wfn.org | Two Pan-Methodist commissions seek to merge

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 7, 1999 News media contact: Joretta Purdue Washington (202)546-8722
10-21-31-71B{660}
 
LOS ANGELES (UMNS) -- When the top legislative bodies of four Methodist
denominations meet again, they will not have a plan of union to consider.
However, they will be asked to merge two commissions that have been
representing the denominations in discussions regarding possible union and
overall cooperation. 

The nearly 15-year-old Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation met Dec. 2-4,
and the newer Commission on Union, established in 1996, met Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
The two meetings overlapped for a community worship service, conversation
among the bishops, dinner and reception. The groups completed a joint report
and petition at their tandem meetings, deciding that cooperation and union
were too closely related to continue meeting separately.

The report and request will go to the General Conferences of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and
the United Methodist Church in 2000.  The Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church does not hold its General Conference until 2002, so the matter will
be referred to a CME board for interim action, but final authority for the
denomination's participation rests with the CME General Conference.

At this meeting, both organizations discussed a draft of the "act of
repentance for racism," scheduled for an evening at the United Methodist
General Conference in May. This worship service provides an opportunity for
the predominantly white United Methodist Church to confess the sin of racism
and to express regret for the way people of color have been treated inside
and outside the denomination and its predecessor churches. All three
historically black denominations originated through acts of exclusion or
discrimination by white Methodists in the 18th and 19th centuries.

"It's us saying we are sorry to God and to those we have wounded," explained
Bishop William Boyd Grove, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist
Church, about the act of repentance.

Discussion of a response by members of the three African-American
denominations originated with representatives of those churches in the
Commission on Union, which met first. They asked for such an opportunity but
noted that what they had to say might not be pleasant. The topic recurred in
the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation, which has some duplication of
membership but is not the same.

In the meeting of the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation, AME Zion
Bishop Clarence Carr observed that after waiting all these years for
repentance, it was too much to expect an immediate response at the United
Methodist General Conference from those who have been offended by history.  

Grove said that while the proposed worship service speaks of God's
absolution, it does not imply that those people who have been wronged
forgive. Carr noted that restitution goes hand-in-hand with repentance. He
said that the wounds are deep and cannot be dismissed. Grove responded that
if Carr chose to express his concern during the service, it "would
contribute mightily."

Preparation of a joint report and resolution for the General Conferences
focused on providing continuation and further development of the work of the
two commissions, each of which has 24 members. The proposal for one
commission features a delegation of nine representatives from each
denomination - three bishops, three other clergy and three laity. The
resolution asks that one member of each delegation be a young adult, and it
encourages attention to some continuity of participation.

Although the proposed group is larger than the two, commission members
observed that schedule conflicts and health problems had taken a heavy toll
on attendance. They expressed the hope that one group would mean shorter and
less expensive meetings. The proposed budget of $140,000 also includes funds
for the Consultation of Pan-Methodist Bishops, which is held once a
quadrennium. All four denominations support the commission budget.

The resolution for the General Conferences includes requests that the member
denominations create annual conference committees to promote grass-roots
Pan-Methodist cooperation among their congregations and to hold a
Pan-Methodist celebration each calendar year. The resolution also calls for
testing and implementing models of union before the close of the next
quadrennium and jointly developing Christian education resources for use in
all four denominations.

The impetus for the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation came from the
Third Consultation of Methodist Bishops in 1983. Its purpose was to develop
a cooperative Christian witness. The group's accomplishments during the past
four years include leading the denominations in sponsoring the Brother to
Brother Conference held in Atlanta in 1998, jointly promoting curriculum
resources, engaging in justice advocacy and dealing with sensitive issues
related to interdenominational transfers of ministers and property.

This commission also voted to continue the Pan-Methodist Bishops' Initiative
on Children and Poverty, which it had adopted this quadrennium. 

The Commission on Union grew out of a study commission proposed by the Fifth
Consultation of Methodist Bishops in 1991. The Sixth Consultation of
Methodist Bishops in 1995 drafted a resolution for the General Conferences
that called for establishment of the commission to "prepare a plan of union
in order that the wounds resulting from the past divisions may be healed,"
that together they would make a more effective witness and that shared
resources would make them better stewards. 

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United Methodist News Service
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