(Progress report of the Council of Bishops on the Study of the Global Nature of the Church to the 1996 General Conference)
Introduction
1. The Council of Bishops was asked by the 1992 General Conference to study the global nature of the Church. The task given to the Council of Bishops is in the following resolution:
1409*GJ074
Subject: 74e Global Nature of The United Methodist Church
Whereas, there must be developed a truly global church which has an integrity which affords dignity for all parts of The United Methodist Church; our church must be an expression of the global nature of our church membership: "A member of a local United Methodist church is a member of the total United Methodist connection." (¶ 210); and
Whereas, there must be equity (parity) between what are now called central conferences and jurisdictional conferences; and
Whereas, we must provide for connectional unity with the flexibility and freedom for meeting regional needs; and
Whereas, we must redefine some General Conference responsibilities as regional ones; much of the current General Conference agenda is focused exclusively on United States issues and needs; at least some of this agenda could be handled in a North American Regional Conference, just as similar regional agenda could be addressed in other regional conferences; and
Whereas, we must be sensitive to how God seeks to manifest the Gospel in each unique culture and nation; we must also maintain a vital global connection in order to prevent both narrow parochialism and detrimental regionalism; and
Whereas, our global vision for The United Methodist Church includes, but is not limited to, the following:
1. Provision of a means by which the United Methodist family can live and serve together in a common dignity and respect as together we respond to the mission of Jesus Christ.
2. A serious responsiveness to the unique needs and expressions of faith in each of the regions of the world and provision of freedom for creative response to unique characteristics.
3. Connection of our global United Methodist membership at essential points and through common global mission.
4. Responsiveness to the radically changed and changing world culture in which we are called to do ministry in Christ's name.
Therefore, be it resolved, that the General Conference authorize the Council of Bishops, in cooperation with the General Council on Ministries, the General Council on Finance and Administration, the General Board of Global Ministries, the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, and the Commission on Central Conference Affairs (selecting at least three non-episcopal members) to continue to develop this proposal on the Global Nature of The United Methodist Church and to report to the General Conference 1996; and
Be it further resolved, that the Council of Bishops submit the attached report as a progress report to the General Conference.
2. The Council of Bishops appointed a committee from among its members to assist it in this study. This committee cooperated with the agencies named in the resolution by working closely with the GCOM Connectional Studies Committee. It reported regularly to the Council of Bishops on the progress of its work. The Council of Bishops received from this committee a final draft of its report and took action on it.
The following is now being submitted by the Council of Bishops to the 1996 General Conference as its progress report on the study of the global nature of the Church.
Elements of the Global Vision
The Council of Bishops offers the following elements as helpful in clarifying our vision of a global United Methodist Church.
3. We believe that the next step in the pilgrimage of "the people called Methodist" is to become a global Church.
Why `next step'? One may view the past history of Methodism as consisting of two major phases. The first is the founding of Methodism and of the Methodist Church in England. The second is the establishment and growth of the Methodist Church in the United States of America. Would not the next phase be the globalizing of The United Methodist Church? The facts warrant this next step. Consider the following:
i. The membership of The United Methodist Church is almost global and is growing globally. This membership must be drawn into a global web of interactive relationship of common identity, life, and mission so that it can be truly said that "A member of a local United Methodist church is a member of the total United Methodist connection" (¶ 210 of the 1992 Book of Discipline).
ii. The self-understanding of The United Methodist Church is that it is a church and is a part of the universal church (¶ 4, Article IV of the Constitution of The United Methodist Church, 1992 Book of Discipline). If so, then it bears the essential marks of the church, which are unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. These essential features of the Church must be expressed both locally and globally.
iii. The fellowship of The United Methodist Church has always aimed at `inclusiveness' (¶ 4, Article IV of the Constitution, 1992 Book of Discipline). This inclusiveness cannot be local only; it is also global.
iv. United Methodists have always believed that they share a common heritage of faith with Christians of every age and nation, and at the same time they have developed distinctive ways of living and expressing the Christian faith (¶ 65, 1992 Book of Discipline). This has shaped their identity and polity and is the basis of their ecumenical commitment. Are not all these best preserved and strengthened by expressing them globally?
By becoming a global church, The United Methodist Church is only being consistent with its self-understanding, its membership and fellowship, its identity and polity, and its commitment and witness to the Christian faith. If it does not take this step of becoming a global church, it will most likely face the danger of becoming fragmented into autonomous churches in various nations of the world, with the American segment becoming merely that----an American fragment of the once future global United Methodist Church! Must we not avoid this danger?
