(I'm posting this for Bill Salmon) Colleagues: The following was sent to a friend and church member who is attending the United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Florida. She is helping to staff the "Tabernacle Tent" representing the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning) homosexual community; she lobbies the delegates about this topic. Saturday, she wrote about how tired she was and about a chance encounter in the prayer room during which she was driven to tears of tiredness. In this same email she recalled an incident in one of the legislative committees during which an African woman stood and cried out her frustration on any approval of the LGBTQ screaming that if passed the result would be the depopulation and end of the world. In a phrase, those at the General Conference are filled with fearfulness and deep angst. The following is my message to her. It is my message to you. We are living in "In-Between Times" in which we are experiencing the death knell of the Modern Worldview characterized by modern science, and the New Post-Modern Worldview of those so-wired after 1985. Please read on. Inner Peace, Bill PS:: When you find this is helpful, please send it out as needed. WES +++ +++ +++ Beverly, It is early Sunday morning, and I awakened to read your email about Saturday's work and your personal experience in the Prayer Room. Interesting. However, the women's screaming episode also caught my attention. In many ways it is silly, yet it has profound implications. Perhaps, your weariness and her angst have something in common. Bev, you are standing in one of the epi-centers of history, and the reason why is that we are living in a "end times" (not capitalized) very similar to the time surrounding Jesus and the Early Church, and then again between the 15th to the 17th Centuries. During these periods they experienced an "end times" associated with the collapse of the Early Church's societal model and the birth of the Scientific Method (Renaissance, Reformation, Industrialization and Urbanization i.e., the Modern Worldview). At this very moment the General Conference (GC) is experiencing the death knell of the Modern Worldview and the excitement at the birth of the Postmodern Worldview! The Death and New Birth of our Contemporary Worldviews: Notice two things. First, the previous two global changes took place over long extended periods of time: 1500 years between the Early Church and the Modern systems in the 15 to the 17th Centuries. Our Modern Worldview has been in the process for 600 years! The death knell of the Modern Worldview began in 1917 with Einstein and E=MC2, and we have lived on the cusp of the old and the birth of the new for just 100 years! In terms of global change, this is very quick. Add to this the rapid changes associated with the Baby-Boomers and then the establishment of Generations X-Y-Z that occurred in the last 25 years since 1985! The Global Breakdown: How do I know this is the case? Observe the global breakdown of our Economic, Political and Cultural systems! For the first time ever each and every member of this General Conference are experiencing the collapse of the Social Process!! Think for a moment about Global Economics and what is happening to the entire banking, business, service and resource-distribution and manufacturing systems. Think for a moment about what is happening to Global Politics. Think for a moment about our Global family systems: Educational policies, and the collapse of Global Religious symbols and stories. What this is telling us is that every delegate and observer at the GC are hurting! In particular, you are standing at the center of Global Christian Faith that is the last bastion of security in an insecure world, AND THIS IS RADICALLY BEING CALLED INTO QUESTION. Unfortunately, the majority of delegates and observers do not understand this context. People are scared shitless! They need to be hugged, and soothed and supported. Instead, they are greeted by signs and symbols and activities that represent the collapse. In your case, the collapse of our understanding of THE FAMILY and its new and more inclusive birth. On the other hand, you stand at the cusp of what was launched 100 years ago with Einstein. This is one auspicious time during which a new baby is born, a birth that could shape the next 500 years! Our task now is to rewrite the story of faith by pulling it through the metaphors and symbols of the Jesus Story; these are archetypal stories on which every global civilization finds meaning, each according to its metaphors. Are all of the stories the same--not at all, but they all have the same Ur-Texts. Christians name these texts as the Jesus story. The New Assignment: What does this mean for you at General Conference. Well, for one, get this context into the hands of as many people as possible, because this describes the angst at the heart of the proceedings. I plan to share this with as many others involved as possible. Second, instead of agitating, be a lover. Now you can reach out in sympathy to each and every hurting person. Work to offer them the hope for a new world instead of signs of the collapse. Our hope lies in the Love of God that reaches out to the hurting and frustrated of all persuasions. Get a ribbon that says, "No matter what happens now -- God will see us through." Yawl become lovers of those you see as the enemy. It seems to me that this is where you'll find Jesus. What do you think? Pastor Bill