2016 General Conference- Day 5

Hospitality in Communication:

We saw it this morning if you were watching the live stream. Moses Kumar, head of GCFA, got so excited about the ministry of the United Methodist Church, someone had to walk on stage, stop him, and remind him to slow down. I would have died of embarrassment if it had been me. But not Moses. He was too excited?

Why do this? Because while most of General Conference is conducted in English, not everyone speaks English (and even fewer people speak English-only). To facilitate that, General Conference is instantly translated into eight languages (English, French, German, KiSwahili, Korean,
Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Swahili). This requires slowing down–something every USAmerican from the southeast save me has no problem with.

Folks don’t do this intentionally. But we do need to be reminded to slow down our natural speech rate. I witnessed something today. One of my more conscientious friends got called out for speaking too fast. He wasn’t being inhospitable. It’s just that he was so prepared for his work that he spoke of each petition by its 6-digit assigned number as if he were calling out my name. It can be difficult to remember that not everyone is prepared as you are–especially delegates wrestling with language differences or reserve delegates sitting in who had not prepared for a committee.

Vote Up, Vote Down, Adjourn Early

Watching the #umcgc Twitter hashtag thread, several things became readily obvious. The first was problems with committees using technology to vote. Then there was confusion over voting–did a “yes” mean “no” when voting on a matter a subcommittee voted non-concurrence? Also, folk were getting sick. One of the committees adjourned early when the chair passed out. Word is folk are skipping meals and getting dehydrated. Drink your water, people. Candler was nice enough to offer slick water bottles. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

~~Vital Signs~~ Important Numbers