wfn.org | Church experiencing Southern 'captivity,' says retired editor

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 27, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-21-71BP{531}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photo of the Rev. Keith Pohl is available for use
with this story. The full text of Pohl's commentary is available by
contacting the Michigan Christian Advocate, (517) 265-2075 or
MIAdvocate@aol.com.

By United Methodist News Service*

The United Methodist Church has become captive to its two Southern
jurisdictions, according to the Rev. Keith Pohl, longtime church editor and
commentator. 

In a two-part commentary appearing in the Michigan Christian Advocate
newspaper, Pohl says the Southeastern and South Central Jurisdictions of the
church - which made up the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South - now
hold enough delegates to sway the General Conference to their agendas. The
Methodist Episcopal Church, a predecessor denomination of the United
Methodist Church, split during the time of the Civil War and reunited in
1939.  

The church's top legislative body, meeting in May, changed the formula by
which delegates are allocated to each annual conference. Pohl, former editor
of the Michigan Christian Advocate and Circuit Rider, a national journal for
United Methodist clergy, contends that the new legislation will further
strengthen what he calls in his title "The Southern Captivity of The United
Methodist Church." 

The denomination has five U.S. jurisdictions: Northeastern, with 1.6 million
members; North Central, 1.6 million; Western, 443,815; Southeastern, 2.9
million; and South Central, 1.8 million.  The combined membership of the two
Southern jurisdictions is slightly more than the total number of members in
the other three.  

Pohl, a clergy member of the West Michigan Annual Conference, was editor of
the Michigan Christian Advocate from 1972 to 1980. After serving as senior
pastor of University United Methodist Church in East Lansing, Mich., for six
years, he became editor of the Circuit Rider, a publication for clergy
produced by the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, Tenn. He
edited the magazine from 1986 until retirement in 1993. He resides in Mason,
Mich.  

In part 1 of his commentary, Pohl lifts up the well-organized Southeastern
Jurisdiction, which has its own staff and executive, as an example of
Southern power. "When the delegations from that jurisdiction come to General
Conference, they come prepared and organized, seemingly with collaboration
from the South Central Jurisdiction," Pohl writes in the Nov. 13 Michigan
Christian Advocate. "Vital to the business of the General Conference is the
election of legislative committee officers - chairpersons and secretaries.
These elected leaders decide what and how the various petitions assigned to
the committee are to be handled."

Of the 10 legislative committees at the most recent conference in Cleveland,
Pohl notes that six chairpeople and six secretaries were from the two
Southern jurisdictions, leaving four chairpeople and other officers from the
other three jurisdictions.

He also points to the election of six of nine members to the church's
Judicial Council as an example of Southern captivity. One member of the
church's "supreme court" is from the North Central Jurisdiction, one from
the Western, one from outside the United States, none from the Northeastern,
three from the Southeastern, and three from the South Central. A motion at
the General Conference to ensure that at least one of the Judicial Council
members would come from each of the five U.S. jurisdictions was defeated.

Pohl says his experience with United Methodist culture in the South "leaves
me to conclude that theologically (with the exception of the understanding
of baptism) Methodism in the South, generally, has more in common with the
Southern Baptists than ... with the United Methodist churches in the North."

"Congregations in every section of the country tend to reflect the
environment in which they exist," Pohl writes, "and they are often shaped by
the dominant regional culture. Differences in customs, history, belief
systems, including politics and religion, explain why sections of the
country continue to be in tension in an effort to keep their future as it
has been in the past. These differences are not simply a matter of placement
on a liberal-conservative continuum - historically the North tends to slide
to the left and the South to the right. But the practical impact of their
belief systems creates a struggle for control to preserve 'our way of life'
when in a large national and international union."

In part two, to be published Nov. 27, Pohl suggests some remedies. These
include having each jurisdiction organize and arrive at the General
Conference prepared, using the Southeastern and South Central regions as
models.

He also suggests that jurisdictional boundaries be changed. "Perhaps
Virginia should become a part of the Northeastern Jurisdiction; Kentucky and
Tennessee [a part of] the North Central. Perhaps the Dakotas (now in the
North Central), Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico [and] part of Texas should
become part of the Western Jurisdiction, which covers the largest amount of
territory but has the smallest fraction of the United Methodist Church
membership." Pohl concludes that it is time for the jurisdictional
boundaries, largely set in 1939, to be redrawn and rebalanced.

"Perhaps the whole jurisdictional system has seen its days and should be
eliminated," Pohl writes. The main task of the jurisdictional conferences
held every four years is to elect and assign bishops, something that Pohl
says could be done by the General Conference. Another alternative he
suggests is letting each annual conference (or area) elect its own bishop
with no more than a 12-year tenure.

Pohl also raises the possibility of decentralization. "Why not let each
annual conference be permitted to develop its own Book of Discipline within
a general constitution set by the General Conference? Why don't we have
jurisdictional and annual conference judicial councils, something like the
federal district court system?"

National diversity is a major asset of the United Methodist Church, he says.
"Although it is second in membership to the Southern Baptists among the
Protestant churches, it is first in its geographical spread across the
nation. It is rarely first in numbers anywhere, but it is usually second or
third everywhere. In my opinion, no section of the country with its cultural
history and theological world view should hold the entire whole captive."

# # #

*Information for this story was provided largely by Ann Whiting, editor of
the Michigan Christian Advocate.

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United Methodist News Service
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