campus, has unfolded into a ministry of care for the very people our denomination has excluded.”
The United Methodist Church’s 2024 General Conference started yesterday, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, and we are asking LGBTQ+ Christians and allies to — Read. Pray. Share. — the stories of our LGBTQ+ siblings in the United Methodist Church as they fight for inclusion within their denomination. This global conference is where they can vote on policies that will govern the denomination until they can meet again, shaping the lives of United Methodists worldwide.
In this blog post, we highlight the words of Rev. J.J. Warren, who is a provisional member of the New England Conference and the author of Where Two or Three are Connected and Reclaiming Church.
Photo of Rev. J.J. Warren, who is a provisional member of the New England Conference and author.
I’ve been waiting for this moment, like many before me, for years. I’ve been preparing with my fellow delegates for this postponed General Conference since 2019, read over legislation, and looked forward to be “in the room where it happens” (gotta quote Hamilton at least once, right?). Ever since General Conference 2019 and my impromptu speech, I was placed alongside an intergenerational community of LGBTQIA+ clergy and lay people advocating tirelessly to midwife new life for our denomination — one that would celebrate ALL of the people called United Methodists. What began as an impassioned plea for LGBTQIA+ inclusion from my own experience as a gay candidate for ministry on a secular undergraduate campus, has unfolded into a ministry of care for the very people our denomination has excluded.
Thanks to prophetic leaders in New England, I was commissioned as a clergyperson in The UMC last June. While this is something to celebrate, it also means I am no longer able to attend General Conference as a voting delegate since I was elected as a layperson (the conference is 1/2 lay, 1/2 clergy). Nevertheless, I believe that I and all United Methodists around the Connection still have a role to play. Each of us can offer support and community during this charged and isolating time. In the aftermath of GC2019, I began gathering a group of young LGBTQIA+ United Methodists, which eventually became Young Prophets Collective (YPC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit in May, 2021, with the mission of “Equipping and empowering a global community of young LGBTQIA+ religious leaders and allies for liberation.”
Because many LGBTQIA+ United Methodists won’t be physically in Charlotte as our lives are discussed, YPC has partnered with Reconciling Ministries Network, Resist Harm, and the Love Your Neighbor Coalition to open our virtual church campus on the Gather platform during General Conference for LGBTQIA+ persons and allies around the world. “Church of the Young Prophets'' will be open on Tuesday, April 23 from 12 - 3pm and 7 - 10pm ET, and then from Friday, April 26 to Friday, May 3 from 9am - 10pm ET (with a sabbath on Sunday). Volunteers will be ready and available simply to be present with one another as we process, lament, and celebrate the events of this GC, and also for dedicated one-on-one pastoral care and counseling from a team of chaplains. More information is available on YPC’s website, and a step-by-step tutorial for navigating our virtual church campus is available here.
A new day is dawning in United Methodism thanks to the efforts of queer advocates and allies for the last five decades — and we are ever closer to finally living into the heritage of early Methodism: of placing ourselves in solidarity with the marginalized as together we co-create a world formed from mutual respect, abundant grace, and deep love.
With deep gratitude on this journey,
Rev. J.J. Warren (he/him)
Let us pray a breath prayer that Reconciling Ministries Network has provided for us during the 2024 General Conference:
Inhale:
The church may be transformed.
Exhale:
God’s love is constant.
Amen.
A screen shot of the Church of the Young Prophets, a virtual faith community.