wfn.org | UMNS# 05058-Church would be healthier if bishops elected nationally,

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Church would be healthier if bishops elected nationally, dean says

Jan. 24, 2005	 News media contact:   Tim  Tanton * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05058}

NOTE: Photographs and related coverage, UMNS stories #056-057, are
available at http://umns.umc.org.

By J. Richard Peck*

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) - Electing bishops on a national instead of regional
basis could be good for the United Methodist Church, a seminary dean
told denominational leaders.

"We've become an increasingly regional church, (and) we would be
healthier as a church if we elected bishops on a national basis," said
the Rev. Russell Richey, dean of United Methodist-related Candler School
of Theology in Atlanta.

Speaking to members of the Connectional Table, Richey noted that before
the 1939 merger of three Methodist churches, elections were conducted on
a national level.

Richey's suggestion came in a question-and-answer period after he traced
the history of seven ways in which Methodists have organized for
ministry. In his second address, he told the 60-member body that the
rich variety of organizational styles over the last 220 years should
give them the freedom to suggest alternative structures and patterns.

The table, meeting for the first time Jan. 20-23, was created by the
2004 General Conference to coordinate the mission and ministries of the
United Methodist Church.

Noting that one style does not entirely disappear after its period of
dominance, Richey arrayed the organizational approaches in chronological
order:

Oral/aural connections

Preaching, hymn singing and love feasts were the expressions of
connectionalism after 1784. The assemblies were guided only by a 29-page
Book of Discipline that included the Sunday service order of worship.

Event connections

Intertwined with the first connection, Methodists organized around
public events such as quarterly or camp meetings, where people walked or
rode horses to two-day gatherings of preaching and singing.

Press connections and voluntary society connections

By 1816, the printed word had become the way in which Methodists
connected with one another. The Methodist Magazine (1818) and the
Christian Advocate (1826) provided church members with a clear voice.
Volunteer organizations, such as the Missionary Society of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, also provided connective power.

Programmed and corporate connections

By the 1870s, such volunteer groups as the Missionary Society, Church
Extension Society, Book Concern and Sunday School Union had become
powerful and competed with one another. In 1872 and 1874, the Methodist
Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South ruled that
directors of these independent groups must be elected by and accountable
to General Conference, thus beginning a corporate structure.

Federal style connections

The 1939 union of three Methodist denominations dropped the national
power and authority (including the power to elect bishops) into
jurisdictional conferences. The union also created a structure similar
to the federal government with separation of powers into legislative,
executive and judicial systems.

The linchpin in this federalism was the jurisdictional conference, which
Richey described as "an accommodation to Methodist racism and Southern
regionalism." The 1939 merger created the Central Jurisdiction, which
placed African Americans in a non-geographical, segregated unit of the
church, where they remained until the jurisdiction was abolished in
1968.

Professional connections

The 1939 union disguised a long-term trend in Methodism. Conferences
increasingly functioned for clergy the way the state bar did for
lawyers. They set standards, reviewed credentials, admitted candidates
to the practice, pressed for compensation, contracted for health care,
maintained pensions and established ethical standards. Later, other
professional organizations were formed for Christian educators, lay
workers, evangelists, communicators, large church pastors, musicians and
others.

Post-corporate connections

The three dominant styles of the 20th century - corporate, federal and
professional - are now under siege. Americans seem tired of working in,
under and through corporate bureaucratic structures and tired of
kowtowing to experts. Organizations respond by downsizing and resorting
to new measures of influence, regulation, grant-making, franchising,
consulting and credentialing. All agencies function in an atmosphere
where accountability is the first order of business, where every slate
is assessed for its representativeness and where suspicion reigns that
money is not being equitably or properly spent.

In examining ways in which the Connectional Table might form new
linkages, Richey noted that mega churches frequently have larger staff,
more facilities and better-trained staff than general agencies, but they
operate in ways that are not connected to the denomination. He urged
table members to investigate ways to relate with such churches.

In his first address, Richey said the denomination lacks an explicitly
declared doctrine, but its practices reveal an implicit ecclesiology.
"We don't have a fully formed doctrine," he said, "but we live in a way
that is authentic to the orthodox confessions about the church. It would
behoove us to have a more exact statement in our Discipline."

Richey is a member of a dialogue group with the Episcopal Church USA,
and he said the group's meetings have been difficult for United
Methodists. "Counterparts want us to point to statements of belief about
sacraments, bishops, church and the faith we confess," Richey said. "We
point to reference points, but all we have are quaint, Reformation-era
statements."

He lamented the elimination of a statement in the 1988 and 1992 Books of
Discipline titled, "The Journey of a Connectional People." He said the
section spoke of the connection as a shared vision, memory, community,
discipline, leadership mobilization and linkage. The several-page
statement developed each motif theologically and historically.

Richey urged members of the Connectional Table to "live into its
vocation." He noted that the table is being invited to hold the
denomination together and guide the church in its mission. "It's a high
calling to guide the church in setting its mission and stewardship."

# # #

*Peck, a clergy member of the United Methodist Church's New York Annual
(regional) Conference, is a correspondent for United Methodist News
Service. He served as the staff person for the General Council on
Ministries' writing team that prepared the Connectional Table
legislation for the 2004 General Conference.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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