wfn.org | Archives commission chooses two for honors

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 23, 2002	News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington
10-71B{422}

By Joretta Purdue*

SALEM, Ore. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's historical agency has
named a woman to receive its annual award next year and a bishop to receive
a special award - both for only the second time in the organization's
history.
	
The Commission on Archives and History, meeting Sept. 11-13, decided to give
the 2003 Distinguished Service Award to Jean Miller Schmidt and to give
special recognition to Bishop James Thomas for his work in preserving the
history of the denomination's Central Jurisdiction. 

At 45, Thomas became the Methodist Church's youngest bishop when he was
elected in 1964 by the Central Jurisdiction, the non-geographic jurisdiction
of U.S. Methodist churches that were predominantly African American. He
later presided over the Committee of Five that formulated the plan to merge
the Central Jurisdiction's annual conferences into those of the geographic
jurisdictions. He later compiled Methodism's Racial Dilemma: The Story of
the Central Jurisdiction. Thomas retired in 1988.

Thomas is the second bishop to receive recognition for his work in
preserving the denomination's history. The late Bishop William R. Cannon was
the first. 

Schmidt is professor of church history at Iliff School of Theology. She is
known for her work in women's history within Methodism, particularly her
book titled, Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in American Methodism 1760
to 1939.

Schmidt is the second woman to receive the commission's annual Distinguished
Service Award. The first was in 1997, when Rosemary Skinner Keller, a United
Methodist deacon and former professor of religion and American culture at
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, was recognized for her work with
the history of women in the church.

The commission, which did not meet in 2001 because of the events of Sept.
11, heard presentations by both the Rev. Russell E. Richey, winner of the
2001 Distinguished Service Award, and the Rev. Joe Hale, the recipient of
the same award for 2002.

Also honored was the Rev. Kenneth E. Rowe, who retired from the position of
librarian of American Methodism in July. Rowe was a youth member and then a
regular member of the commission before he began teaching at Drew University
in 1971. He was named Drew Professor of the Year in 1990. "For the last 32
years, I've had a lot of fun," he said. Rowe is continuing as interim
librarian until the end of the year.

In talking about "Methodism, the Big Picture, and Challenges We Face Today,"
Hale emphasized Methodism's place in the historical context of the whole
church, including the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant traditions as well
as Methodism's own history.

"Formidable contemporary challenges confront us all, and we've got to
confront them together," asserted Hale, the chief staff executive of the
World Methodist Council for 25 years before leaving in 2001. "The
contemporary challenge is not to pit Christianity against Islam."

Hale declared that how Christian history unfolds over the next 50 years may
depend on how Methodists view their faith. "Is it for the world and all
people, or basically for the church and the home?"

"Is the God we serve part of the real world?" Hale asked. If so, he
concluded, then Christians and their politics cannot ignore the words of St.
Paul when he said that vengeance is God's alone. "The question (for each of
us) is 'What can I do? Yes, what can I do in my time to help turn the course
of history toward God's kingdom and God's righteousness?" 

Richey, dean and professor of church history at Emory University's Candler
School of Theology, noted a change in recent years in how United Methodist
history is viewed. For a long time, secular and church historians regarded
denominational history as a "pariah" field of endeavor, and even those in
the church largely overlooked the 1984 bicentennial of American Methodism,
he said.

"In the last decade, there has been a rather remarkable outpouring of
writing about Methodist history," he said. "It's no longer a pariah field."

He said he believes the time is appropriate for historians to work out of
theological suppositions - not just scientific ones.

"We don't look at church history and ask, 'what does this mean
theologically?'" Richey complained. People talk about doctrine needing
practical expression, but Richey wants to reverse this direction. He said he
wants someone to look at what Wesley did with Scripture, not just what he
said about it. "Recognize history as a theological endeavor," he said.

He used American Methodism's early evangelist and bishop as an example.
"What strikes me is (Francis) Asbury's engagement with the landscape,"
Richey said. Methodists, he said, "thought their mission was to the entire
continent, the whole world."

Historic Methodists lived out their theology, he said. He urged his
listeners to read the movement's history to see the sense of Providence that
runs through the accounts of Methodists' lives and even their church
meetings. From the minutes of quarterly meetings to accounts of fights at
camp meetings, the church's history offers enlightenment to the willing
reader, he said.

At other times during the meeting, commission members shared reports from
their areas. Ulrike Schuler of Wuppertal, Germany, said church people in the
Eastern European countries are trying to learn English, after spending the
Cold War decades doing everything in Russian. That is a challenge, she said.
In addition, the people had been taught not to write things down during the
communist era, so now they are trying to build records based on oral
histories, she said.

Schuler credited a commission workshop held in Germany last year with
stimulating the creation of a historical commission in Poland, the
establishment of archives there and publication of historical articles. The
same workshop led to the installation of a fire alarm and dehumidifier for
Germany's central archives, housed at the theological seminary in
Reutlingen. 

Bishop Solito Kuramin Toquero of Manila, Philippines, spoke of the work in
his country, noting that a commemorative book is being printed on the
denomination's centennial there. 

The missionaries in Mindanao have been withdrawn because they were targeted
for kidnapping, he said. Church members in that area have also had to flee.
"We are urging our government to go into dialogue with these groups," he
said of the Muslim separatists and communist rebels.

Toquero, who is vice president of the commission, presided at the meeting
for Bishop J. Lawrence McClesky, commission president, who was absent
because of a death in the family.  

The commission will meet Aug. 12-14 in Madison, N.J., in conjunction with
the Fifth Historical Convocation Aug. 14-17.
 
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*Purdue is news director of United Methodist News Service's Washington
office.

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United Methodist News Service
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