wfn.org | Bishops: 'jettison jurisdictions'

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3071 notes).

Note 3062 by UMNS on July 22, 1996 at 16:03 Eastern (4192 characters).

SEARCH:  jurisdiction, bishops, boulton

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Time to 'jettison' jurisdictional conference
mentality, structures, North Central bishops say

                                 
     WAYNE, Ind. (UMNS) -- A United Methodist bishop, speaking on
behalf of his episcopal colleagues in the church's North Central
Jurisdiction, has called for jettisoning the denomination's
jurisdictional conference "mentality and structures."
     In his episcopal address at the North Central Jurisdictional
Conference here July 16, Bishop Edwin C. Boulton of the East Ohio
Conference, said the church has an important Olympian lesson to
learn: "We are carrying too much extra baggage to run well."
     Boulton, one of four bishops in the nine-state region who are
retiring this year, gave the traditional episcopal address as
about 400 delegates gathered from across the jurisdiction to elect
new bishops and assign all 10 bishops to geographic areas for the
next four years.
     "It is past time for us to bring prayerful scrutiny and long-
delayed action that will soon lead to the eradication of our
regional identities -- false gods -- which, in the coming new age,
we must transcend," Boulton said.
     In 1940 when three branches of Methodism united to create The
Methodist Church, five geographic jurisdictions were created along
with a "Central Jurisdiction" for black members.  The last
vestiges of that racial unit were eliminated in 1968 when The
Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches united to form
the United Methodist Church.  
     Prior to 1940 bishops were elected in the United States at
one General Conference.  The EUB Church elected bishops in one
national meeting prior to the 1968 union.
     Regarding the election of bishops, Boulton proposes a
"College of Electors" from regions who would gather before the
quadrennial General Conference to elect bishops from their region. 
All bishops would be consecrated at the site of the General
Conference.  Their assignments to episcopal areas would be
determined, in the United States, by an "Interregional Committee
on the Episcopacy." No bishop in the United States would be
assigned to an episcopal area from within the region from which he
or she was elected.
     "Bishops would be elected to carry the good news to different
shores," Boulton said.  "They would be missionaries."
     His proposal calls for continuing regional colleges of
bishops to provide fellowship and related means of support and
encouragement.
     Boulton said there is much more at stake than erasing some
lines on the U.S. map.  "At issue is the integrity of our
theological process ... The venial sin of the Church is that we
are tainted by the values of our cultures.  The moral sin of the
Church is that we capituate to and thus assume for ourselves the
dominant forces of the culture."
     The bishop said many church strategies are built on the
presumed response of members.  Just as the racial attitudes of the
culture influenced the jurisdictional system in 1940, Boulton said
the same was true when General Conference delegates earlier this
year developed apportionment requests based on what they perceived
the "market would bear".
     Churchwide financial requests, known as apportionments, were
set for the 1997-2000 quadrennium at annual rates of increase of
only one, zero, two and two percent.  Boulton chaired the church's
General Council on Finance and Administration which went to the
Denver Conference with a proposal for an even lesser amount: zero
increase for the first two years and two percent for each of the
final two years.
     "In Cleveland (site of the 2000 General Conference), we'll
determine if a formula of regression can produce progression," he
said.
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