Electing Bishops: Jurisdictional Conferences, Another Step Toward The UMC of Tomorrow, Today

The role of bishops (known as the office of the “episcopacy” in church lingo) has been one of the most divisive topics throughout our history as a movement. This week, I flew back to the U.S. from my Ph.D. program in Vienna, Austria, to join my fellow delegates as we gather at Jurisdictional Conferences across the U.S. to discern and elect new episcopal leaders—and the role of bishops is, yet again, a hot topic for (United) Methodism. Let me say this clearly: I believe the elections taking place this week across The UMC in the U.S. are a crucial next step in building and embodying The UMC of tomorrow (of justice and equity) today—now, in the present. One of the first steps, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, was the formation of the so-called “Global” Methodist Church, which launched in May and gave anti-LGBTQ+ United Methodists a place to go (should they want to leave The UMC). Now that those who are vehemently opposed to the full affirmation and inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons have a denomination of their own, it’s time for United Methodism to move confidently toward the land of inclusion for all. But, before we get into what’s at stake with the episcopacy this week, let’s take a look back at the first Methodist bishop and work our way to the challenges—and opportunities—that face our future episcopal leaders.

In the Beginning…

When the Revolutionary War broke out in the North American colonies, it severed ties with Britain, which meant severing ties with the Church of England as well. These severed relations meant that a sacramental vacuum emerged—the clergy were largely gone, or in hiding! What was the emerging Methodist movement to do if its few clergy (ordained by the Church of England) were sent away? It’s exactly this problem that motivated Wesley to step even further beyond the bounds of the Church of England: In 1784, Wesley ordained three of his prominent lay preachers, including Thomas Coke as General Superintendent, and sent them to the newly formed nation.[1] Now, in the Church of England, as in The United Methodist Church today, the act of ordination is reserved for the office of the episcopacy alone. In ordaining these three men, Wesley broke the rules of his Church and effectively usurped the power of the episcopacy. To make matters even more complex, the difference between a clergyman and a bishop was a matter of separate orders of ordination: deacons were ordained to the order of deacons, priests to their own order, and bishops to a third order in the Church of England.[2] Wesley did something that he wasn’t ordained to do!

Then, over half a century later at the 1844 General Conference, the episcopacy was at the center of the debate over slavery. “Their most serious conflict concerned one of the church’s five bishops, James O. Andrew, who had acquired [enslaved persons] through marriage. After acrimonious debate, the General Conference voted to suspend Bishop Andrew from the exercise of his office so long as he could not, or would not, free his slaves. A few days later, dissidents drafted a Plan of Separation, which permitted the annual conferences in slaveholding states to separate from The Methodist Episcopal Church in order to organize their own ecclesiastical structure. The Plan of Separation was adopted and the groundwork laid for the creation of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South.”[3]

In 2016, Rev. Karen Oliveto was elected and consecrated as the first openly LGBTQ+ bishop in The United Methodist Church.[4] Many of us cheered as the denomination moved slowly toward broader inclusion through her election, but others drafted plans of separation, continuing the pattern of leaving the denomination when it sought to meet the demands of its time and to side with justice and mercy. But what does all this mean for us today in 2022?

Why the United Methodist Episcopacy Matters

Here’s the crux: To quote Spiderman’s wise Uncle Ben, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Wesley argued that bishops and priests were part of the same order, though they had different functions (hence the term “functional episcopacy”).[5] To this day, United Methodist bishops remain in the order of elders, though they are consecrated to serve a specific administrative function.[6] This particular function entails that those clergy persons who are consecrated as bishops are given particular administrative power, which comes with greater administrative responsibility. This administrative power, however, does not endow them with superior spiritual power or set them above others in a superior class of the ordained. Bishops are not princes or princesses; they are clergy people, and like all clergy they are called to serve. In the case of the United Methodist episcopacy, they are called to serve the Church in the following ways:

The role and calling forth of the bishop is to exercise oversight and support of the Church in its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The basis of such discipleship of leadership (episkopé) lies in discipline and a disciplined life. The bishop leads therefore through the following disciplines:

a) A vital and renewing spirit. The role of the bishop is to faithfully practice, model and lead the spiritual disciplines of our faith and to call and inspire the clergy and laity within the Church to practice the Christian disciplines in their individual lives through the tradition of personal holiness. The bishop is to lead in public worship, in the celebration of the sacraments, and in the commendation of our faith.

b) An enquiring mind and a commitment to the teaching office. The role of the bishop is to continue to learn and to teach how to make disciples and lead faithful and fruitful congregations using scripture, spiritual disciplines, our Wesleyan heritage, and the history and doctrines of the Church.