4. We affirm that a global church is best able to do global mission in a globalizing world.
We must gratefully acknowledge the fact that The United Methodist Church has already been doing global mission in all these many years. But it is also true that this global mission has been carried out with mainly American features: American perspective, American support, American personnel, American base and agency. Would it not be in keeping with the Gospel and the nature of the bearer of that Gospel (the church) if global mission were carried out by a global church? Consider the following:
i. It would be considered odd at this time----to say the least----for a church with a national identity or label (for example: American United Methodist, Korean Presbyterian, etc.) to be doing mission in another country for the purpose of planting itself there. This problem, however, would not arise for a global Church because it is already in almost every country, and it will not bear the label or identity of a nation! In a post-colonial world, mission cannot be another form of neo-colonialism.
ii. The problems that mission must address today are global in character and scope: the future of Christian faith in a world that is increasingly secular and non-Christian (not to say anti-Christian); redeeming the environment for human destruction, the issues around women, children, and the family; the need for a more global and inclusive community that is not racist, sexist, or ethnocentrist; the global search for justice, peace, and sustainable development, etc....Does not mission in response to global issues demand global visioning and global participation, and coordination and global pooling of resources?
iii. The context of mission is a world that is increasingly being drawn into a global community by irresistible globalizing forces, such as: increased global travel, global communication, the universalizing of human rights, the globalizing of the free market economy, the universal character and influence of science and technology, the increasing awareness that the one earth in the one universe is our home, and preserving it and being at home in it are a common global responsibility, etc. Can mission be less than global in a global context? If the world becomes a global community, must the Church be left behind?
iv. Whatever else the historical reasons for John Wesley's remark, saying, "I look upon the world as my parish," nothing now prevents us from appropriating it as expressing the United Methodist perspective on mission. The whole world is indeed the missionary parish of The United Methodist Church. To see it in this way requires that The United Methodist Church view the world globally. This is most likely to happen if "the people called United Methodists" became indeed a global Church!
Taking all these factors into account, The United Methodist Church is only being responsive to the global issues and context of mission and faithful to its own missiological heritage if it began doing global mission from a global perspective as a global Church! If for some reason it fails to take this further step, it is likely that its missionary activity would be severely crippled and made irrelevant, globally speaking.
5. We acknowledge that both the Church and mission are not only global but also local.
The Church must be free to express its life and witness both globally and locally. So far we have said that both the nature of the Church and the character of mission drive toward globalization. There is, however, another side to both Church and mission which drives towards what might appear to be the opposite of globalization, namely, what might be called----for want of a better term----localization, which----as used here----includes the local, the national, and the regional. This is actually the twin side of globalization, and both arise from the nature of the Church and the character of mission. One cannot have globalization without localization, and vice versa.
The church is both global (universal) and local. The elements that constitute the church universally----the Word, the Sacraments, the worship and praise of God, faith in God through Jesus Christ, fellowship in the Holy Spirit----which are the same and true everywhere and through all time----find concrete expression in a local congregation composed of believers in a specific place and time. That concrete expression in its form and style and relevant sense is shaped by a unique culture. As the 1992 General Conference resolution on the Global Nature of The United Methodist Church put it: "God seeks to manifest the gospel in each unique culture and nation."
Mission thought global in thrust is, however, concretely local in expression because it seeks to respond out of the gospel to specific human needs in a given locality, nation, or region. In mission in today's business, it is as well "to think globally and to act locally."
These considerations lead to one significant conclusion: the Church in mission must be acknowledged as free to be responsive, flexible, and creative in expressing locally its life, faith, witness, and service, including the development of structures and agencies for local, national, and regional activity and governance, subject only to the essential limits provided by the faith and Constitution of The United Methodist Church. To deny this measure of autonomy to the Church would stifle its life and cripple its mission. To affirm it is to acknowledge the rightful claim to self-determination on the part of many segments of our constituency (i.e., the central conferences) for the purpose of releasing their energy and of expressing their faith, life, and mission in ways that are significant in their respective cultures and social contexts.
6. We envision a global Church vitally connected in a web of inter-dependent and interactive relationships in all its parts, vertically from the local to the global levels, and multi-laterally across horizontal lines around the globe.
Connectionalism in the United Methodist tradition is multi-levelled, global in spread, and local in thrust.
We are connected by sharing a common tradition of faith.
We are connected by sharing together a constitutional polity, including a leadership of general superintendency.
We are connected by sharing a common mission which we seek to carry out together both globally and locally.
We are connected organizationally in and through conferences that reflect both the inclusive and representative character of our fellowship.
We share a common ethos which characterizes our distinctive way of doing things.
We are connected by a common journey of more fully expressing our connectionalism from the local to the global and from the global to the local.
For us connectionalism is not merely a linking of one connectional charge conference to another horizontally across the globe. It is, rather, a vital web of interactive and intertwining relationships that enables us to express freely, justly, and in dignity at both global and local levels our essential identity, inclusive fellowship, common mission, distinctive ethos, and visible unity.
