United Methodist agency looks inside, outside on unity issues
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The Rev. Larry Pickens |
Sept. 27, 2005
By Linda Bloom*
SEATTLE (UMNS) — United Methodists need to move beyond their historical isolation and divisions to become a truly global church.
“The United Methodist
Church is a communion that is centered, both economically and
politically, in the United States,” said the Rev. Larry Pickens, chief
executive of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns. “This does not reflect the explosive church
growth and radical change happening in many of the central conferences
(outside the United States).”
Pickens presented a
draft plan for a “Forum on the Global Nature of the Church” during the
commission’s Sept. 22-25 annual meeting in Seattle. “The goal of the
forum is to create a setting where representatives from Africa, Europe,
the Philippines, the United States and Latin America can tell their
stories,” according to the plan.
The forum would include
a series of regional consultations and also cover issues such as
poverty, war and conflict, HIV/AIDS and human rights. The plan will be
considered by the commission’s long range/strategic planning committee.
The commission is
starting its own global exploration by setting its spring meeting next
April in Geneva, where it will meet with representatives of the European
church and visit ecumenical agencies, such as the World Council of
Churches. Smaller delegations also will travel to the Vatican that month
and to Cuba in October 2006.
Attending to ecumenical
concerns, commission members approved the sending of a letter to Bishop
Thomas Hoyt, president of the National Council of Churches, to express
sadness over the fact that the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian
Archdiocese of North America had recently withdrawn its membership from
that group. A copy of the letter also was sent to the archdiocese.
The council did not
make an adequate effort to address the archdiocese’s concerns, either
before or after the withdrawal, according to the letter.
“We believe the impact
of this loss to the council will become apparent over the coming months
and years, and we implore the council leadership to take immediate steps
to understand this action and reach out to leadership within the
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese,” the letter said.
While affirming the
NCC’s witness on social justice, the commission’s letter also expressed
concern about the “partisan political tone” of a June fund-raising
letter signed by the Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist who serves as
the NCC’s chief executive. The fund-raising letter is believed to have
been a factor in the archdiocese’s decision to withdraw its membership.
“We hope that this
concern will be addressed in a formal way within the council’s
accountability structures, and that future letters of this kind will be
more temperate in tone, avoid partisan politics and give witness to
social justice concerns in a manner that affirms the (NCC’s) primary
task of working for the unity of the church,” the commission’s letter
said.
Bishop Scott Jones of
Wichita, Kan., gave commission members a brief history of the bilateral
dialogues between the World Methodist Council and Roman Catholic Church.
An outgrowth of the
Second Vatican Council, the dialogues began in 1967 and operate in
five-year cycles. “There is a network of people who have given their
lives to this kind of work,” he said.
Jones believes dialogue
between two different communions not only helps them find new ways to
work together but also clarifies conceptions of the other faith and
promotes theological self-understanding. By being patient and taking a
long-term view, opportunities for progress can be found, he said.
He lamented that there
has been little communication between the teams conducting the World
Methodist Council-Roman Catholic dialogues and the United Methodist-U.S.
Roman Catholic dialogues sponsored by the Commission on Christian
Unity.
The bishop noted that
new dialogue teams are being named soon, and he suggested that one
participant be a member of both the World Methodist Council and
Commission on Christian Unity teams. He also proposed that officers of
the two dialogue groups meet together.
Jones addressed the
issue of unity within the denomination by describing the unity task
force formed by the United Methodist Council of Bishops in response to
tensions during the 2004 General Conference, the denomination’s top
legislative body, and the unity resolution adopted there.
“The gift and purpose
and ministry of bishops is, in part, to teach,” he said. The task force
is considering a series of teaching events over the next three years “to
talk about unity in ways that will pull us together,” he said.
“If unity is going to be of value, we need to talk about it,” the bishop said. “We need to do Bible studies about it.”
In other business, commission members:
- Recommended that
member denominations of the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation and
Union “act together in respect to membership in Christian Churches
Together and that the United Methodist Church take no further steps
toward full membership in the CCT in the absence of substantial
concurrence by the other denominations in the Commission on
Pan-Methodist Cooperation and Union.” (See related story, UMNS #539.)
- Engaged in discussion
and training on “Mutual Recognition and Mutual Reconciliation of
Ministries,” a document prepared by the ministry task force of Churches
Uniting in Christ.
- Learned about ecumenical work in the Greater Seattle area from a panel of local representatives.
- Agreed to plan for a
formal United Methodist-Muslim dialogue, taking into consideration any
dialogues that already might be occurring in local communities.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio Interview with the Rev. Larry Pickens
“We have to find venues for conversations across borders.”
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Resources
Commission on Christian Unity
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