Revised Social Principles Plenary Presentation

John Hill – Interim General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society

Good morning church – I am John Hill and have the honor of serving as Interim General Secretary with the Board of Church and Society. What began as a petition from the European Central Conferences in 2012 has set us on an amazing journey to revise our Social Principles so that our statements on urgent matters of peace and justice and the integrity of God’s creation are clearer, more concise, more deeply theological, and reflect and speak to the realities across our worldwide connection. We are so excited that you as delegates will now have the chance to consider these Revised Social Principles. This 12 year journey would not have been possible without the people you see on this stage – and countless others – including Rev Neal Christie and the Rev Dr Susan Henry Crowe - who devoted so much of their time, energy, prayers and faithful conversation throughout this process. In the short time we have this morning, you will hear from a few of the leaders whose vision and faithfulness carried this project forward including Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore, Editor and Chair of the Writing Teams, Dr. Randal Miller, GBCS Vice-President and Chair of our Social Principles Revision Task Force, and Rev Ande Emmanuel, from our Editorial Revision Team.

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore – Editor and Chair Revised Social Principles Writing Teams

Our Social Principles reveal the depth and power of the United Methodist Church’s commitment to social witness as a centerpiece for Christian living both individually and as a church. They reveal our passion to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to build compassion, justice and peace in God’s creation and in all relationships within that creation: economic, social, and political.

The Social Principles are part of our long legacy of social witness as Methodists. Consider first the biblical witness. Jesus himself declared a Social Principle when a lawyer asked him: “What is the Greatest Commandment?” Rooting his response in Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus answered to love God with all your being, and to love your neighbor as yourself. With these words, Jesus was pronouncing a principle to guide individual and community life. Such teachings have guided the Christian Church in our ministries of healing, mercy and justice ever since.

The Methodist movement has continued this bold social witness. Consider John Wesley’s concerns for all people. In his writings and his works, he responded to the needs of the community including education, creating safe and healthy conditions for workers, and prison reform, to name just a few.

Continuing this legacy, we have been stating Social Principles since the groundbreaking adoption of the 1908 Social Creed of The Methodist Episcopal Church, North. This Creed gave a lot of attention to equal rights and complete justice for all persons in all stations of life. Soon, other churches in the Methodist tradition and beyond adopted similar statements.

Our 1968 Uniting Conference both established the United Methodist Church and a Study Commission that developed the first Social Principles which were adoption by the 1972 General Conference. While each succeeding General Conference has considered amendments to the Social Principles, their core remains a document borne out of a US context with language that often strained to apply across the diverse contexts of our increasingly global church.

Dr. Randall Miller– GBCS Vice-President, Chair – Revised Social Principles Task Force

As we reported to the 2016 General Conference, the first phase of our process, in partnership with the Connectional Table, was centered on listening – gathering United Methodists in listening sessions in Europe, Africa, the Philippines, and the United States to hear the amazing ways the Social Principles empower United Methodists to bear witness to the Gospel in their communities. And to reflect on how these statements on peace, justice and the integrity of God’s creation might better reflect the realities of their experience.

At the request of the 2016 General Conference, Church and Society then developed a process to revise our Social Principles – the first wholesale revision since 1972 and an opportunity to begin with a fresh page – informed by our long legacy of social witness – but with statements crafted by writing teams reflective of our worldwide connection.

These writing teams included theologians and practitioners, young voices and those of us with a lifetime of experiences. Like quilting circles that develop wonderfully colorful squares of a quilt, each team put hours and hours of prayerful thought and effort into their particular part of the document and it was the editorial team that lightly stitched those pieces together into a first draft.

This draft was made available in the four official languages of the General Conference and we actively began soliciting feedback – online and through convening across the connection.

Thousands of United Methodists shared their thoughts and comments. Whether from an individual prayerfully studying the draft or the reflections of small groups assembled at the Global Young People’s convocation, Church and Society received and reviewed thousands of comments.

And as Ande will share, carefully synthesizing these reflections, feedback, and suggestions was the task of the editorial revision team. This church-wide conversation was a gift to those of us who participated and to our beloved church. I’ve taken to calling the final proposal our love letter – a love letter from the many many people throughout the United Methodist Church to encourage us, to inspire us, to conspire with us to being the Beloved Community God calls us to be.

Rev. Ande Emmanuel – Southern Nigeria Annual Conference Writing Team

As Randall shared, synthesizing the comments and feedback from the thousands of United Methodist was the task of the editorial revision team with support from Church and Society staff.

What we heard in the feedback were calls for clarity and to eliminate redundancies across the sections. To integrate a broader range of biblical references and to include not just statements naming the challenges facing our communities but also clear actions we are called to live into as Disciples of Christ.

In the end, the revision includes a preface and preamble and four rather than the current six sections. You will see across the document, clearer Wesleyan and biblical language, succinct statements and calls to action, and language that is meant to empower mission and ministry across the diverse contexts where United Methodists live and worship.

We understand that all of us may not agree on every statement – on every word in the revision – our goal was to find language that could bridge across our diverse contexts recognizing that the Social Principles have always been intended to encourage conversation and a prayerful dialogue of faith and action.

As is noted in the preamble, “we must as a Church seek together to discern God’s will … and to embrace with courage, trust and hope those controversies that arise among us, accepting them as evidence that God is not yet finished in sculpting us to be God’s people.”

As we gather at this General Conference to hear how God is calling us into our next expression of United Methodism, may these Revised Social Principles provide a framework and a vision for our future church.

John Hill – Interim General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society

And now it is your turn – General Conference delegates – to receive this love letter – to prayerful consider these revised social principles. It is our fervent prayer that you will see in them the voices and experiences of so many who contributed along this amazing 12 year journey and affirm them as a powerful expression of social witness for this next chapter of our beloved United Methodist Church.

Thank you.