The General Conference “Business UNusual”
By Rev. Gaborone P. Lesito, 19th District TCR Field Representative
It has always surprised me to see a Church meeting agenda with “Unfinished Business” already in the agenda. Today, doing business the UNusual way is part of the agenda.
Tomorrow, the General Conference of our beloved denomination the African Methodist Episcopal Church will be convening as UNusual, by date, venue, and business. Around this time last year, the Church was grappling with the question of either postponing the General Conference by a few months or holding it virtually or moving it to July 2021. A few months later, the decision was to move to July 2021 in-person.
Until Sunday 27 June, when the President of South Africa Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa will be on Lockdown Level 4 from Monday 28th, the Church was set to meet in a hybrid fashion in two venues, South Africa, and the US. As it is, a litany of meetings continues to be held within the Church since the Cape Town venue will no longer work, but let the work continue, let business UNusual continue, people’s lives matter.
Does this mean the many voices that had called for a virtual General Conference from the beginning have now been vindicated? How safe and secure are the networks, how fair and smooth running will the General Conference be when business UNusual kicks off on tomorrow 6 July 2021? Will the Church recover from the time loss and financial haemorrhage? Could the Church have been more punctilious in the administrative and financial execution of its work? Was this a perfect opportunity for the Church to ride roughshod over the rights, opinions, or feelings of its people, or should accolades be accepted that the Church has, unlike never before, widely consulted its members to arrive at a decision? How inclusive, or should we ask, how exclusive is this General Conference? Perhaps the roll call should call the names of those who are not there. UNusual is a good opportunity to achieve what could not be realized unless it was necessary. I believe necessity is still the mother of invention. We should not be too hard on ourselves. Some believe that credit must be given that the Church was caring, prudent and diligent. Indeed, there are many questions and few answers but AMEs must unite and agree in the knowledge that “No matter the format or location, one thing for sure is that we know how to worship”.
Some committees have already commenced their work and some uncanny aura and fellowship hangs in the air, heightened politicking and on-line lobbying (or none at all) is taking place, inevitable virtual elections and worship will be experienced differently, thanks to the one-year long practice of virtual worship. God’s business must be done only to His Glory. From one “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” at opening to another one five days later, the General Conference, Quadrennial or not, will be over. Many prayers will be answered, a few dreams attained. So, cheer up AMEs, UNusual does not mean bad.
What remains to be seen is whether the African Methodist Episcopal Church, this beloved Zion, will learn and grow from the devastating aftermath of COVID-19. It is going to be difficult for the Church to abandon what has worked and make it the ‘usual’ going forward, albeit pushed against the wall. Doing things just because it is ‘how we used to do’ them, is not a strategy, it is like walking backwards towards your future. The decisions made in this General Conference will show the Church’s propensity to make good out of a bad situation. I pray that the Church will swiftly move away from the impending blame game in ensuing meetings following the close of the General Conference, “Whose fault was it?”, “I told you so”. But also, the Church for her to grow, must acknowledge that she was inflexible to hear simple voices of reason from both the US and African districts. There will be casualties, believe it or not. Worship UNusual is an opportunity to heal.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church must remember its mission, “to minister to the social, spiritual and physical development of all people.” If we put God first in this UNusual General Conference, this mission can still be attained.
Come on AMEs, dust yourselves up, wipe your tears off, be reinvigorated, we have a great legacy bequeathed for us, we need to hand over a better Church for posterity.
Reverend Gaborone P. Lesito is the 19th Episcopal District Field Representative for The Christian Recorder.
