An E-pistle From Bishop Mike

June 3, 2008: "Taking the Vote on Imagine Indiana"

Last week during the North Indiana Conference Session, there was a lot of talk about how to take the vote on Imagine Indiana in a way which would allow the South Indiana Conference to have a discussion and make a decision with the same freedom enjoyed by the North Conference. Finally it was determined to make the final vote on the Imagine Indiana plan a written ballot (after various amendments were considered, which means in parliamentary language that the report had been “perfected”). That written ballot was sealed, and the results will not be announced until after the South Conference has its discussion and makes its vote on the Imagine Indiana report.

Although that process with a written ballot was not what I had originally expected, I appreciated the concern which prompted that process. In fact, I think it was an act of hospitality for the North Conference to decide to take a written ballot and to seal it until after the South Conference has its turn to deal with the Imagine Indiana report.

Given that decision and process by the North Conference, I anticipate the same process in the South Conference. The Imagine Indiana team will present their report on Thursday, which will be followed by “Christian Conferencing” groups to discuss the report. Then on Friday afternoon will come the final plenary discussion, amendments, and voting. I think it is wise for the South Conference to also take a final, written ballot on the report.

Both ballot results (North and South) can then be announced on Saturday morning (we don’t want to interrupt the Ordination Service at South Conference on Friday night to make such an announcement). Since the South Conference Session is being Web cast (just like the North Conference Session), people from North and folks back home in all of our local churches will be able to get those results at the same time on Saturday morning. Anyone who has a computer with a good internet connection (high-speed cable works best) can watch the Web cast by clicking onto the South Indiana Conference Web page at www.sicumc.org and clicking onto the Web cast link. This is the first year we have used that technology in both conferences, and it allows participation from anyone with a computer connection to watch the proceedings.

I anticipate that the Saturday morning announcement of the ballot results from both conferences will be watched online by a large number of people. That’s good! No matter what the results from the two conferences, we want our process to be fully transparent and a time of widespread participation.

Lots and lots of work and conversation has already happened with Imagine Indiana, and now it is time to take the vote and to report the results.