It’s difficult for those who weren’t here to appreciate the caliber of disaster for Mississippi United Methodism brought about by James Swanson’s assignment as our Bishop in 2012. In the fall of 2012, the Mississippi Conference had the lowest average age of Elders and Deacons of any Conference in the United States. If the adopted policy of the Conference had been “Let’s run all these young clergy off that we can, ” it couldn’t have been more effectively implemented.

In 2013 two “semi-closeted” gay men were ordained Elder. This was a decision made by the Board of Ordained Ministry appointed by Hope Morgan Ward. One of them was already serving in a Conference in the Western Jurisdiction. He was transferred out to that Conference in 2014. The other was subjected to relentless bullying by Bishop and Cabinet for the next five years until he two left for the Western Jurisdiction.

In 2014 a gay clergy who was serving very effectively at a Jackson church “came out.” His congregation would gladly have kept him as pastor. He “voluntarily” surrendered his credentials. When an Elder in the Clergy Session tried to bear witness to his loving pastoral care of her family, Bishop Swanson cut her off and compared the gay pastor to another who was departing that year due to adultery.

I’m unable to ascribe motive to Bishop Swanson’s unrelenting homophobia and attempted silencing of allies, but it was clear that the ultra-conservatives were being told “You hate Hope Morgan Ward and The Gays? I’m on your side.”

Brief excursus on our family and appointment life: Luke graduated from high school in 2013. He received a Mississippi Occupational Diploma. He was unable to keep the job he’d begun the spring semester of 2013. His ASD manifested itself. While in high school, I want to give a special shout-out to Carol Byrnes, Luke’s Theater and Art Teacher. Carol had a way of “getting through” to Luke that no other teacher in 13 years did. She included Luke as a cast member of several high school theater productions. His ASD and accompanying social skills deficits resulted in “issues,” but she hung with him.

In the fall of 2013, we thought we’d “ease” Luke into community college. He was enrolled in one class, English Composition, in which he made a B. When we went to register him for Spring 2014, we were told he could not register. The State College Board had made a decision that students with a Mississippi Occupational Diploma could not register for University Transfer courses. This decision applied retroactively to those who had begun that course as ninth graders in 2009. Since we lacked a time machine, that was the final say.

In 2014 Lynette’s appointment in semi-rural Rankin County was winding down. I also had been a half time pastor at my small church for five years. We received support from our District Superintendent for asking for transfers and for me to return to full time for the first time in seven years. Lynette was appointed as Associate Pastor of a very large two campus church on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I was appointed to a different church on the Gulf Coast. We would live in the parsonage for that church. Sarah graduated from the Mississippi School of the Arts in May 2014 and chose to attend Millsaps College. Her mother and I were quite pleased.

Lynette discovered that things were MUCH less than “well” at her church within days of arrival. There were multiple competing factions, with a clear division between the “Downtown Campus” and “East Campus” folks. The staff were also often at odds with each other. Lynette’s first instinct was always to be the peacemaker and to listen to all sides. This was her “superpower” as a Pastor, as a wife, and as a mother. Listening to all sides and seeking to be a peacemaker became her more-than-full-time and consuming job. I was very happy to be back to full time pastoring. I relaxed a little, as I came to perceive my church was not “hard right,” culturally, theologically, and politically. The worship style and music choices resonated with mine. I was happy to go to work every day.

I’ve already alluded to the 2015 “fixed” General and Jurisdictional Conference elections. Several Elders from the hard right in our Conference had told me they could not countenance a “live and let live,” “agree to disagree,” “think and let think” approach to LGBTQ inclusion. Two said, in so many words, “I don’t want to enter into dialogue. You’ll just try to change my mind.” This could only end with winners and losers. They appeared to have the votes to be the winners. In addition, Bishop Swanson wasn’t even pretending to be neutral, but openly sided with the ultra-conservatives.

In August 2016 another of those “out of the blue” events occurred in our family. Lynette was diagnosed with Stage 4 Inflammatory Breast cancer. I have told this story extensively in my “Cancer Journey” series on this same blog site. I won’t revisit here, except to say that it was clear by January 2017 that Lynette’s survival was a matter of months, not years. We perceived a need to have our family closer to Sarah in Jackson and Lynette’s sisters in north Mississippi. I was appointed to an extremely rural church about 20 miles south of Jackson. I was not suited to this church in ways too numerous to count, but I put my head down and “did my best.” Lynette had three trips to MD Anderson in the fall of 2017. She died December 12, 2017. Certainly, any who suddenly find themselves identifying as “Widow” or “Widower” can appreciate how harrowing that was.

I have been somewhat “down” on Conference leadership (because they earned it), but I want to shout out Connie Mitchell Shelton, who was our District Superintendent during Lynette’s last six months of life. Connie showed up on our move-in day to help unload the U-Haul trucks. Her high heels were no hindrance. She was with us through numerous hospitalizations, bringing us communion in the hospital at one point. She was the first clergy on scene after Lynette died, sang at her funeral and encouraged me to take all the time I needed. She championed my appointment to a different charge that both paid substantially more and to which my gifts and graces were a much better “fit.” The Southeastern Jurisdiction, if not the ultra-conservatives in the Mississippi Conference saw in Connie someone who should be Bishop. She was elected Bishop in 2022, though with the grudging support of her own Mississippi Conference delegation. The people of eastern North Carolina are as grateful for the gift we gave them as we were for the gift of Hope Morgan Ward from them.

