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Church would be healthier if bishops elected nationally, dean says

 


Church would be healthier if bishops elected nationally, dean says

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
A UMNS photo by Elaine Hopkins

The Rev. Russell Richey (left), dean of Candler School of Theology, speaks with Bishop John Hopkins.
Jan. 24, 2005

By J. Richard Peck*

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) — Electing bishops on a national instead of regional basis could be good for the United Methodist Church, a seminary dean told denominational leaders.

"We’ve become an increasingly regional church, (and) we would be healthier as a church if we elected bishops on a national basis," said the Rev. Russell Richey, dean of United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

Speaking to members of the Connectional Table, Richey noted that before the 1939 merger of three Methodist churches, elections were conducted on a national level.

Richey’s suggestion came in a question-and-answer period after he traced the history of seven ways in which Methodists have organized for ministry. In his second address, he told the 60-member body that the rich variety of organizational styles over the last 220 years should give them the freedom to suggest alternative structures and patterns.

The table, meeting for the first time Jan. 20-23, was created by the 2004 General Conference to coordinate the mission and ministries of the United Methodist Church.

Noting that one style does not entirely disappear after its period of dominance, Richey arrayed the organizational approaches in chronological order:

Oral/aural connections

Preaching, hymn singing and love feasts were the expressions of connectionalism after 1784. The assemblies were guided only by a 29-page Book of Discipline that included the Sunday service order of worship.

Event connections

Intertwined with the first connection, Methodists organized around public events such as quarterly or camp meetings, where people walked or rode horses to two-day gatherings of preaching and singing.

Press connections and voluntary society connections

By 1816, the printed word had become the way in which Methodists connected with one another. The Methodist Magazine (1818) and the Christian Advocate (1826) provided church members with a clear voice. Volunteer organizations, such as the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, also provided connective power.

Programmed and corporate connections

By the 1870s, such volunteer groups as the Missionary Society, Church Extension Society, Book Concern and Sunday School Union had become powerful and competed with one another. In 1872 and 1874, the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South ruled that directors of these independent groups must be elected by and accountable to General Conference, thus beginning a corporate structure.

Federal style connections

The 1939 union of three Methodist denominations dropped the national power and authority (including the power to elect bishops) into jurisdictional conferences. The union also created a structure similar to the federal government with separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial systems.

The linchpin in this federalism was the jurisdictional conference, which Richey described as "an accommodation to Methodist racism and Southern regionalism." The 1939 merger created the Central Jurisdiction, which placed African Americans in a non-geographical, segregated unit of the church, where they remained until the jurisdiction was abolished in 1968.

Professional connections

The 1939 union disguised a long-term trend in Methodism. Conferences increasingly functioned for clergy the way the state bar did for lawyers. They set standards, reviewed credentials, admitted candidates to the practice, pressed for compensation, contracted for health care, maintained pensions and established ethical standards. Later, other professional organizations were formed for Christian educators, lay workers, evangelists, communicators, large church pastors, musicians and others.

Post-corporate connections

The three dominant styles of the 20th century — corporate, federal and professional — are now under siege. Americans seem tired of working in, under and through corporate bureaucratic structures and tired of kowtowing to experts. Organizations respond by downsizing and resorting to new measures of influence, regulation, grant-making, franchising, consulting and credentialing. All agencies function in an atmosphere where accountability is the first order of business, where every slate is assessed for its representativeness and where suspicion reigns that money is not being equitably or properly spent.

In examining ways in which the Connectional Table might form new linkages, Richey noted that mega churches frequently have larger staff, more facilities and better-trained staff than general agencies, but they operate in ways that are not connected to the denomination. He urged table members to investigate ways to relate with such churches.

In his first address, Richey said the denomination lacks an explicitly declared doctrine, but its practices reveal an implicit ecclesiology. "We don’t have a fully formed doctrine," he said, "but we live in a way that is authentic to the orthodox confessions about the church. It would behoove us to have a more exact statement in our Discipline."

Richey is a member of a dialogue group with the Episcopal Church USA, and he said the group’s meetings have been difficult for United Methodists. "Counterparts want us to point to statements of belief about sacraments, bishops, church and the faith we confess," Richey said. "We point to reference points, but all we have are quaint, Reformation-era statements."

He lamented the elimination of a statement in the 1988 and 1992 Books of Discipline titled, "The Journey of a Connectional People." He said the section spoke of the connection as a shared vision, memory, community, discipline, leadership mobilization and linkage. The several-page statement developed each motif theologically and historically.

Richey urged members of the Connectional Table to "live into its vocation." He noted that the table is being invited to hold the denomination together and guide the church in its mission. "It’s a high calling to guide the church in setting its mission and stewardship."

*Peck, a clergy member of the United Methodist Church’s New York Annual (regional) Conference, is a correspondent for United Methodist News Service. He served as the staff person for the General Council on Ministries’ writing team that prepared the Connectional Table legislation for the 2004 General Conference.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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