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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 (3227 notes).

Note 3227 by UMNS on Oct. 14, 1996 at 15:57 Eastern (7765 characters).

SEARCH: ministry, new order, restructure, ordained, elder, deacon,
leadership 
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                             513(10-71B){3227}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             Oct. 14, 1996

Churchwide Board of Higher Education and Ministry 
restructures; board members organize under new system

     NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- The 64 member governing body of
the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, spent
a majority of its organization meeting here, Nov. 10-12, learning
about the agency's restructure.
     The 1996 General Conference adopted a reordering of the
church's ministry that required the board to reorganize its
ministry departments.
     The new orders of ministry are deacon, one who pledges to
serve God and the church through "word and service" to the
community and elder, one who serves through "service, word,
sacrament and order." It includes a one-step ordination process
for elders and a separate process for deacons. 
     Elders are "members in full connection" of annual conferences
and appointed annually by a bishop and itinerate. When they
administer the sacraments, deacons may assist. 
     As with the present diaconal ministers, the new deacons will
not itinerate but will be considered clergy. They will seek to
connect the local church in  ministry to the world. 
     Diaconal ministers may continue in their present category or,
if qualified, may become ordained as deacons. No new diaconal
ministry candidates will be accepted after Jan. 1, 1997.
     These changes are behind the board's reorganization for the
1997-2000 quadrennium into one Division of Ordained Ministry with
three sections: Chaplains and Related Ministries, Elders and Local
Pastors, and Deacons and Diaconal Ministries. The Division of
Higher Education will not change.
     During this transition, the associate general secretaries
will share leadership of the division and each will administer a
section of the division. The leadership team is comprised of the
Rev. James Townsend, Jimmy Carr and the Rev. John E. Harnish.
     The leadership team will continue through the quadrennium and
move toward one associate general secretary for the division and
three assistant general secretaries for the three sections.
     Board members assigned to the ordained ministry division also
were assigned to one of the new sections. The sections and section
committees perform the bulk of the work for the division.
     When the transition is complete, the executive positions of
the Division of Ordained Ministry will be posted and filled.
     According to the board's top staff executive, the Rev. Roger
Ireson, the church's reordering of ministry is a move away from
tradition to a more focused definition. He said the change calls
for "an intensified sense of order as a nurturing and enabling
community."
     He said the ministry of the deacon and diaconal minister has
revived an ancient form to bring creativity and flexibility to the
church in mission. "The focus on ministry of the new deacon holds
great promise for the church," Ireson said, whether it's in
traditional church settings or in community service. "The new
deacon presents a creative opportunity for service in the ministry
teams of the future of our church." 
     According to Jimmy Carr, head of the board's Deacon and
Diaconal Ministries Section, "diaconal ministry has helped the
church define what it means to have a permanent diaconate connect
the church and the world in a meaningful way. 
     "The best of diaconal ministry will be enfolded into the new
deacon and the deacon will be much more than what the diaconal
minister is," he said.
     In his state of the board address, Ireson challenged the
members to be living icons and called them to be windows through
which the mind of Christ shows.
     "We are called to be icons so people can see God in us," he
said.  The board's mission is to prepare a new generation of
Christian leaders. 
     As icons, Ireson told board members, the agency must adhere
to the following responsibilities: care of the church's
intellectual life; the search for truth and making it known; and a
glimpse of a new reality that would bring joy and peace to the
world of a new generation.
     He said, education will remain at the center of the church's
mission. It is significant for preparing a new generation of
Christian leaders.  
     Education: the Gift of Hope is a United Methodist study
document that calls for reclaiming the Methodist heritage and
commitment both to public and private education.
     Ireson said the board is a bridge between the world of
academia and the world of the church. Although the worlds are
sometimes different and sometimes misunderstood, he 
said, both are "united in ministry" by the calling to serve and
the revelation of the eternal, the great icon of God.  
      Board members elected Bishop William Oden, Dallas, Texas,
president; Carolyn J. Hopkins, Cairo, Ga., secretary; Charles
Fuget, Harrisburg, Pa., chairman of the division of higher
education; Bill Libby, Baird, Texas, chairman of the division of
ordained ministry; Rhoda Peters, Louisville, Ky., chairwoman of
the section on deacon and diaconal ministries; the Rev. Grant
Hagiya, Los Angeles, Calif., chairman of the section of elders and
local pastors; J. Lavon Wilson, Springfield, Ill., chairman of the
section on black colleges and ethnic concerns; the Rev. Charles L.
Johnson, Columbia, S.C., chairman of the section on campus
ministry;  M. Olin Cook, Russellville, Ark., chairman of the
section on schools, colleges and universities; the Rev. Michele
Sue Shumake-Keller, Chesterfield, Mo., chairwoman of the section
on chaplains and related ministries.
     In other actions, board members:
     * approved a 1997 budget of $34.3 million;
     * set the rate of pension for chaplains for 1997 at 1 percent
of the 1997 denominational average compensation or $370.84 per
year of service;
     * celebrated the coming 1997 retirement of James Townsend and
approved establishment of the James E. Townsend Reference Library
at Wesley Seminary in the Philippines;
     * learned that the first of four chapters of "Living The
Sacred Trust: Clergy Sexual Ethics" is available so that the
church can have a systematic way to begin dealing with clergy
misconduct issues; 
     * voted Thomas Cole, president of Clark Atlanta University;
Ellen Hurwitz, president of Albright College, Reading, Pa.; Bishop
Neil Irons, Harrisburg, Pa., and Bishop Marshall L. Meadors Jr.,
Jackson, Miss., to the University Senate;
     * celebrated the successful collection of $2.4 million in
1995 with a default rate of 0.047 percent by the collections
department of the Office of Loans and Scholarships.
                              #  #  #

NOTE TO EDITORS: UMNS sent a story dated July 30, giving you the
names of people from your annual conference elected to serve on
churchwide agencies. However, that list did not include additional
members elected, here, to assure representation by gender, race,
age, geography, church size and expertise.

Additional members:
Barbara Clark Acuff, Holston Annual Conference
Celia Cox, North Alabama Annual Conference
Charles R. Fuget, Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference
Bill Libby, Northwest Texas Annual Conference
Odette Lockwood-Stewart, California-Nevada Annual Conference
Jose L. Palos, Rio Grande Annual Conference
William C. Simpson, III, North Carolina Annual Conference
Kirk VanGilder, Baltimore -Washington Annual Conference
Monica L. Walker, West Ohio Annual Conference

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