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A UMNS Report
By Heather Hahn*
1:00 P.M. ET March 13, 2012
The Rev. Robert J. Williams (left) and Bishop Larry Goodpaster,
president of the Council of Bishops, lead a discussion on the proposed
nonresidential bishop during The United Methodist Church's pre-General
Conference news briefing at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida. A
UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
In the blogosphere, commenters have called the proposed position
everything from a United Methodist archbishop to the denomination’s CEO.
One thing is certain: The proposal to set aside a bishop to serve as the
full-time Council of Bishops president is sparking discussion. Debate
about the measure even surfaced at the March meeting of the Connectional Table, which coordinates the denomination’s mission, ministry and resources.
The amendment to the church’s constitution would
allow the council to elect one of its own to a full-time, four-year
position without the usual responsibilities of overseeing a geographic
area.
According to the amendment’s rationale, the president would have the
authority to serve as the denomination’s chief ecumenical officer and
give coordination to the reforms spelled out in the Call to Action report, which calls for fostering vital congregations.
At present, the council president serves a two-year term and retains a
residential assignment to a geographic area. In recent years, the
council’s ecumenical officer has been chosen from the ranks of retired
bishops.
Proponents say the new position will give The United Methodist Church better representation in ecumenical settings and assure sustained
attention on the work of the council and the 10-year focus on
increasing the number of vital United Methodist congregations.
“One of the things the council is asking for is a leader much like our
general agencies have; they have general secretaries,” Washington Area
Bishop John R. Schol told the Connectional Table. The council, he said,
is looking for someone who can provide leadership “as it relates to
aligning work across annual conferences, as it relates to providing
accountability within the council and supporting bishops in their
leadership.”
However, critics say that the new post will help tilt the denomination’s power away from laity toward the bishops.
“The issue is that election is by the Council of Bishops, not the laity
and not half-laity, half-clergy,” the Rev. Eddie Fox, world director of
evangelism for The World Methodist Council, told the Connectional Table.
“That just violates our historical DNA.”
In some quarters, people have even called the position a United Methodist pope.
Others contend the proposal too closely follows the model of the corporate world.
Among these critics is the Rev. Mary Kay Totty, senior pastor of Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Washington. In a Jan. 29 sermon, she shared her concerns about what is most commonly called the “set-aside” bishop.
“As United Methodists, we strive to honor the voice of both clergy and laity in the
decision-making
of our churches,” she preached. “A set-aside bishop shifts that balance
of power. Some United Methodists have looked at the world around and
seen our neighbors, like business and industry, and decided that the
church needs to be run as if it were a business.”
To be ratified, a constitutional amendment first requires a two-thirds
majority vote at the 2012 General Conference, the denomination’s top
lawmaking body. It next must win a two-thirds majority of the total
annual (regional) conference voters. If the amendment is ratified, the
earliest start date for a non-residential bishop would be 2014.
New structure and the bishop
If approved, the new president would likely be the bishop chosen to
chair the proposed General Council for Strategy and Oversight. Under the
Call to Action Interim Operations Team’s proposed agency reorganization,
the general council would appoint and hold accountable the 15 board
members of the new Center for Connectional Mission and Ministry that
would encompass the work now done by nine general agencies.
That concerns the Rev. Ed Tomlinson and Joe M. Whittemore, both General
Conference delegates from the North Georgia Annual (regional)
Conference. Tomlinson is a district superintendent, and Whittemore is a
conference lay leader and Connectional Table member.
The new “set-aside” bishop, they told United Methodist News Service,
would dominate laity and other clergy on the general council because the
new body would only meet once a year. In a United Methodist Reporter column,
Whittemore suggested instead electing a lay executive of the Council of
Bishops to facilitate the accountability of individual bishops.
The Rev. Tim McClendon, a South Carolina district superintendent and himself an episcopal candidate, has a similar critique. He told the Pre-General Conference News Briefing that he thinks “the set-aside bishop is where the real power is in the proposed structure.”
Neil M. Alexander, president of the United Methodist Publishing House,
and Illinois Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer have a different take. They
are both leaders of the Interim Operations Team, which has endorsed the proposal.
“Having a full-time president of the council will help provide the
sustained and concentrated focus needed to provide resources and
consultation on best practices, along with assistance for all active
bishops in setting meaningful goals and... sharing about the best use of
key metrics to monitor progress,” they said in a joint statement.
Gary Shorb, an Interim Operations Team member, said he envisions the new
office, not as a pope or chief executive officer, but rather as a chief
operating officer for the denomination.
“The set-aside bishop is a new direction but one I think is badly needed,” said Shorb, who is president and CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn.
“That individual can focus their efforts full time on working with all
the conferences to really get some consistency in the application of
metrics throughout the church and application of performance standards,
and the applications of the way we can develop more effective pastoral
leadership.”
Totty, a reserve delegate, is wary of this focus on metrics. What works
in business, she said, isn’t always right for the church.
“Are there things that the church can learn from secular businesses?
Absolutely,” she said in her sermon. “However, churches are not
franchises — as I have heard one bishop refer to congregations. And
there is much in the life and health of a congregation that cannot be
measured for entry into a statistical report.”
The bishop and oversight
The Rev. Thomas E. Frank, a historian of Methodism and professor at Wake Forest University
in Winston-Salem, N.C., said he likes the idea of the new position,
though he doesn’t like the label set-aside bishop. It sounds too much
like the bishop in that post would not have a full workload, he said.
The proposed nonresidential bishop, he said, would have plenty to do.
That individual would help the Council of Bishops to carry out its
mandate in the denomination’s constitution to provide “itinerant general
superintendency.”
“There is no way the Council of Bishops can have a continuing voice or
practical oversight in the current model,” he said. “But General
Conference and the aggregate members of annual conferences can make it
more possible for that mandate to be carried out through a
constitutional amendment allowing for the Council of Bishops to have a
bishop whose sole assignment is to advance the oversight work of the
council.”
Charlotte (N.C.) Area Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster, the current president, also has pointed to the increasing difficulty of both leading the council and overseeing a residential area. Goodpaster submitted the amendment on behalf of the council.
Still, there’s no guarantee General Conference delegates and annual conference voters will agree with the amendment proponents.
At its meeting in May 2011, the Council of Bishops endorsed the constitutional amendment only after hours of discussion over a three-day period, and the vote was not unanimous.
“The church is double-minded,” Frank said, “wanting bishops to do
something, to turn things around, to fix our problems, to lead; but not
wanting to give the bishops any real powers other than influence.”
*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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