On Sunday, August 29, the Kansas-Nebraska (KN) Conference held its 2021 constituency meeting. Here are the highlights,
The meeting was delayed by an hour, beginning at 11 AM, instead of the usual 10 AM. There was a devotional by Melvin Santos, VP for Administration of Kansas-Nebraska Conference, titled “It’s Time to Move Forward.” This could be understood to mean: We must not let other countries hold us back, a sentiment that was expressed at the 2018 NADYEM, regarding WO.
The controversial Section III bylaws changes regarding Relationships was taken off the agenda by the Conference President (Ron Carlson). This was a proposed change that removed the word “working” from the NAD and GC policies that the KN Conference would operate in harmony with. This item also gave the Conference executive committee and constituency meetings the latitude to vote variances to the working policy. Presumably, the Fulcrum7 news article that called attention to this change motivated the removal of this item from the agenda. The conference president hinted that it could be added back on to the agenda if the delegates wished to do so. Later, after much of the 360 member delegation had left, a delegate moved that Section III be added to the agenda. The motion to add this item to the agenda failed by a 73% majority. Only 278 total voted on this.
Electronic clickers were used by delegates to cast their votes.
Various proposals to rename things were approved with no problem.
Education item. Tom Lemon addressed why it is proposed to strike reference to studying the GC policies from this section. His comments were largely supportive of the change and the proposal was approved. This means that the term North American Division was added and the word General (Conference) was deleted.
Ron Carlson stated (we have the audio) that the issue of women’s ordination will be returning to the next GC Session after this coming one (I don’t know where he is getting his information). Carlson said he wanted to take a straw vote to see how the constituency felt about WO. This question was flashed up on the screen quickly and the vote called for very quickly: “Do you support the equal treatment of men and women pastors including ordination?” This straw poll was 10 minutes after the vote on bringing back the items related to the Constitution and Bylaws. Of 360 total delegates, only about 250 remained. 2/3 said yes, 1/3 no. If he really wanted to know the will of the KN church members on ordaining women, why not send this question out to the whole conference constituency by email? That would be a much more accurate measure. And why wait til the end of the constituency meeting? That one is easy. Towards the end of the meeting (where many rural delegates travel from a long distance away) there are more local delegates from population centers. The delegates from population centers tend to be more liberal than the rural delegates.
Delegates received the 128-page packet only 1-2 weeks in advance. Some said they weren’t given enough time in advance to digest it all. The proceedings were conducted by the president at such a rapid pace that it was very difficult for delegates to follow along and keep up. Sometimes delegates went to the microphone to ask for things to slow down since they couldn’t get it all as it was being read swiftly.
That’s the scoop from Kansas-Nebraska, where the WO agenda is still being pushed by the Conference leadership, and supported by the Mid-America Union and the North American Division. Thankfully, there are many faithful fellow church members in that Conference. They are appreciated. Please pray for them.
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“Speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).
