Brackett Memorial United Methodist Church

06/17/2019

What a beautiful farewell to Rev. Angela and Dan! And isn't Liz Rollins crazy talented?!

06/13/2019

What an amazing Pentecost! Welcome to the family little sister Peri and welcome home Fred & Chris!

05/29/2019

05/26/2019

Welcome home, Otis & Mavourneen! So glad to have you as members of our church family!

05/15/2019

A message from the May 2019 Meeting of the Council of Bishops

The Council of Bishops completed its May 2019 meeting with a pastoral and prophetic word in response to Special Session decisions and codification of them in the Book of Discipline.

04/21/2019

The rain didn't stop our Easter Egg Fun!

04/19/2019

Good Friday Prayer Stations using pictures from the Holy Land along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem - tonight at 7pm.

04/18/2019

Come remember Jesus's great commandment - that we love one another - at tonight's footwashing and communion service. 7pm.

03/21/2019

Family Promise is on the Today Show right now!

03/05/2019

Friends and neighbors of Peaks Island and the greater Portland community,
(Required disclaimer: I speak only on behalf of myself and the congregation of the Brackett Memorial United Methodist Church who has asked me to publicly offer information and assurance to our greater community.)
By now you have heard there is major upheaval in the United Methodist Church. Reports have been shared through local news, national news, online responses, radio interviews and call-in shows. You have read headlines like: “United Methodist Church on Edge of Breakup Over LGBT Stand” (NY Times), “United Methodists' Anti-LGBTQ Actions Could Create Schism” (NPR), “Fractured After Vote Against LGBT Clergy, Weddings, United Methodists Face Possible Split” (CNN). I would like to share with you some words of hope and assurance.
First a little context: The United Methodist Church operates under a Book of Discipline (i.e. Church Law) which includes a Constitution. Before any plans were brought to this Special General Conference (i.e. Legislative Branch), the Council of Bishops (i.e. Executive Branch) required they all be subjected to review by our Judicial Council (i.e. Supreme Court). This gave the supporters of the plans time to write amendments that could be brought up at the conference to “perfect” their respective pieces of legislation. (If this sounds familiar to our national system of government, there's good reason as they were designed at about the same time in our history.)
The “Traditionalist Plan” was passed with at least 10 constitutional problems and has been referred back to the Judicial Council which meets again in April. This plan does indeed strengthen the Church Law against our LGBTQIA siblings and against those who choose to break Church Law in their support. The plan squeaked by with approval of 53%. However, nearly 70% of US churches stood in opposition to sustaining and increasing the harm we have caused the LGBTQIA community. And there has been a deafening outcry for justice. International boards and agencies of the United Methodist Church have spoken out against this legislation. Full page ads have been run in newspapers in Oklahoma and Georgia. The entire Western Jurisdiction (covering eight states from Nevada through Alaska plus Guam) has refused to accept this decision. The New England Conference (about 600 churches) considers ourselves a “Non-Conforming Conference,” meaning that we have been denouncing Anti-LGBTQ legislation for years.
What I truly want the Peaks Island Community to hear is that the Brackett Memorial UMC is also a Non-Conforming Congregation and we will continue to be so. We have been and continue to be prepared to break church law in order to honor and love our LGBTQIA siblings. We don't do this for praise but because this is our calling from Christ: to love one another as we have been loved. We will “Stand our Holy Ground” as a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network. We will continue to offer safe space for all people who seek to be inclusive in their relationships and who seek to know a God who turns no one away. We celebrate your God-given gifts. We bless your covenantal relationships. We honor God's call on your life to bring hope, joy and love to the world.
While we do not know where things will go from here for the international United Methodist Church (much will depend on the Judicial Council ruling in April), one thing is sure: Brackett Church will always be a place of welcome. Love has not won, so God is not done!
Yours in Love,
Rev. Angela Rotherham

02/27/2019

From our Bishop Devadhar:

Feb. 26, 2019
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with tumult.

Psalm 46:1-3

Dear Beloved in Christ,

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We have just concluded the special session of the General Conference in St Louis. During this gathering of the global church, we worshiped and prayed together and spent time in Christian conferencing, but much remains unresolved and unknown.

Though the actions of the General Conference are still subject to review by the Judicial Council, we return with a Book of Discipline that moves us further from full inclusion. This is disheartening at best and despairing at worst.

While our call as United Methodists is to do good, do no harm, and stay in love with God ... I suspect we have fallen far shorter on the first two than the last. I ask that we spend time in prayerful confession of the ways our church has caused deep pain to beloved children of God, particularly LGBTQIA and their allies. No matter what plan you supported for the way forward, remember that when one part of the body suffers, so do we all - and so now we are all in need of healing.

My prayers continue for our church and for each of you in this covenantal community, for all LGBTQIA children of God and their allies, as well as for those who are listening to our words and watching our actions.

I continue to pray for a day when we can live together in the unified Spirit in a fully inclusive church. I celebrate the beauty and rich variety of gifts that God has created, and I have faith that God will create, in and through us, a beautiful incarnation of the Body of Christ for the transformation of the whole world.

