The Wesley Journal

There were many communities to be found at the Special General Conference of the United Methodist Church held this past February in St. Louis, some of them consolidated while others were in conflict. We entered The Dome as United Methodists and left feeling a deep division. I was in the thick of this broken community as an observer. After the final plenary vote approving the Traditional Plan was announced, protests erupted around the room. Opponents began to chant and sing portions of “Blessed Assurance.” In response, proponents sang “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.” These two hymns which espouse key tenets of our faith were being flung like fiery darts at one another and piercing the heart of our community, setting it all ablaze. This was not a gentle warming akin to what John Wesley described; this was an inferno fed by years of tension and lack of understanding between parties. The inferno continued, eating up all of the oxygen in the room. I found it hard to breathe as I ...

Dear Friends, It was Jesus who said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) We must admit that leading up to the Special Session of General Conference and during most of it we, as United Methodists, have not always demonstrated the kind of love that marks us as true followers of Christ. Yet, through the grace of God, we must continue to hold on to our belief that the Church can still give evidence of faithful discipleship, capable of transforming the world in Jesus’ name and spirit. On February 26th, the Special Session of the General Conference approved the Traditional Plan, maintaining and, in some instances, tightening the language about sexuality currently present in the Book of Discipline. As we have seen in the weeks after the decision, members of our denomination have experienced a flurry of emotions. The Council of Bishops and I recognize these emotions and understand that for some members of the UMC, the church no lon...

I am the quintessential introvert and love being alone with my thoughts. It genuinely takes a lot out of me to be in spaces where I’m being pulled on from every direction. Clearly, I’m in the wrong line of work. Nevertheless, I have learned to retreat to the safety of my home at the end of the day to recharge for my next interaction with people. When I got to Wesley in the fall of 2017, I imagined that I would learn a ton about God, a lot about church, and quite a bit about leadership. What I didn’t bargain for was to learn as much as I have about the power of community. My first semester at Wesley was lonely and if it weren’t for the smiling faces of my friends who were ahead of me, I would have bowed out of this experience altogether. As I wrestled with my call, it was passing conversations with people wrestling just like I was that encouraged me to keep wrestling. Conversations with faculty reminded me that even though I’m still figuring this thing out, God was very present...

I have encountered many different communities throughout my relatively short life. It always looks different, though there are some consistencies across the board. Community is really hard. It is hard to live with people. Period. More importantly, community is really beautiful. In addition to the community we all experience by attending Wesley Theological Seminary, I have the privilege of living in the Birch Intentional Community at Wesley Downtown. Intentional community is a pretty broad term - it can mean a lot of different things. There are intentional farming communities, intentional service communities, monasteries, communes, and a plethora of others. Different intentional communities have different shared rules and ways of living. Rest assured that Birch Intentional Community is far less intense than some of the types of communities. We basically operate as a family unit of adults. We are all students at Wesley at various points in our journeys here. We spend time at the be...

Wesley’s relatively small campus allows the campus community to quickly connect with one another. As students arrive on campus for their first semester, more seasoned students quickly help those learning the ropes of campus find their way. Where do you find food when the refectory is not open? What in the world is a refectory? Life on campus as an academic year begins offers new opportunities for friendship, some of which will become lifelong connections. Late night study sessions and sermon practicing in the New Residence Hall and finals week snacks in the refectory (we know now what and where it is) will become lasting memories we cherish after we cross the stage at the National Cathedral. A year or so after graduation, you will be honored as you stand next to the person who helped you move into campus as they now prepare to make lifelong vows to the person they hold closest, the person you have helped them discern this commitment to. Or so I’ve been told. As a commut...

