{"id":12822,"date":"2016-05-16T21:56:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T04:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=12822"},"modified":"2016-05-17T00:11:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T07:11:21","slug":"umcgc-reflection-general-conference-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/umcgc-reflection-general-conference-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"#UMCGC Reflection: The Holy Spirit is not “incompatible” with #UMCGC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rev. David\u00a0Nieda<\/strong>
\nMay 16, 2016 | Portland, Oregon<\/h4>\n

Going into the second week of my first General Conference, I have several observations, from the first week, of the stirring of the Holy Spirit. I realize it might seem that General Conference and the Holy Spirit might seem \u201cincompatible,\u201d but here goes anyway:<\/p>\n

\"Rev.<\/a>
Rev. David Nieda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, the hospitality shown by all the volunteers has been an incredible witness of welcome.<\/strong> The Greater Northwest area has been well represented by the many individuals who have given their time and resources to faithfully serve the larger connection.<\/p>\n

Second, with Bishop Swanson\u2019s reminder of \u201cHumility, Humility, Humility,\u201d and Bishop Dyck\u2019s challenge of \u201cGo\u2026Learn…Mercy!\u201d moved\u00a0delegates and visitors\u00a0to standing ovations.<\/p>\n

Third, I have had the opportunity to observe the proceedings of a legislative committee called Faith and Order. A subgroup wrestled with the homosexuality language in our Book of Discipline<\/em>\u00a0(\u00b6304.3). As this subgroup entered gingerly into the topic of homosexuality and ordination, I witnessed incredible conversations in which difficult truths were spoken and listened to. There were moments of both grace and understanding. There were passionate admonishments and affirmations.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my conclusion: Holy Conferencing works!<\/strong> Hearing the story, seeking to understand and to be understood, listening with the heart can lead us who have different opinions to a place of being a richer and deeper community \u2013 holy community \u2013 a reflection of the church as church ought to be\u2026in my humble opinion.<\/p>\n

Rev. David Nieda currently serves as the Vancouver District Superintendent in the PNW Conference. He served previous appointments in local churches in Seattle and Los Angeles. David is married to his wife Lynne and together they have two children, Samantha (13) and Zach (8). He am passionate about church vitality, leadership development, golf, the Mariners and Seahawks, and his family, though not in that order!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. David\u00a0Nieda May 16, 2016 | Portland, Oregon Going into the second week of my first General Conference, I have several observations, from the first week, of the stirring of the Holy Spirit. I realize it might seem that General Conference and the Holy Spirit might seem \u201cincompatible,\u201d but here goes anyway: First, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":12872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[449,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-conference","8":"category-pnw-delegation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/holy-spirit.jpg?fit=1100%2C573&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3kO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12822"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12885,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12822\/revisions\/12885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}