This means, among other things, that we must not allow connectionalism to stop at the national or regional level. Genuine conectionalism cannot be less than global. Moreover, we must not allow our essential identity, inclusive fellowship, common mission, distinctive ethos, and visible unity as United Methodists to be broken up into Humpty-Dumpty fragments which cannot be put together again on a global scale. We must keep and more fully express our global connection. But having said this, we must also be absolutely sure that our global connection does not stifle the life, nor cripple the mission, of the Church at the local level. On the contrary, we affirm that genuine connectionalism begins at, and expresses itself through, the local congregation, which in United Methodist polity is "a connectional society."
7. We believe that a global Church should share its resources multi-laterally across the global connection to strengthen the life and mission of the Church at their cutting edge----both locally and globally.
The resources of the Church are not merely in its funds, but more importantly its understanding of, and commitment to, the Christian faith; its people in their capacities, experience, and skills; its many cultural forms (i.e., language, cultures, art forms), and, of course, its facilities and equipment.
Moreover, the resources of a global Church rightly belong to, and must be used for the benefit of, the whole Church and the people whom it serves in mission.
Furthermore, these resources may be more available in some sectors of the Church than in others. Some sectors of the Church may also have needs that other sectors may more readily meet. This means that multilateral ways must be found to move resources from where they are readily available to where they are most needed in a manner that promotes mutual sharing, effective pooling, hands-on delivery, wise use, transparent accountability, and eliminates forms of paternalism and dependencies.
We have a long way to go in developing the understanding, the relations, and the structures that will enable us to share resources in the way indicated here. But becoming a global Church provides us the motive and the occasion. If we fail to seize the opportunity by globalizing, we will perpetuate the limited understanding and sharing of resources that have prevailed until now, together with their deplorable consequences.
8. We are convinced that a strengthened ecumenical commitment will grow out of a global Church.
Consider the following:
i. The unity of our connection will become global and so more visible. It will transcend national, ethnic, and regional levels and boundaries.
ii. Becoming a global Church will provide the opportunity to develop a structure which will make it possible for other Methodist churches (such as the affiliated autonomous Methodist churches) to maintain their essential identity as Methodists and at the same time preserve the autonomy they now enjoy should they establish new linkages in the global connection. (As mentioned earlier, this issue remains to be explored.)
iii. The tradition of faith represented in The United Methodist Church and other churches in the Methodist family will be seen as global in scope and not as a denominational fragment represented by autonomous or national churches. This perception should strengthen the bilateral conversations being conducted through the World Methodist Council.
iv. By becoming a truly global Church, we would then join others in visioning a global unity for the universal church, a unity transcending denominational, counciliar, or other forms of unity limited by national boundaries.
9. We anticipate that globalizing The United Methodist Church along the lines indicated above will stir up the winds of the Spirit to blow afresh, sweeping deeply across Methodist spirituality and renewing it for a global age.
A new spirituality for a global Church in a globalizing world is likely to entail the following considerations:
i. Deepen and broaden the understanding of God the Spirit in such a way that no level or dimension of reality is outside His sphere.
ii. Overcome the conflict between matter and spirit in the tradition of Christian spirituality towards a synthesis that is more fruitful for Christian life in today's world.
iii. Facilitate a creative relationship between "the practice of the Presence of God" and the variety of cultures and their encounter, which today are the matrix for living the Christian faith.
iv. Undergird and nourish a global Church with a vital spirituality that will sustain it as it becomes more globally inclusive in its membership and seeks to respond more missionally to the needs of a global age.
Of course, the Spirit is free to blow where it wills, and the renewal of spirituality is not at the beck and call of human initiative. But globalizing The United Methodist Church might just be the occasion and motive for "the people called Methodist" to gather together in a "global room" and wait in anticipation for a new Pentecost that will once again make peoples "hear God's deeds of power" in their "own native language" (Acts 2:7-11).
10. Finally, becoming a global Church will provide us with both the motive and the occasion to restructure our Church and make it ready to face the coming of a new millennium.
i. Restructuring may mean that we place greater emphasis on covenant relationship rather than on legislative structure.
ii. Restructuring for a global Church may mean that there are some aspects of our present structure that may have to be modified, or replaced, or abandoned.
iii. It may also mean putting in place new ones that are essential for a truly global Church.
iv. It could provide the opportunity to remove inequities in current structures so that "the United Methodist family can live and serve together in common dignity and respect.
A Proposed Form for a Global Church
The following outline of a structure for a global United Methodist Church attempts to embody the principles stated above. The structure seeks to strike a balance between global connectionality and identity on the one hand, and local autonomy and flexibility for missional and management purposes at national and regional levels on the other hand. Globalization and localization are twin sides of the same coin. But the structure outlined here is still tentative and imperfect. It needs to be worked on for further improvement. The issues are grouped under three headings: mission, structure, and leadership. We offer this outline of the form of a global Church as a proposal for further consideration.
