wfn.org | Newly re-elected bishop shares vision for Puerto Rican church

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June 23, 2000  News media contact: Tim Tantonˇ(615)742-5470ˇNashville, Tenn.
10-32-71BP{296}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS story #295. Photographs will be
available.

By Michael Wacht*

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (UMNS) - With 78 percent of the vote on the first
ballot, Juan A. Vera Méndez was re-elected bishop of the Methodist Church of
Puerto Rico for a six-year term at the church's General Conference June 6-8.

Vera said the election "reflects that we're united."

He has been serving as the church's episcopal leader for more than two
years, since he was elected to complete the term of Bishop Victor L.
Bonilla, who stepped down for health concerns in November 1997.

Vera said he has been working intensely for the past two years "trying to
put the church in good standing in Puerto Rico" by developing a strong
program of new church starts, spiritual formation and work on social justice
issues.

The church has had success in opening new congregations in the past. It has
opened 20 new churches in the last 10 years, and membership has increased by
an average of about 20 percent annually, Vera said.
	
He plans to continue that growth. "I want to open a new congregation in
areas where Methodist churches don't exist," Vera said. "I want one church
in each pueblo in Puerto Rico."

Stronger churches are encouraged to send outreach teams into neighboring
areas to open new congregations, he said.

Vera said he also wants the churches to "be relevant to the problems facing
Puerto Rican society." He has been active in social causes himself. The
Puerto Rican government asked him to help negotiate peace with protesters on
the island of Vieques, where opposition has been mounting to the U.S. Navy's
use of the area for target practice. On May 4, Vera was arrested for
protesting the Navy's presence on the island.
	
"With 11,000 members, we are talking about the impact we can have on our
community," he said. "More than 33,000 people are impacted by the Methodist
Church every Sunday. We want to be a church that is not just known, it is
recognized in the country."

To help the church understand people's needs, a series of summits are being
held for youth, seniors, and women and children. "Through all these summits,
we are trying to invert the pyramid," Vera said. "What the people need, we
do. We are responding to their needs."

Through increased theological educational opportunities as well as increased
mission opportunities, the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico has been
rediscovering its spiritual and cultural heritage, Vera said.

Vera would like to see the Puerto Rican church become financially
independent. Although he was glad that the United Methodist Church voted to
continue supporting the autonomous church financially at its General
Conference, he said he wants "to have the funds to sustain the church."

He also plans on having a computer network that will link the conference
office in San Juan with churches throughout the island.

In other business, the nearly 180 delegates to the Puerto Rican church's
General Conference voted to amend their Book of Discipline to allow for a
new conference structure. The structure was adopted by the 1998 annual
conference but had to be added to the Book of Discipline by the General
Conference, according to Victor Ortiz, the conference's executive assistant.

The new structure divides the work of the conference into four platforms.
The first two, Transformation of the Church and Leadership, are the "cores
of the church," Ortiz said. The second two, Logistical Administration and
Planning and Quality, are support platforms that enable the churches to
focus on their core work.

Each platform has a facilitator, either lay or clergy, and includes a number
of self-directed teams that develop and implement strategies related to an
area of responsibility.

The new structure eliminated the two districts on the island and replaced
them with seven smaller regions. An elder coordinator, who is also
appointed, administers each region and facilitates the relationship between
the pastors and the bishop, Ortiz said.
	
The General Conference amended the Book of Discipline to allow local
churches to voluntarily change their governing structure. The new structure
was implemented through a pilot program involving 11 churches in January
1999. Since then, six other churches have requested to join the program,
Ortiz said. The new structure effectively eliminates boards and committees
and allows for self-directed ministry teams similar to those on the
conference level.

"You don't need a big council in a small church," Ortiz said. "Now you have
just the self-directed teams. It's a holistic approach ... to the work of
the church."

The General Conference also changed the structure of the church's Judicial
Council to include one local pastor in place of one probational member. 

Delegates removed a disciplinary requirement that anyone taking the
alternate route to ordination, similar to the United Methodist Course of
Study, be at least 40 years old. Some said the alternate track should be
reserved for older people because of their increased familial and financial
responsibilities, and younger people can better afford seminary. Others said
the alternate track did not prepare potential elders for the dangers of
ministry as well as seminary, and that only those with more life experience
should be allowed to take it.

Those in favor of removing the age requirement said it was discriminatory
and presented an obstacle to recruiting and training new pastors.

# # #

*Wacht is the assistant editor of the Florida Annual Conference's edition of
the United Methodist Review. This story was written especially for United
Methodist News Service.

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United Methodist News Service
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