We gather in Calgary to listen, learn, imagine, pray, and discern together for the sake of Christ’s Church. The Gathering does not make decisions; it offers reflection for the wider Church.
Participants are encouraged to share their experience of the Gathering through conversation, newsletters, blogs, social media, and interviews. This covenant is not a restriction on sharing. It is an invitation to communicate in ways that are trustworthy, safe, generous, and grounded in love.
The covenant follows the General Rules of the Methodist societies: do no harm, do good, and attend upon all the ordinances of God. It will be presented for the body to affirm on the first day of the Gathering. Please watch the video and read the covenant before you arrive.
Read the covenant
Download the full covenant to read before the Gathering. It will be presented for affirmation on the first day.
Video transcript
Hey, friends, DeAndre Johnson here. I’m a deacon serving in the Texas Annual Conference and also a member of the design team for the Council of Bishops Leadership Gathering happening in Calgary in just a couple of weeks. I want to share a little bit with you about our covenant for conversation and sharing that is meant to help us as we begin our work in Calgary.
We’ll be joining together in holy conferencing, and in this Leadership Gathering, we’re not making decisions for the church. Rather, we are offering a reflection to the wider church so that we all together might listen deeply to what the Holy Spirit might be inviting us into, not only for this moment, but for all the moments hereafter. And so, as such, we really do want to invite the wider church to discern well with us. So we want to encourage you as a participant to share widely and broadly in all the means that are before you, whether through social media posts or blogs, newsletters, interviews, et cetera. This is not to offer any kind of restriction on how we might share, but rather to help us communicate in ways that can be trustworthy and safe and generous and grounded in love. Our covenant is divided according to the General Rules of the Methodist societies: to do no harm, to do good, and to attend upon all the ordinances of God.
So first, do no harm. By this, we mean to protect people without protecting secrecy. Throughout our time together in Calgary, we’ll be in different kinds of spaces that warrant different levels of accountability and confidentiality. When we are in worship and in plenaries, all those moments will be livestreamed and shared widely with the whole church already. And so we encourage you to join us in sharing widely with the whole church in all of those things.
We’ll be in other spaces, like our covenant groups and our cohort groups, where those conversations are meant to be a little more confidential. That invites us to share more openly with each other so that we can really wrestle with the Spirit together. And there, in those spaces, we want to be careful how we share, because we don’t want to attribute a post or something that’s said to a specific person without their permission. And so we can share broadly what the group is wrestling with, some of the questions the group is struggling through, et cetera. But we don’t want to give a play-by-play of, well, this person said this and then this person said this. We don’t want to do any of that, or do any recordings of any of that, without first asking permission of the individuals and of the group as well.
And then there may be other times, whether in these covenant groups or outside the covenant groups, where persons are asking for a pastoral heart. Maybe they are offering a lament about something, or maybe it’s something deeply personal to them, or maybe it’s something they have specifically said: Will you please keep this in confidence? We want to honor that confidence. We want to honor that sharing by not sharing it broadly into our own communities without first seeking permission.
I hope you hear a theme here, friends. All in a whole, we want to let consent govern the ways in which we share about each other, while we also encourage ourselves to share broadly about some of the things that we are talking about and wrestling with. As we do that, we’ll be mindful that we’re not speaking on behalf of any one person or on behalf of any entity. We will not say, well, the Council of Bishops said this, or The United Methodist Church is doing this. Instead, we will say, well, you know, we explored these things. We heard these things. Our group wondered about, or one possibility that was raised was, so that we’re not speaking determinatively or finally about any one thing.
That actually leads into the second General Rule. Not only do we do no harm, but we must do good: to share in ways that help the church to listen and to learn and to grow. One of the ways you can do that is by speaking for yourself. Again, not speaking for anyone or any entity, but instead speaking for yourself. What did you experience? What did you wonder about? What questions did you raise, and what answers might you provide?
Not only speak for yourself, but share the questions as well as the answers. Don’t just give the conclusion; give the question that you wrestled with and the answer that you came up with. Not only that, but make room for many voices. Well, this is my opinion, but I also heard that others are saying these things or are wondering about these things. Make room for many voices in your sharing so that it’s not just a one-sided sharing.
Providing context. We want to provide context so that we don’t just take one sentence or one moment or one conversation and take that to be the final word or the final answer to this question. Instead, we’ll provide the context of how we got there, or what the context of the discussion was that led to this moment, that led to this sentence, or whatever it might be.
And lastly, practice gracious correction. If you find that you have shared something that’s inaccurate, correct it promptly. And not only that, do what it takes to repair trust, and repair it well and promptly as well. Our goal in all of this is not to control communication about the Gathering, but instead to offer a faithful, many-voiced witness to a church that’s listening with us for the Holy Spirit.
So we’ll do no harm, we’ll do good, and lastly, we will attend upon all the ordinances of God. As you know, holy conferencing is itself a practice of Christian formation and discipleship. It is a means of grace. And as such, as we gather together in Calgary, every aspect of our gathering is an opportunity, a doorway even, for the Holy Spirit to speak to us, for the Holy Spirit to come and wrestle with us until we are changed into something brand new. And so let us come, and let us lead with curiosity. Let’s lean in to listen for how the Spirit might be speaking through each other and through each moment of our gathering together. Before we post, let’s first stop to notice what the Spirit might be doing.
And before you share, perhaps consider a set of questions. Is it true? Is it mine to share? Could sharing it cause harm? Does it help the church understand? And lastly, does it reflect the love of Christ?
Listen, when in doubt, for all of this, what we want to invite you to do with us is to first ask permission, to protect the person, to provide context, and to tell the truth. These are ways for us to enter together into this work of holy conferencing so that we might together listen for what the Spirit is doing in our lives.
I’m looking forward to being with you in Calgary, and looking forward to what the Spirit might yet do and how the Spirit is speaking to us. I’ll be praying for you. I pray that you pray for me, and we’ll pray together for what the Lord will do with The United Methodist Church. See you soon.
Prepare for the Gathering with On the Way to Calgary, devotions and prayers from seven bishops.
Return to the Council of Bishops Leadership Gathering.