The General Conference of the United Methodist Church has just thrown down the gauntlet to millions of its own members. In a decision to exclude LGBTQ+ persons from the full ministry and full services of the denomination, it has unwittingly exposed a number of faults…cracks that inevitably appear in institutions over time. The aspiration of the United Methodist Church has long been “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” But too many of our doors have been locked…from the inside…out of fear…fear of neighbors we don’t understand very well.
This website is offered as an online oasis for those who need to journey into the wilderness a bit, away from the stifling machinations of conferences and committees, and think for a bit. We don’t exactly know what to do next, but we yearn to be together and to be nurtured. We are ready to listen to those voices that are not official. God is not always in the earthquake, wind, or fire. Sometimes it is the faint voice, the whisper, that bears God’s message. God is revealed, not through a vote, but through simple acts of human grace and hospitality.
And we know that it is not just the doors of the institutional church that have rusted shut over time. In our own lives, people different from us are also absent. We imagine people at the margins of society in our liberal passions. But we don’t necessarily keep company with them, in ways that get personal.
We are forming a community: online at first, face to face very soon. This website will give you an opportunity to register your interest and get on our mailing list. It will soon provide an invitation to enter covenant with one another. We welcome United Methodists, ex-Methodist, other Christians, ex-Christians, people of other religions who share our heart, and people of no religion who share our heart.
To register, please email me at