This year, Wesley Theological Seminary has been generous to provide five Generación Latinx scholarships to allow newly-admitted students to enroll at Wesley without having to deal with financial stressors related to tuition. The message it sends to us is "welcome," "bienvenidos." Meeting Latinx students during orientation allowed for the building of community at the onset of our seminary experience. “Hello.” “Hola.” “Good afternoon.” “Buenas tardes.” These simple but welcoming salutations allowed us to meet and greet one another in English, Spanish or Spanglish. From the very beginning, Wesley was intentional about building community with a short worship service outdoors during orientation, but it has continued beyond that day. It has allowed the Latinx students who entered the 2018-2019 academic year to meet those who are wrapping up their studies at Wesley and continuing their ministries in their prospective communities. And now, what were unknown faces are ...

What a relief it was when I finally accepted that we do not have to go through the struggles of mental health alone. But how exhausting it was when I realized that “getting help” did not mean that resources would fall into my lap. Getting help meant doing a significant amount of research, including but certainly not limited to utilizing the resources on Wesley’s website, the Psychology Today website, and endless Google searches. Getting help meant taking risks and being vulnerable with complete strangers. How disheartening it was to put hundreds of dollars into therapists who weren’t the right fit and medications that didn’t work. It does not escape me that I had the privilege of being able to have insurance, and to afford what insurance wouldn’t cover (which is a lot). Yet even with all of these exhausting, disheartening, and downright frustrating aspects of the journey, it was still an immense relief to know I did not have to do this alone. It was worth it to reach out to pro...

When I first started my time here at Wesley, I didn’t expect to have a community here. Growing up in Southern California, I knew I had to overcome many things as I got settled here in Washington, DC: finding new friends, living with snow, dealing with traffic, all that stuff. I believed my time here on the East Coast was my self-imposed exile. I was just here to get my master’s and move back to the “Promised Land” that had all that I was comfortable with. But as I enter into the second half of my schooling, my perspective has changed. I have met people that I would never have met if I stayed comfortable in San Diego. I have shared conversations with those around me that have encouraged me to live in this land of self-imposed exile. But I know this is only a small glimpse of what this community offers. I do not know many people here, and not many people know who I am. But the times in which I felt connected to this Wesley community happened in unexpected places. It was in random ...

The editor of the Wesley Journal is responsible for gathering contributions, designing the layout, and final copy-editing and printing and posting of each issue of the Wesley Journal, making this the perfect (paying) job for a social butterfly with an eye for design and an opinion on the Oxford comma. If that's not you, though, and you have a desire to work with members of the Wesley community to express ideas, showcase student work, and preserve this moment we're in for future cohorts of Wesley students, never fear! This is still the position for you. The editor works with and is supported by members of the Student Council's Communication Committee to seek out contributors and receive feedback on each issue. It's a balance of independence and collaboration that gives you the opportunity to pursue a vision for each issue but to never have to pursue it alone. If you're interested in applying to be next year's editor of the Wesley Journal, email your cover le...

In light of the United Methodist Church's Special General Conference, the Student Council Executive Board wants to continue to affirm that we are in prayer for our community. We are glad our institution, Wesley Theological Seminary, is one that welcomes all. We also affirm the young United Methodists’ petition at last month’s General Conference which said that we "are not of one mind when it comes to inclusion of our LGBTQ siblings in Christ. And yet through working together, sharing stories, and worshipping side by side we have seen each other’s gifts and fruits for ministry! We have witnessed the incredible ways that God is working through each of us in our own unique contexts. We believe that if we are truly a body we need each other. We need one another, in all of our diversity—to fulfill our call to be the Body of Christ." As we continue through this semester and the stresses of classes intensify, please remember to care for yourselves and to actively love those...

When we were drafting themes for issues of the Journal, I settled on community for the March issue mostly because it would be election season for the Student Council. I wanted to give students the space to voice both affirmations of and frustrations with community on campus, knowing that we're stronger when we can speak truthfully to each other, with genuine concern about our life together. We need that space and the Journal seemed like the ideal place to offer it. And then, General Conference happened. The Special Called Session of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church met in St. Louis on February 23rd through 26th to discuss the UMC's stance on human sexuality, a topic that has been dividing us for years. While some hoped that this General Conference would provide unity, unity was not what happened. In the wake of General Conference, for United Methodists at least, community has taken on new meaning and new urgency. You'll see some of that in this...