As you gather with your congregations this Sunday, I pray you will build up one another in love, caring for each other’s needs, and praying for God’s spirit to inspire you to witness to Christ’s love in your communities.

In the next two weeks, your superintendents, in coordination with our delegation to this special session of General Conference, have scheduled opportunities for you to gather for support, prayer, and “Courageous Conversations” with one another as we process the actions - and inactions - of the general church and seek a faithful response. I hope and pray these will be opportunities for us to do good and begin to heal while we stay in love with God and each other.

May our faithful God hold us in strength as we witness to the powerful love of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, for such a time as this.

In Christ’s Love,

Bishop Devadhar

Transformed by the Holy Spirit, united in trust,
we will boldly proclaim Christ to the world.

02/27/2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
General Secretary responds to General Conference 2019
Commits General Board of Church and Society to work for LGBTQ civil and human rights

February 26, 2019
Contact: Warren Gill, (202) 770-1332
[email protected]

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — General Secretary Susan Henry-Crowe of the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church released the following statement after the close of the 2019 General Conference of The United Methodist Church:

"The United Methodist Church's special General Conference failed Tuesday to love LGBTQIA people, recognize their gifts in the church, maintain our unity in the midst of diversity, and to live out our Gospel mandate to seek justice and pursue peace.

"We worship a fully-inclusive, justice-seeking God. Church and Society is committed to living out our faith, seeking justice and pursuing peace. We will be in ministry with all people who seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Church and Society will never cease to work with God to build the fully-inclusive realm of God on earth.

"The 2019 General Conference chose to further deepen the divide in The United Methodist Church. The plan adopted by a slim majority is punitive, contrary to our Wesleyan heritage, and in clear violation of the mandate given to us in 1 Corinthians 12.

"'The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!"' (1 Corinthians 12:21a) One part of our church cannot say to another, "I don't need you." And yet, that's exactly what happened.

"The 2019 General Conference brought unbearable pain to the body of Christ. The delegates’ resistance to hear and honor the presence and voices of LGBTQIA people has created a wound. The wound may one day be healed by the grace of God, but the scar left behind will visible forever.

"Our prayer must be of repentance. We must seek forgiveness. We must call on Christ to heal all of the brokenness we have imposed on the body.

"I will pray for forgiveness for my part of having participated in a church that has excluded, pushed out and damaged many faith-filled LGBTQIA people. For all the families and young people wounded by these exclusions, we must always pray.

"Whatever comes next for The United Methodist Church, I am steadfast in my belief that the General Conference cannot release us from our responsibility to love and care for a world groaning for justice.

"We must also put our faith into action, and continue to work for LGBTQIA equality in civil and human rights.

"We will seek justice for LGBTQIA migrants. We will seek to end conversion therapy, the dangerous and discredited idea that you can change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. We will work to ensure that no one is fired from their job or prevented from access to housing because they are LGBTQIA. We will work to end hate crimes against LGBTQIA people, especially LGBTQIA people of color. We will seek a climate in which LGBTQIA children are protected and enabled to live full and flourishing lives.

"The work of justice and peace continues. Whatever comes next for The United Methodist Church, I am steadfast in my belief that the General Conference cannot release us from our responsibility to love and care for a world groaning for justice."

The General Conference is the legislative body of The United Methodist Church and is comprised of more than 800 delegates from around the world. General Conference generally meets every four years, but met in a special session Feb. 24-26, 2019, in order to deal with matters of ministry of and with le***an, gay, bisexual, transgender, and q***r people.

The delegates to the regularly-scheduled 2016 General Conference recognized The United Methodist Church is not of one mind when it comes to the ministry of and with LGBTQ people. They asked the United Methodist Council of Bishops to set up a process to figure out a way through this disagreement.

The Council of Bishops then appointed 33 people to The Commission on a Way Forward. Their task was to find a structural solution to this theological disagreement.

The commission presented the Council of Bishops three plans.

The Connectional Conference Plan was a massive restructure of the denomination. The Traditionalist Plan further entrenching the denomination's stance on human sexuality. The One Church Plan codified the regional differences already present in the denomination.

The bishops recommended the One Church Plan. The delegates to the 2019 General Conference chose the Traditionalist Plan.

The United Methodist Church's Social Principles state, "Certain basic human rights and civil liberties are due all persons. We are committed to supporting those rights and liberties for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation." (Social Principles, ¶162.J)

The Social Principles also say that The United Methodist Church supports “the rights of all persons to equal access to housing, education, communication, employment, medical care, legal redress of grievances, and physical protection.” (Social Principles, ¶162)

The United Methodist Church also “deplore[s] acts of hate and violence against groups or persons based on … sexual orientation [or] gender identity.” (Social Principles, ¶162)

Church and Society is the social justice public policy agency of The United Methodist Church. Its main office is located across from the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Rooted in our faith, we seek to implement the statements of the denomination as contained within the Social Principles and Book of Resolutions.

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