c) A vision for the Church. The role of bishop is to lead the whole Church in claiming its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The bishop leads by discerning, inspiring, strategizing, equipping, implementing, and evaluating the fulfillment of the mission of the church. Working in partnership with the Council of Bishops, the cabinet and lay and clergy leadership of the annual conference, and the professing members of the Church, the bishop urges the whole church to move toward the vision of sharing Christ with the world in fulfillment of our mission, faithful discipleship, and “an even better way” of being Christ’s people in the world.

d) A prophetic commitment for the transformation of the Church and the world. The role of the bishop is to be a prophetic voice for justice in a suffering and conflicted world through the tradition of social holiness. The bishop encourages and models the mission of witness and service in the world through proclamation of the gospel and alleviation of human suffering.

e) A passion for the unity of the church. The role of the bishop is to be the shepherd of the whole flock and thereby pro- vide leadership toward the goal of understanding, reconciliation, and unity within the Church—The United Methodist Church and the church universal.

f) The ministry of administration. The role of the bishop is to uphold the discipline and order of the Church by consecrating, ordaining, commissioning, supervising, and appointing persons in ministry to the Church and the world. As the presiding officer of the annual conference, the resident bishop provides order and leads in new opportunities for ministry within the annual conference. The bishop shares with other bishops the oversight of the whole church through the Council of Bishops and is held accountable through the Council of Bishops in collaboration with conference and jurisdictional committees on episcopacy. [7]

A Prophetic Voice

Every movement depends upon both the mass of unnamed persons doing the hard work of organizing, relationship-building, and logistical planning as well as the spokespersons who, though equal with the rest of the laborers in the movement, are identified by their peers from within for the particular purpose of giving “the movement” a voice, of expressing the shared values of the collective through a clear vision. Perhaps one of the reasons the episcopacy has remained a hot topic throughout Methodist history is because we the people, in partnership with the Spirit, have identified them as persons whom we trust to be a voice in the movement of Methodism when the General Conference is not in session. While we do not dote on bishops as church royalty, we do entrust and cede to them the power of speaking a vision of the church and world that we’ve dreamed of together. We ask them to lead the Church in our pursuits of justice, which we’ve discerned together as people of God. But what are the people of The United Methodist Church asking our bishops to say? What vision have we cast together and asked them to lead us toward?

To Our Bishops: No More Trials

In our polity, bishops oversee church trials. This season, as we gather to elect new bishops, a record number of LGBTQ+ affirming delegates, making up a majority of votes in every jurisdiction of the U.S., will replenish the global supply of bishops and will therefore shift the makeup of the Council of Bishops to reflect the will of the people of The United Methodist Church, who are seeking to follow God’s spirit of justice and inclusion. What this means is that with our elections and the retirement of anti-LGBTQ+ bishops, a majority of bishops in the U.S. and in the world-wide Council of Bishops will be in favor of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Church. This fact is not an accident and it must not be taken for granted; it reflects the power we cede to them—the power to speak the vision of inclusion that we’ve discerned together and to oversee its implementation in the life of the denomination. As I quoted from Book of Discipline above, “The bishop leads by discerning, inspiring, strategizing, equipping, implementing, and evaluating the fulfillment of the mission of the church,” and they work “in partnership” with the whole Church in order to “foster an ‘even better way’ of being Christ’s people in the world.”

To my fellow delegates, know that we are identifying from among our peers persons whom we trust to speak from within the movement. And to the episcopal candidates, know that you are therefore responsible to the movement—and that the movement of United Methodism, as witnessed in the record number of LGBTQ+ affirming delegates, is calling on you to lead the Church by refusing to place LGBTQ+ clergy on trial or to try clergy who perform same-sex weddings. You are being entrusted with great power for such a time as this, and the responsibilities are that much greater. May we discern our leaders faithfully and prophetically so that the next step in becoming a more just UMC begins January 1, 2023 with the beginning of a revived, LGBTQ+ affirming College of Bishops in every U.S. Jurisdiction of The UMC and in the Council of Bishops globally. May we be partners in this spiritual work of transforming The United Methodist Church through a vision of God’s liberating and affirming love. “For God did not give us a spirit of fear but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). May it be so.

[1] Chris Evans, “The Birth of American Methodism,” Methodist Doctrine and History, 5 Oct. 2021, Boston University, Lecture.

[2] Ibid.

[3] The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2016 (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 2016), p. 16.

[4] “Western Jurisdiction elects openly gay United Methodist bishop,” July 15, 2016, https://www.umnews.org/en/news/western-jurisdiction-elects-openly-gay-united-methodist-bishop.

[5] Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists, second ed (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013), p. 215.

[6] The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2016 (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 2016), “Chapter Three: The Superintendency.”

[7] Ibid., ¶403.