wfn.org | Confessing Movement focuses criticism on United Methodist Church

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

April 21, 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
{237}

TULSA, Okla. (UMNS) - "The heresy of universalism has performed a
frontal lobotomy on Methodism's evangelistic urgency," accused the
keynote speaker at a national conference of the Confessing Movement
within the United Methodist Church here April 16-18.

The Rev. William Bouknight, senior minister at Christ United Methodist
Church in Memphis, Tenn., and vice president of the Confessing
Movement's board of directors, urged a focus on the authority of
scripture, the seriousness of sin and the centrality of the cross. Why
isn't belief in the resurrection of Jesus as non-negotiable for United
Methodists as refraining from sexism and racism, he asked.

Bouknight was one of several speakers addressing aspects of the
denomination they believe to be in need of change.

The Confessing Movement, in one of its leaflets, defines itself as
asking "for a new level of integrity in upholding our historic doctrinal
standards in a thoughtful, serious, and principled way." Other groups
and individuals in the church have accused the movement of attempting to
set litmus tests of orthodoxy and of supporting the denomination only on
the movement's terms.

Either way the movement is growing. Launched in 1994 at an
invitation-only gathering of about 100 people in Atlanta, the group
reported registration of 1,000 at this event. Convening the initial
meeting were the late Bishop William R. Cannon of Atlanta, the Rev.
Maxie Dunnam, president of  Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky.,
and the Rev. Thomas C. Oden, a professor at Drew University School of
Theology, Madison, N.J.

Active participants in the movement seem to be from the Southeastern and
South Central Jurisdictions of the United Methodist Church. This
assumption was supported when one of the speakers asked that all those
individuals from the other three jurisdictions stand, and far fewer than
5 percent of the group stood.

Bishop G. Lindsey Davis of the North Georgia Annual (regional)
Conference said he was attending "to be in Christian conversation about
the future of our church."

He expressed the belief that a recent clergy trial in Nebraska "called
into question the ability of our system to hold one another
accountable."   Because the Rev. Jimmy Creech was acquitted  March 13 of
disobeying the order and discipline of the church after having performed
a same-sex covenant service,  Davis said it is "crucial that  the
Judicial Council [the church's equivalent of the Supreme Court] clarify
the situation."  If the Judicial Council rules that the Social
Principles - where the prohibition was placed by the  1996 General
Conference - are not part of church law, he said, he wants a special
session of the General Conference as soon as possible.  The next regular
quadrennial session is scheduled for Cleveland in the year 2000.

Davis said a deeper issue is how the church regards scriptural authority
and divine revelation, but  the real crisis facing the denomination is
"a lack of spiritual leadership in the pulpits and in the pews." All
leaders in the church should be daily moving closer to having the mind
of Christ, through the practice of spiritual disciplines such as
fasting, Davis asserted.

He cautioned those present not to abandon their "covenantal commitments"
to the United Methodist Church. "We represent the mainstream of our
church," he declared.

The Rev. John Ed Mathison, president of the movement's board and
minister of Frazer United Methodist Church, Montgomery, Ala., said
people in  the Confessing Movement are being faithful to the teachings
of John Wesley, Methodism's founder. "Keep in mind we're Christians
first," he said. "We are members of the Confessing Movement and United
Methodist Church second." 

Patricia L. Miller, the movement's executive director, explained a plan
to recruit volunteer Confessing Movement coordinators for each
jurisdiction, annual conference, district and congregation.  

The Rev. George Morris, senior minister at First United Methodist Church
in Peoria, Ill., attributed the decline in United Methodist membership
over the last several decades to the rise of secular theology in the
1960s and 1970s, the surrender of scriptural authority that led to "a
gross form of Christian accommodationism" and the surrender of the
Wesleyan Methodist birthright - "holiness of heart and life."  Wesley
thought Christians had a mandate to promote holiness in every sphere of
life, he said.

The Confessing Movement is being called to spread that holiness over the
land," he said. "By removing ourselves from our Wesley environment, we
are forever trying to be something we were never intended to be."

Some speakers at the meeting spoke to particular situations in the
denomination where change is needed. Among these were Mel and Virginia
Semrod from Omaha, Neb. When several members of  First United Methodist
Church, where Jimmy Creech is pastor,  resigned after his acquittal, the
couple decided to call them together on Sunday mornings. The result is
weekly "laity rallies" at a local school that are currently attracting
approximately  475 people, she said.  The verdict left him and other
church members feeling as if they were in the eye of a tornado, he said.

Others agreed that they also had been shocked by the verdict and were
now embarrassed to let others know they are United Methodists. 

The Rev. Ed Ezaki and the Rev. Kevin Clancey,  two pastors from
California who are among several congregations seeking to separate from
the denomination, said  the California-Nevada Annual Conference is
against evangelicals . He assured supporters of the Confessing Movement
that although he will not be United Methodist, he will still be
"passionately Wesleyan."

Near the end of the conference, participants agreed to send a message to
the church and its bishops.  In it, supporters of the movement criticize
the spending practices of churchwide and conference boards and agencies
and threaten to reconsider their commitment to apportionments, a method
whereby local churches contribute to churchwide mission and ministry
causes. They also object to what they consider to be unusually large
financial reserves held by some churchwide boards. (See UMNS story
#238.)

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/