Study of Ministry Commission Organizes Working Groups

A scroll covered with stick figures and drawings depicting the candidacy process is unrolled at GBHEM’s spring meeting during a Division of Ordained Ministry discussion of the Ministry Study Commission work.

By Vicki Brown*

The Study of Ministry Commission organized four working groups to explore the theological foundations of ordained ministry: ordination, sacramental authority, orders, and candidacy.

“We are excited about the progress we have made, the direction we have set, and the beginning we have experienced,” said Bishop Al Gwinn, chair of the commission. The group met March 17-18 in Nashville. Gwinn also said the commission had created an online group to continuing the work between meetings.

Members of the commission reported about their work to the Division of Ordained Ministry at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s spring meeting, held March 19-21 in Nashville, Tenn.

“As The United Methodist Church waits for greater clarity and direction on the ordering of ministry, we are reminded that for more than 50 years some form of ministry study has been in existence,” said Bishop Grant Hagiya, who added the work of the new commission stands on the shoulders of those past studies. General Conference 2008 asked the Council of Bishops to organize and lead the new commission. The Council of Bishops named the members of the commission and the chair. Staff is provided by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the General Board of Discipleship, the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Three bishops are on the Ministry Study Commission which began work March 17-18. From left, Bishop Grant Hagiya, Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, and Bishop Al Gwinn.

“Our global world has changed so dramatically, we need to produce an ordering of ministry that is relevant without losing our historical Wesleyan roots. We are committed to this task,” Hagiya told DOM members.

He said the commission is committed to a grounded theological foundation that provides the framework for an ordering of ministry that will be “both effective and practical in the making of disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

“Our commitment is to transcend personal agendas in order to produce a theologically consistent and genuine Wesleyan ordering of ministry. We ask for the church’s prayers in our coming work,” Hagiya said. Hagiya and the Rev. Carolyn Peterson, a deacon who is a member of DOM, unrolled a paper scroll several yards long at the DOM meeting. The scroll was covered with stick figures illustrating the complexity of the candidacy process.

The Rev. David Dodge, executive director of the Center for Clergy Excellence, Florida Annual Conference, served on the last commission admitted that he had mixed emotions about the intial meeting.

“On the one hand I was hopeful that the group that would be gathering would be tuned toward helping the church find its way in the ordering of ministry for this new century. And yet, as one who had served on the last commission, I was also fearful that the work that had been done might be disregarded,” Dodge said. But he said the new commission is serious about its work and understanding what the previous group had done.

“I am energized by the sense of clarity that has already developed around the salient issues,” Dodge said.

The Rev. Mary Ann Moman, associate general secretary of GBHEM’s Division of Ordained Ministry, said she was excited about the composition of the new commission.

“The voices that are at the table come from young and old, racial ethnic persons, women and men from around the world, lay, deacon, local pastor, and elder,” she said.

Several members of the commission agreed that the young adults are contributing a fresh perspective since many of them have just been through the process. Some of the young members set up Google groups during the initial meeting to allow sharing of documents and work between meetings.

Reece Fauscett, a local pastor on the commission, said he hopes the commission that can build on the excellent work of the previous commission to offer to General Conference a clear, flexible, and relevant route of candidacy for those around the world who are being called to orders in the 21st Century.

*Brown is associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry