wfn.org | Consultation takes on 'order of ministry' questions

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 29, 2002 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{235}

NOTE: Photographs of the Rev. Mary Ann Moman, the Rev. Robert Neville and
Bishop William Oden are available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Top agency executives, clerics and scholars in the
United Methodist Church have taken the first step toward resolving the
confusion around how the denomination orders its ministry.

Questions about the ordained ministry have been around the church since
1948, but debate about them has intensified since 1996, when General
Conference created a new order of deacon independent from the order of
elder. That change has spurred more questions about ordination and its
processes, commissioning, conference membership and the status of local
pastors.

Meeting May 22-24, people from diverse parts of the church adopted six
recommendations, including a proposal for separating the processes of
ordination and obtaining full membership in an annual conference. The
consultation in Nashville brought together staff and directors of the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship, Board of Higher Education and Ministry,
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, and Council of
Bishops, as well as seminary professors and deans, local pastors, deacons,
elders and lay people. 

The participants agreed to carry the recommendations back to their
respective agencies and the Council of Bishops, with the hope that the
proposals will form the basis of legislation for the 2004 General Conference
or subsequent General Conferences.

As the meeting began, the 30-member group focused on four questions: What is
ordination and the relationship of ordination and conference membership in
the United Methodist Church? What is the role of commissioning in the full
ordination process? What are the standards and boundaries that guide
credentialing and deployment of local pastors and the ecumenical issues
related to full-time and part-time local pastors? How does the current
ordination process support the need for clergy in the denomination?

The group discussed concerns about whether the denomination's system of
ordering ministry is compatible with those of other communions involved in
Churches Uniting in Christ, an ecumenical organization that recently
replaced the Consultation on Church Union.

Before 1996 - and extending back to Methodism's founder, John Wesley, and
his Anglican heritage - the order of deacon was defined by dedication to and
competence in service and was regarded as preliminary to the order of elder,
said the Rev. Robert Neville, dean of United Methodist-related Boston School
of Theology. An elder would first become a deacon and serve three years on
probation before entering full connection as an elder in the church.   

The role of deacon was redefined and separated from the elder in 1996,
becoming "an order final and complete in itself and not preparatory for
anything else," Neville said. Probation for elders' as well as deacons'
orders is done "through an unordained status of being commissioned and
admitted to probationary membership in the annual conference," he said.  

An elder in full connection is authorized to preach and teach, administer
the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion, and order the life of the
church for ministry. The deacon is ordained to a ministry of word and
service, but may not administer sacraments. 

Once the United Methodist Book of Discipline's sections about ministry were
amended to establish the new order, Neville said the "resulting language
thus contained many layers of theologies, different rhetorical approaches to
defining ministry; and often contrary social and ecclesiastic agendas. ...
The attempt to find in the Discipline a consistent theology of ministry
about deacons, or about the redefined elders or licensed local pastors, or
the relation of any of these to the laity, is hopeless."

The changes in the ordering of ministry also caused problems in relation to
ordination and conference membership, according to Neville. Before 1996,
conference membership and ordination had been viewed as being together - an
elder is a member in full connection and a deacon is ordained but under
probation for conference membership. "By redefining the order of deacon to
be not at all a probationary stage for ordination of elders, the 1996
General Conference posed for itself a new problem: how should probation be
handled."  

The result was that General Conference gave both orders conference
membership in full connection, which "seemed to give equal dignity to the
order of deacons," he said. "The probation for other orders was handled by
an elaborate set of procedures for commissioning that allows aspiring
deacons and elders to serve in their respective work for a probationary
period without being ordained."

The quandary, said Bishop William Oden of Dallas, is that "ordination is a
rite of the universal church, but itinerancy and conference membership are
bound together for all ordained elders but not for ordained deacons."

If the denomination is to fulfill its reason for being, Oden said, it must
clarify its polity and deepen its theological understanding of both lay
ministry and ordained ministry.  

After much discussion, the consultation participants decided that
"preparation for ordination and full conference membership be understood as
a movement in which the church and candidates for ordination are engaged in
a relationship of discernment, spiritual formation, mentoring, education and
judgment regarding the effective performance of ordinands in their
ministries."

The group's six recommendations will be carried back to the Council of
Bishops, the Board of Discipleship, the Board of Higher Education and
Ministry, and the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

The participants suggested that ordination be separated from full conference
membership and that separate certificates be issued for each act. They also
recommended that the Board of Discipleship develop a liturgical celebration
for granting full conference membership.  

"To do this acknowledges that they are already separate and are two distinct
processes," said the Rev. Mary Ann Moman, staff executive for the Board of
Higher Education and Ministry's Division of Ordained Ministry in Nashville. 

Before a person is ordained, a vote for conference membership is taken
during the executive session of clergy at annual conference, and the bishop
ordains the person at another time at the conference, Moman said. The
recommendation will separate the two acts, resulting in one process for
ordination and another for obtaining conference membership, she said.

The consultation participants also recommended that certified candidates for
ordained ministry enter into a time of discernment, spiritual growth and
mutual ministry under supervision as they prepare for ordination. They
proposed that certified candidates be eligible for ordination when they
complete the candidacy process, which includes the completion of theological
education and other requirements outlined by the Division of Ordained
Ministry. 

 "Our current procedures for ordaining elders and deacons, and admitting
them to full conference membership, are too long, too political, too
confused about the meaning of ordination as such, and counterproductive for
educating ordained persons for the professorate in theological education,"
Neville said. Many students go to seminary in hope of being ordained, but
"become frustrated with the seemingly endless track of hoops to jump,
humiliated by being under constant need to prove themselves to someone, and
often angered by being judged too long by people whom they have not learned
to respect, or whom they have learned not to respect," he said.

The consultation participants recommended that probationary members of the
annual conference be eligible for full membership when they complete the
requirements of probationary membership. "We strongly affirm the value of
the probationary period for mentoring, community formation and continued
education and assessment of the probationary member's effectiveness as a
member of the order (deacon or elder) in the annual conference," they noted.

They suggested that the Division of Ordained Ministry, in consultation with
the Council of Bishops, consider developing a "sign act" (ritual or liturgy)
in recognition of someone becoming a certified candidate for ordination as
elder or deacon. The "intent of the sign act is to affirm the relationship
of the candidate with both the seminary and the annual conference," the
group said.

Finally, the participants recommended that other consultations be held to
examine the relationship between ordination and authority for the
administration of the sacraments, the meaning of ordination, the ordering of
ministry for both lay and clergy, and itinerancy. The role of the local
pastor also will be examined. Noted the participants: "Local pastors
continue to be a vital part of the leadership in the United Methodist
Church."
# # #
*Green is news director in United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn.,
office.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org