Luke and I moved to southwest Mississippi in June 2018. If you had told me I’d still be here six years later, retiring from this region, I’d have been quite skeptical, but so it has happened.

Many others have opined on the disastrous United Methodist General Conference, Special Session of 2019. I’d add that I posted that the Church Lynette and I had served “died” that day of the adoption of the “Traditional” Plan. Of course the Delegation NOT representing me from Mississippi enthusiastically voted for the most homphobic plan possible. Sarah, who we had raised in the United Methodist Church and who had enthusiastically participated in whatever church Lynette and I led, told me she was “gone” from the UMC. No doubt many others made the same decision.

The 2019 General and Jurisdictional Conference elections in Mississippi were just as “fixed” as they had been in 2015. The ultra-conservatives “allowed” Connie Shelton to move up from Jurisdictional Alternate to Jurisdictional Delegate. This was after our announced candidate for the Episcopacy in 2016, a lawyer less than ten years into his second career as pastor was humiliating rejected by the Southeastern Jurisdiction, but Connie had received significant votes. The difference in 2019, though, was that most US Conferences resoundingly rejected the harshness of the 2019 GC, Ultra-conservatives from other Conferences that had crafted the “Traditional” plan were rejected for election to the 2020 General Conference. Even in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, Mississippi’s ultra-conservative Delegation was an outlier, in that most delegations were moderate, as ours had been in 2012.

It was clear that “something different” would happen in 2020. To try to hold off a messy schism, a Protocol for “amicable” separation was crafted. Had the “Protocol” passed as written in 2020, the Mississippi Conference could have voted itself out of the United Methodist Church with a 57% vote. That certainly was a reachable number for the ultra-conservatives in Mississippi and would have left us moderates “orphaned.” We who were Elders would have been fired without due process. There was almost nothing good about Covid-19, but the multiple Covid-related delays of the 2020 General Conference were “good” things for us Mississippi Moderates.

The 2019 Special General Conference had also legalized church theft. When it was clear that the Protocol was dead, the ultra-conservatives in Mississippi started pushing “disaffiliation” heavily. The response from Bishop Swanson and the Conference leadership was “Here, let us help you steal your church from us.” Bishop Swanson had facilitated church theft even before the adoption of paragraph 2553, so he was already experienced in the art.

The 2022 Special Jurisdictional Conference in the Southeast showed the ultra-conservatives in Mississippi that they could no longer even veto the election of moderate Bishops. All three persons elected that year were moderate-to-liberal, including our own Connie Shelton. Bishop Swanson FINALLY retired, having wrecked more destruction to Mississippi Methodism than even Generals Grant and Sherman could have imagined. All LGBTQ persons and many of their allies had been run off and the rest had been silenced by his police state ways.

We were assigned Bishop Sharma D. Lewis, who no one else in the SEJ wanted. She had tried to do to the Virginia Conference in six years what James Swanson did to Mississippi in ten. She hadn’t succeeded due to significant push-back from the moderates in Virginia, but she certainly would do everything she could to appease the ultra-conservatives in Mississippi. By this time, of course, there was no appeasing them. Pastors appointed to United Methodist pulpits and receiving United Methodist salaries promoted the disaffiliation of their own churches and every other one they could. Openly interfering with the ministry of other pastors was viewed as a “faithful” act. Huge, bald-faced lies were told about the United Methodist Church, including from the pulpit. The response from Bishop Lewis: Crickets. She did, however, decide to bring the hammer down on two young clergywomen who had been appointed as campus ministers at Millsaps. They had conducted the marriage of two “nonbinary” alumni of Millsaps. This was no different than Don Fortenberry’s having conducted my and Lynette’s wedding forty-one years earlier, but it was treated as a Capital Offense. Bishop Lewis herself filed the complaint, seeking to have the two women’s ordination revoked. With that gun to their head, the women agreed to an “(Un)Just Resolution” that suspended one from all pastoral functioning for one year and the other (who had signed the marriage license) for 18 months. By this time, the ultra-conservatives were well beyond appeasing, so I can’t attribute Bishop Lewis’ act to anything beyond pure meanness.

In the end, about 35-40% of Mississippi’s churches disaffiliated 2019-2023, far short of the 90% predicted. Of course, we are STILL facilitating church theft through a different paragraph of The Book of Discipline, and yet more young clergy are fleeing, along with any middle aged ones that can find another place to live out their calling. I am retiring this year, along with many others, including some younger than me who have received MUCH more favorable appointments than I have. Morale among the Mississippi clergy is as low, if not lower, than it was during the 1960s, when a different Police State Conference leadership was silencing or running off those open to racial integration. The irony that two Black Bishops, who know nothing of “intersectionality” have brought us to this point is not lost on me.

The signs of hope that I see come from the postponed 2020 General Conference that finally met in April-May 2024. ALL the homophobic language and policies, dating back to 1972, were removed. No pastor or church will be “forced” to do anything against their conscience, but the possibility of punishing people for following their own conscience is now gone. Mississippi has a LONG history of actively resisting justice and inclusion, but at least the “sticks” that were used against us are gone. Of course, Bishop Lewis is now resisting the General Conference’s clear instructions to immediately reinstate the two young clergywoman, but now she’s on the wrong side of Church Law. We may even get to welcome back the definitely not adulterous gay pastor Bishop Swanson insulted.