An Open Letter to Bishop Mark Webb

Thursday, May 29, 2014

An Open Letter To Bishop Mark Webb

Dear Bishop Webb,

Today was the first day of the 2014 Upper New York Annual Conference. It’s been a long one, but some of the things I've seen and heard today have prompted me to write you.

From the very beginning of conference today, we've heard about the divisive times in which we live. You have encouraged us to love one another first and foremost, even as we tackle difficult issues and navigate entrenched positions. I agree whole-heartedly.

I'm a member of our conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry and have been since I was ordained in 2011. I was honored to be invited to serve and am strongly committed to the work of the Board. It takes a lot of time and energy, but I look forward to the time I get to spend with my Board colleagues.

Our Board is diverse, made up of people with different theologies, ideologies, and ecclesiologies. We have diversity in age, gender, race, years in ministry, and background. We have elders, deacons, lay members, local pastors, active and retired... even the rare deaconess!

With such a broad palette of difference, you might think we don’t get along. With so much emphasis on what divides us, you might imagine we struggle to agree on anything. But my experience has been just the opposite. I've not found the Board to be divided over ideology or anything else. In fact, I count my fellow Board members as some of my closest colleagues. In them I find retreat.

I've been thinking about why that is. Certainly, our Board's leadership models respectful and loving relationship, but I think there's more. The work we do is hard. The work we do is important. We are all committed to it. We do it together—we speak with one voice. When we make hard decisions—such as deliberating over candidates' futures—we are filled with mighty and terrible purpose. These are emotional times; more than once we've been brought to tears. Most of all, we do this work with great care for one another.

I treasure my Board colleagues precisely because we have done hard, important work together. Like soldiers in a foxhole, we are bound by the intensity of our shared experience, which transcends ideology.

Thinking of our larger connexion—the bond we share as clergy—I've been trying to apply the same logic. As clergy we do hard work. We do important work. We know things only other clergy can understand. All this might lead to the kind of loving relationships I share with my Board colleagues, but one thing is lacking, we don't work together.

We are, by the very nature of our work, balkanized. Each of us operates in his or her own discrete jurisdiction, seldom working alongside fellow clergy in any meaningful way. Without that shared experience, it may be harder for us to form the kind of bonds our connexion demands and deserves.

I don't have any magic solutions. I just wanted to share with you some of my thoughts of the day, my love for my colleagues and the connexion we share, and my hope for the future of our conference and church.

May God continue to bless you and your leadership,

Rev. Michael A. Smith

Mohawk Valley Trinity UMC, Whitesboro, New York