Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton told his fellow bishops in a meeting April 17 that he sees the possibility for big changes coming out of The United Methodist Church’s top policymaking body.
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Those potential changes include what many General Conference lay and clergy delegates have taken to calling “the three R’s.”
In his final address as Council of Bishops president, Bickerton said if any of these changes receives approval, or any combination of them, “this will represent one of those seismic shifts in who we are as a denomination.”
He called on episcopal and other church leaders to use “this seismic shift” to further the denomination’s mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The bishops gathered at Charlotte’s downtown Omni Hotel April 17, just a few blocks away from the convention center where lay and clergy delegates from four continents met April 23-May 3 to make decisions that shape the denomination’s future.
During the two-week meeting, East Ohio Bishop Tracy S. Malone will take the gavel as the next Council of Bishops president. Elected by her bishop colleagues, she will be the first Black woman to hold that role.
Bishops do not have a vote at General Conference. Instead they preside at plenary sessions, pray with delegates and preach at worship.
“We can’t vote, but we can convene and influence, inspire and pray,” Bickerton said. “And what that lends itself to is a deeper understanding and appreciation of our role as bishops here in Charlotte.”
He said that bishops also have a role in strategizing what comes next after whatever delegates decide shifts the lay of the land.
In addition to the other legislative possibilities he mentioned, Bickerton noted that the delegates will consider a steeply reduced denominational budget — a 43.8% cut compared to the denominational budget passed in 2016. That represents the largest reduction in the denomination’s history and results in scaled-down denominational ministries, including the number of bishops.
U.S. bishops expect to cover larger areas and perhaps take on fewer denominational responsibilities. Bickerton said bishops can learn from the experience of colleagues in the central conferences, where bishops have long experienced providing episcopal oversight in large geographical areas, including sometimes multiple countries.
Bickerton acknowledged early in his address that one source of anxiety in the coming General Conference is that some delegates and some seeking to influence them already have plans to leave The United Methodist Church.
A number of the congregations that disaffiliated have since joined the Global Methodist Church, a theologically conservative breakaway denomination that launched in 2022. But the unofficial advocacy groups that helped form the new denomination, the Wesleyan Covenant Association and Good News, still plan to have representatives at General Conference — to champion disaffiliation and oppose regionalization.
All of these worries brought to Bickerton’s mind the experience of some of the earliest Christians.
As Scripture for his address, Bickerton used Ephesians 4:1-6,14-31, in which Paul encourages the quarrelsome church in Ephesus to put away “all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.” Instead, Paul urges these early churchgoers to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
“If the church could work there, it would have a major impact on the movement of Christianity everywhere,” Bickerton said.
Likewise, he added, if bishops and other United Methodists can work together here in Charlotte, the denomination can continue to have impact around the globe.
excerpt from a story from Heather Hahn, assistant news editor, UM News
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