Global Conference
11. It is proposed that there shall be a Global Conference.
i. This Global Conference shall personify, embody, and order the global identity and connectedness of global United Methodism.
ii. It shall set forth the basic mission thrust of The United Methodist Church.
iii. It shall have sole authority on matters dealing with:
(a) Constitution
(b) Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task
(c) Mission statements and global missional initiatives
(d) Global social principles
(e) General ministry of all Christians
(f) Clergy orders
(g) Episcopacy
(h) General financial matters
(i) Administrative order defined and/or delegated
(j) Judicial Order Defined and/or Delegated
(k) Formal ecumenical relationships with other global Christian denominations and interreligious groups
(l) Definition or requirements for church membership defined/delegated
iv. The membership of the Global Conference shall be constituted in such a way that no one region would dominate or have majority over the others. For this reason, the composition of the Global Conference may be established as follows:
(a) Memberships shall be composed of one lay and one clergy from each annual conference.
(b) The size of the membership shall equal twice the size of the largest region of the annual conferences, plus two.
(c) Extra delegates shall be apportioned to regions other than the largest region by proportion according to membership of the regions.
v. Bishops shall be present and preside at the sessions of the Global Conference, as per current pattern (no vote/voice as granted).
vi. The Global Conference shall meet every four or five or eight years, as the case may be.
Global Mission Council
12. It is proposed that there shall be a Global Mission Council.
i. Such a council highlights the fact that a primary reason for The United Methodist Church becoming global is to carry on mission at both global and local levels.
ii. The task of such a council is to be a global forum for focusing, visioning, initiating, and coordinating, the mission task of The United Methodist Church.
iii. It carries out this task consultatively and persuasively, not legislatively. And so it recommends mission initiatives to conferences and regions from a global perspective and encourages the establishing of linkages and relationships that empower, drive, and express mission.
iv. It may be composed of the Council of Bishops and a corresponding number of laity/clergy, the total of which is equal to the number of active bishops. Of the non-episcopal composition of the council, two-thirds shall be lay and one-third shall be clergy. The lay/clergy membership is to be proportional to the membership of the regions.
v. The Global Mission Council may meet every two years for one week, as the case may be.
13. It is proposed that there shall be Regional Conferences. The Regions shall include North America, Africa, Asia/Philippines, Europe. The ways of relating to Latin America and the Caribbean will be explored.
i. Regional Conferences shall have authority to define their internal structure suitable to the life and mission of the Church in their regions.
ii. It shall decide whether to retain, replace, or modify the present central/jurisdictional conferences.
iii. It shall have authority over its own finances, including mission giving.
iv. It shall implement the missional thrust of the Global Conference, as well as its own regional missional initiatives.
v. It shall have delegates from other regions without vote.
vi. It shall have authority over the following:
(a) Articles of procedures (in governance and management)
(b) Boards and agencies or other implementing mechanisms.
(c) Central/jurisdictional conferences or their replacement as defined by the regional conferences
(d) Additional regional social principles
(e) Regional Missional Initiatives
(f) Elect and/or delegate the election of Bishops
(g) Appropriate relationships with autonomous Methodist and ecumenical partner churches within the specific region
(h) Regional judicial matters
14. It is assumed that the charge conference and the annual conference shall remain constitutional structures of the global Church, with whatever modifications determined by their respective regional conferences.
Leadership
15. Global leadership for the global Church shall be provided by the Council of Bishops.
i. Bishops both individually and corporately (as colleges and council) shall be held as visionary spiritual leaders of the global Church in its life and mission.
ii. The Council of Bishops as set forth in ¶ 50, Article III of the present Constitution will be retained.
iii. Bishops are to be leaders of relationships which empower and inspire rather than as mere operators or managers of structures.
Conclusion
16. It is clear that much has yet to be done in perfecting this study on the global nature of The United Methodist Church. The unfinished work includes, among other things:
i. Perfecting the proposed form
ii. Consulting with partner churches such as autonomous Methodist churches and ecumenical agencies on the implication of globalization.
iii. Consulting with central conferences in the regions on the implications of the proposed form.
iv. Assessing possible cost of the form and funding of the new form.
v. Drafting the necessary legislation to implement the restructuring for a global Church.
vi. Coordinating with GCOM and other partner agencies in completing the unfinished work.
vii. Educating the constituency on globalizing The United Methodist Church.
17. The quadrennium 1997-2000 may provide the needed time to do all of the above. The study must be completed and a report, including proposed implementing legislation, is to be presented for the consideration and action of the General Conference in the year 2000.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
Petition Text: 21718-GJ-NonDis-O
1996 United Methodist General Conference