Church assembly will be more multinational, bishop says
Church assembly will be more multinational, bishop says
Jan. 3, 2004
By Tim Tanton*
UMNS photo by Mike DuBose
United
Methodist Bishop Ruediger Minor talks about the �changing face of the
church� during the Pre-General Conference News Briefing in Pittsburgh.
United
Methodist Bishop Ruediger Minor talks about the �changing face of the
church� during the Pre-General Conference News Briefing in Pittsburgh.
Minor is bishop of the church�s Eurasia Area and president of the
denomination�s Council of Bishops. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo
number 04-030, Accompanies UMNS #033, 2/3/04
PITTSBURGH
(UMNS) - The face of the United Methodist Church is becoming
increasingly multinational - a change that will affect the
denomination's top assembly this spring, according to Bishop Ruediger
Minor.
"The
number of delegates from other countries will be larger than ever
before, which leads to a reduction of U.S. delegates," said Minor, who
oversees the church's Eurasia Area out of Moscow and is president of the
Council of Bishops.
"The
more central conference delegates, the less 'business as usual,'" he
said. These delegates probably do not know Roberts' Rules of Order, and
they will need translation assistance-all of which can make the General
Conference's work "awkward," he said.
"But it can also remind us that Christian conferencing is different from running a legislative machine."
Minor
spoke Jan. 30 to about 280 church communicators, first-elected
delegates and denomination leaders at the Pre-General Conference News
Briefing, sponsored by United Methodist Communications.
The General Conference, held every four years, will meet April 27-May 7 in Pittsburgh.
Of
the 998 delegates who will be attending, about 178 will be from
"central conferences"-regional units of the church in Africa, Asia and
Europe. That's up from 138 at the 1996 General Conference, according to
the church's InfoServ unit.
"The
voice of the central conference delegates can give a new perspective to
issues and concerns that have dominated this church and its surrounding
society for such a long time," Minor said.
For
example, dialogue could help the church "overcome its preoccupation
with numerical growth (or loss)," as well as deal with cultural issues
in which a national church can become entrapped, he said. "Fixation upon
homosexuality, on both sides of the barricade, seems to be one of
them."
Dialogue
with the central conference delegates can address problems such as
hunger, illnesses, inequality and oppression in a comprehensive way, he
said. The worldwide church can also "equalize a growing obsession with
national security-not only in the U.S.-in joining forces for a just
peace that would work for a removal of the root causes of violence and
terrorism."
A
native of the former East Germany, Minor described the impact the
church has had on people around the world, starting with his native
country, where the denomination bridged the rhetoric on both sides of
the Cold War. "It was the Methodist Church that helped me to meet Christ
and taught me the gospel and its consequences for my life as a youth in
communist East Germany," he said.
United
Methodism is helping Christianity grow in Africa, he continued. When
the Methodist Church in Ivory Coast became a mission church of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries last October, it did so
because of the denomination's vision "to provide a ministry that goes
beyond the borderlines and national and ethnic confines, claiming God's
whole world as its parish," he said.
In
the last 25 years, awareness in the United States of the denomination's
worldwide nature has grown, resulting in stronger representation of
central conferences on general boards and agencies, Minor said. "The
growing weight and influence of the central conferences leads to mutual
benefit for all parts of the church."
The
number of delegates from the central conferences has risen as the
number of United Methodists in those parts of the world has increased.
The church's growth has been particularly strong in Africa, the
Philippines and Eastern Europe. Members outside the United States
account for 1.9 million of the church's 10.2 million total.
Though
the U.S. side of the church provides much of the financial and material
support, Minor said many Americans have told him their churches have
benefited from doing mutual work with congregations in other parts of
the world. "Methodists from Missouri went to Mozambique to support the
growth of the church there, and Mozambican Methodists have been
ministering with their American partners in churches in the U.S."
The
Methodist movement has always been multifaceted, drawing on the
heritage of people from many nationalities and races, Minor noted.
"Germans have been among its first messengers, and Africans among its
early converts." Nevertheless, he said, efforts are still needed "to
make the ethnic and racial diversity of our church visible in the
composition of its leadership - to mention only one area."
News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.