President's Address
Bishop Thomas Bickerton (New York Area), president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, is shown at the start of the Nov. 7 council session in Lake Junaluska, N.C. (UM Insight Screenshot from Facebook Livestream)
The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops called his sibling episcopal leaders to "craft a narrative of hope" in the coming months before the 12-million-member worldwide denomination gathers next spring for its first legislative assembly since the UMC began to splinter apart in 2022 through a process called "disaffiliation."
"We cannot afford to go into General Conference where the narrative is about our arguments, our disagreements and our division," said Bishop Thomas Bishop Bickerton, council president and resident bishop of the New York episcopal area.
Bishop Bickerton delivered his presidential address Nov. 7 during the bishops' meeting at UMC-owned Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center about 27 miles west of Asheville, N.C. The council's morning session, including the president's address, was livestreamed over Facebook and is available on video.
A service of healing based on the "United Methodist Book of Worship" framed this year's presidential address. The service opened with bishops, their spouses and observers singing familiar hymns of hope and healing, including "Morning Has Broken," "Because He Lives," and "There is a Balm in Gilead," and closed with Holy Communion.
The hymns set the tone for Bishop Bickerton's address, in which the New York bishop repeatedly referred to The United Methodist Church's pain caused by the disaffiliation movement. Although some churches had left the denomination previously, disaffiliations gained momentum after the traditionalist Global Methodist Church was formed by dissident United Methodists in May 2022. Since then, 7,000 local churches, mostly white, rural, small-membership churches led by non-seminary-trained pastors, have left the denomination, which had about 30,000 local churches prior to 2022. Not all disaffiliated churches have joined the GMC; some have remained independent or join other denominations.
The pain of parting has been compounded by propaganda that inflamed local churches' fears of being forced to give up historic Christian beliefs or to accept a gay pastor, even though United Methodist law officially forbids ordaining LGBTQ persons. The United Methodist Church also upholds traditional Christian beliefs enshrined in church law that its constitution states can't be changed or removed. Loyalist United Methodists have been attempting counter the propaganda since they began in 2022, but in many cases have been unable to convince departing congregations of the narratives' falsehood.
Bishop Bickerton organized his talk around three "enlivening" venues: an October 19-21 meeting in Cambodia of more than 200 United Methodist global mission workers; the June 2023 session of the Houston-based Texas Annual (regional) Conference; and the experience of Methodism's founder John Wesley when he challenged the Anglican Church's ministry system.
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UM Insight Screenshot from Facebook Video
One of the slides Bishop Thomas Bickerton used Nov. 7, 2023, in his presidential address to the Council of Bishops.
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UM Insight Screenshot from Facebook Video
One of the slides Bishop Thomas Bickerton used Nov. 7, 2023, in his presidential address to the Council of Bishops.
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UM Insight Screenshot from Facebook Video
One of the slides Bishop Thomas Bickerton used Nov. 7, 2023, in his presidential address to the Council of Bishops.
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UM Insight Screenshot from Facebook Video
The closing slide from Bishop Thomas Bickerton's Nov. 7 presidential address to the Council of Bishops.
The council president emphasized that United Methodist bishops confront a denomination demoralized by its splintering, with remaining churches in various states of grieving and renewal.
"We can't afford to walk into Charlotte (North Carolina, where General Conference is scheduled) to talk about disaffiliation and separation; that narrative has to change before we get there," Bishop Bickerton said. "We must create a narrative about our sole aim to love God and neighbor so that people will notice it and be transformed by it."
In addition to describing his September visit in Cambodia with United Methodist mission workers, Bishop Bickerton used the June 2023 session of the Houston-based Texas Annual Conference to describe both the UMC's hurt and potential healing. Texas Conference lost more than half of its 600 local churches to disaffiliation over 2022-23, thanks in part to proselytizing by then-Texas Conference bishop Scott Jones, who is now a Global Methodist bishop.
"The 47 percent of people who had remained United Methodist wanted to be there," Bishop Bickerton said. "There was applause every single time Bishop (Cynthia Fierro) Harvey or I said, 'United Methodist.'"
Bishop Bickerton described how a group of young Texas United Methodists – "progressive, centrist and traditionalist" – submitted a unity proposal, “Resolution for Our New Life Together”, in which they pledged to get along and work together. The annual conference unanimously adopted the unity resolution.
"In that action was nothing less than the work of the Holy Spirit," Bishop Bickerton said. "In that action the Texas Conference decided to be the Body of Christ. There was not a dry eye in the house."
"How were these people able to generate such resolve to find a path to resurrection?" the bishop asked. "There was not a person there who was not hurt by divisive words. There was not a person there who hadn't said good-bye to colleagues and friends who disaffiliated. There was not a person there who was not called to lead out of their pain to a possibility of hope."
The bishop also cited the experience of Methodism's founder John Wesley, who was prodded by evangelist George Whitefield to preach outside when Wesley was barred from preaching in Anglican churches.
"When he challenged the Anglican Church, Wesley carried the insecurities of his faith, the hurtful resistance of others, and the deep wound of being separated from the church of his upbringing," the council president said. "Yet he found purpose and resolve out of his deep pain."
Bishop Bickerton then used Henri Nouwen's renowned book, "The Wounded Healer," to frame the attitudes and actions he said were necessary for United Methodist bishops to lead the denomination to a more hopeful future.
"We bishops are part of the company of the wounded ones," Bishop Bickerton said, drawing verbal affirmations from his audience. "Our district superintendents have worked hard (to manage the disaffiliation process) in the face of deep feelings of anger and resentment. Those of us in this room are absolutely exhausted, deeply hurt by the words and actions of others. We're scarred and worn, and we all have days when we wonder if we can continue on the path we're following."
Harking back to Nouwen's book, Bishop Bickerton urged his episcopal colleagues to envision "how to create and promote a narrative of hope and possibility in midst of such pain and wounding.
"We're here to learn from one another and to lean on one another for the next steps. We're here to strategize how to lead in next few months heading to General Conference, to find in midst of circumstances the way God is calling us to lead."
In the same that Nouwen ended "The Wounded Healer," Bishop Bickerton closed his address with Psalm 95, which he called "a psalm of reality that signals hope and desire."
"May we carefully and keenly listen for the voice of God in our midst more than we listen to our own voices," the council president said. "I pray we won't harden our hearts and instead find meaningful ways to sing a joyful song that acknowledges that in the midst of all we are facing, God will provide a way."
A veteran religion journalist who has reported on The United Methodist Church at all levels for 35 years, Cynthia B. Astle serves as editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011.