The purpose of our Cal-Pac listening posts is to give the people in local churches an opportunity to reflect on what is important to them in their Christian faith and in the United Methodist Church, then to imagine new directions for the church toward which God seems to be leading.
We understand that change creates anxiety and the purpose of these listening posts is to empower laity and clergy alike to express their thoughts and feelings and have a voice in the way forward for our Conference.
We are a diverse community and come from a vast range of theological positions, yet we are all members of the same church and share many missions and values in our service to God. It is vitally important that all viewpoints are expressed and taken into account as the Bishop and cabinet, as well as the task force created at Annual Conference 2019 in response to resolution 19-06 (see below), work towards a strategy for the Cal-Pac conference.
(Resolution 19-06BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the California-Pacific Annual Conference will empower the elected delegations of the 2016 and 2020 General / Jurisdictional Conferences to proactively coordinate and lead our Annual Conference’s envisioning of a new, inclusive form of Methodism. The team will draft concrete proposals that among other values support all persons having the opportunity to enter into marriage and to fully serve as laity and clergy regardless of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, marital status or differing abilities. In addition, this team will assess the consequences of those proposals – organizationally, economically, and spiritually, which includes how the California-Pacific Annual Conference may disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church, coordinating its efforts in concert with other Annual Conferences, coalitions and working groups throughout the church. Regular progress reports will be presented and provided to the Annual Conference and beyond.)
There are to be 76 listening posts in total, with at least one in each mission area of the conference. We have been intentional in our recruitment of hosts, facilitators, and interpreters with regards to our linguistic, geographic, and theological diversity and variances.
In addition to the listening posts there will be an anonymous form (coming soon) which can be completed through December 21st 2019.
The data and information collected at the listening posts, through the online forms, and from the new charge conference form “I see a new church” will be collated by a team of professionals and given to the Bishop, cabinet, and the task force team to assist them in expressing this new way forward for Cal-Pac.
For further information please contact Rev. Denyse Barnes – dbarnes@calpacumc.org