wfn.org | Pan-Methodist commission approves steps for cooperation

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

March 24, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
    10-31-71B{171}

By Rori F. Blakeney*

ATLANTA (UMNS) - A pan-Methodist commission has approved several steps
designed to foster cooperation among the group's four member denominations.

"God can use this group (the Pan Methodist Commission on Cooperation and
Union) to speak to our spiritual leaders," said the Rev. Tyrone Gordon,
pastor of St. Luke "Community" United Methodist Church in Dallas. "In order
for God to do a new thing, we have to let go some of the old things."

Gordon and others attending the group's March 10-11 meeting discussed how, as
a family of Methodists, they could foster better relationships, build
coalitions and assist one another in ministry. They also considered whether
the commission's ultimate goal was to prepare each denomination to unite into
one large family.

The 36-member commission has nine representatives from four Methodist
traditions - African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church, Christian Methodist Church and United Methodist Church.
Established by the 2000 general conferences of each denomination, the group
consists of two subcommittees, one focusing on program ministries and the
other on union.

The commission's goals are spelled out in its mission statement: "As members
of the family of Methodism, we are called to move toward union by redefining
and strengthening our relationship in Jesus Christ." The group works to
foster meaningful cooperation among the four denominations in evangelism,
missions, publications, social concerns and higher education.

Bishop Melvin Talbert, ecumenical officer of the United Methodist Church's
Council of Bishops, is chairperson of the program ministries committee. The
group made three major recommendations to the commission: to encourage shared
resources in the area of district superintendent and presiding elder
orientation and training; to organize a student and young adult ministry
design team; and to pare down 21 action items presented last November to 10. 

The actions are in response to the commission's mandate from the general
conferences to foster a spirit of cooperation and work toward union, which
has different meanings to the bodies.

The commission will:
7	Explore ways to corporately share resources to reduce cost. These
could include a wide range of options, such as joint purchasing, shared
travel and the opening up of the denominations' guesthouses.
7	Encourage every pan-Methodist bishop and all program planners to
invite pan-Methodist participation in services of ordination and other
special denominational activities.
7	Pay attention to the survival issues that each denomination is
experiencing and work on these together. These could include small-church
concerns and justice issues, such as the Iraq crisis.
7	Communicate with each denomination about its best programs and
resources, such as Disciple Bible Study and One Church-One School, and
encourage their use across pan-Methodist lines.
7	Work together in developing strategies for starting new churches,
reaching youth and responding to mutual concerns.
7	Draw upon the Churches Uniting in Christ recommendations for new
relationships.
7	Issue a periodic "Call to All Methodists" and use it to introduce the
denominations to one another and share histories.
7	Create a pan-Methodist ministry packet, including ideas for and
examples of cooperative or shared ministry.
7	Encourage the creation of local pan-Methodist fellowships.
7	Develop college, university and seminary partnerships, linking
schools and campus ministries across Methodist lines.

While the program ministries subcommittee was busy "putting feet on the
ministry," the union group found itself struggling with the commission's
vision and mission statement. The committee drafted a statement that the
commission as a whole decided to send to a subcommittee after several hours
of discussion. 

Bishop Violet Fisher, leader of the United Methodist Church's New York West
Area, is a member of the subcommittee, which is still being formed. The
commission plans on completing the statements at its Nov. 20-22 meeting in
Dallas.

"The commission is a foretaste of what our unity might be," said Bishop Fritz
Mutti, commission chairperson and leader of the United Methodist Church's
Kansas Area.
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*Blakeney, a free-lance writer in Atlanta, is a candidate for the ordained
ministry.

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United Methodist News Service
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