World Conference Spotlights Methodism ‘On the Move’

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Aug. 30, 2024 | GOTHENBURG, Sweden (UM News)

Key points:

  • Representatives from Wesleyan-rooted denominations worldwide, including United Methodists, traveled to Sweden for the World Methodist Conference.
  • The gathering had the feel of a big family reunion.
  • The four-day conference, with the theme “On the Move,” began with a well-known hymn that originated in Sweden and has become beloved in revivals around the world.

When the clamor of a midday thunderstorm in 1885 gave way to cheerful birdsong and a brilliant rainbow, the Rev. Carl Gustav Boberg felt moved to write down his awesome wonder at God’s creation.

The result was the Swedish pastor’s most famous hymn, titled “O Store Gud” in his native language — literally “O Great God” in English.

The hymn journeyed from Sweden to Germany to Ukraine and eventually to England, where missionaries gave it the title most English speakers know it by today: “How Great Thou Art.”

In a similarly roundabout way, Boberg’s home denomination, the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, is now part of the Methodist movement. In 2011, Sweden’s Mission Covenant members, Baptists and United Methodists — with The United Methodist Church’s blessing — joined to form the Uniting Church in Sweden.

So Boberg’s well-traveled hymn made a fitting opening when the Uniting Church in Sweden hosted the 22nd World Methodist Conference, bringing together Wesleyan-rooted Christians from around the globe. 

“Now sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, how great thou art! How great thou art!” sang out the booming voices of worshippers from six continents.

The Aug. 14 evening service doubled as opening worship for both the World Methodist Conference and the annual conference of the Uniting Church in Sweden.

“We are one huge family together,” Bishop Lasse Svensson, the outgoing president of the Uniting Church in Sweden, told the worshippers. He also credited the United Methodist conferences in Denmark and Norway for helping with hosting duties.

“We are so grateful to God for this opportunity here in Gothenburg to get to know each other even more,” he said, “and to get a deeper relationship with God.”  

Roughly 1,100 people, including a large contingent of United Methodists, were specifically there for the World Methodist Conference.

The Aug-14-18 international event had the theme “On the Move,” with focuses on migration, pilgrimage and guiding lights — specifically, Christians’ calling to share God’s light throughout the world.

“God has made us to move,” preached the Rev. Dr. Audrey Warren, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Miami, during the opening night service.

UMs in World Methodist Leadership

In the days leading up to the World Methodist Conference, the World Methodist Council met to elect new officers and name its new general secretary.

United Methodist Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett is the new World Methodist Council president and will lead for the next five years. Starting Sept. 1, she will be the bishop of the Holston and West Virginia conferences in the United States.

“I so believe in ecumenism and find it to be life-giving to lean into focusing on our commonalities, as opposed to our differences,” Wallace-Padgett said. “So I believe that the World Methodist Council has a strong witness in the world, and I look forward to what we do together in the next five years.”

Other United Methodists serving as officers include:

  • The Rev. Dr. Jean Hawxhurst is the council’s North American officer. She also serves on the ecumenical staff of the Council of Bishops. Last year, she was elected president of another ecumenical organization, Churches Uniting in Christ.
  • The Rev. Dr. Connie Semy P. Mella is chair of the council’s standing committee on education and theological education. In that role, she will work with the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and Universities, a World Methodist Council affiliate. She is dean and professor at Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines.
  • Retired Bishop Rosemarie Wenner continues on the council’s staff as Geneva secretary. Starting on Sept. 1, she and retired Bishop Hope Morgan Ward also serve as co-ecumenical officers for the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

The Rev. Dr. Reynaldo Leão Neto is the new general secretary, succeeding Bishop Ivan M. Abrahams, who is retiring after 12 years as the council’s top executive. Neto, originally from Brazil, most recently has been Superintendent Minister in London for the Methodist Church in Britain.

“I propose for the church, sitting is the new sinning,” she added. “We are called to move because we were made to move from the beginning of Scripture.”

But she acknowledged that the past few years have felt a lot like a giant, global game of “Red Light-Green Light,” with multiple stops and starts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Methodist Conference itself has felt the impact of the pandemic’s halts to travel.

The World Methodist Council, which brings together more than 80 denominations with Methodist heritage in 138 countries, typically holds the conference every five years. But because of COVID, the Swedish gathering ended up taking place nearly eight years after the previous World Methodist Conference in Houston.

And like The United Methodist Church’s COVID-delayed General Conference, the World Methodist Conference also saw an unusually high number of absences caused by holdups in visas.

But unlike General Conference, the World Methodist Conference saw no church policy-making. Instead, people from six of the seven continents joined together for fellowship, Bible study, workshops and soul-stirring singing and preaching.

“It’s like a big old worldwide Methodist-Wesleyan-Uniting-Church family reunion,” said the Rev. Dr. Jean Hawxhurst, who serves on the United Methodist Council of Bishops ecumenical staff. She is also the newly elected North American officer for the World Methodist Council.

At a family reunion, usually the biggest decision involves what to bring to the potluck. At the World Methodist Conference, the biggest decision was what symbol each member denomination would bring to represent it during opening worship.

The Rev. Megan Tobola, lead pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Naperville, Illinois, carried the symbol chosen by the United Methodist Council of Bishops: a hand-carved wooden cross and flame.

As the worship band played an instrumental version of Paul Simon’s festive “Late in the Evening,” she and other denominational representatives standing on stage each stepped forward to present their symbols. Many of the representatives wore traditional dress to highlight their home countries. Worshippers cheered each member of the Methodist family.

“Having been on the World Methodist Council since 2016, it felt nice to be the person who’s standing there smiling, like, ‘Hey, we weathered this, and we’re here together,’” Tobola said.

“To see not just the symbols, but those folks who came out in their cultural dress, it was so beautiful,” she said, adding that the music put everyone in a dancing mood.

The symbols were then displayed on a terraced table next to the worship space for the conference’s duration.

The conference also offered opportunities to exchange ideas for ministry with workshops offering lessons on history, welcoming migrants, evangelizing communities and pursuing justice.

The Rev. Dr. Kim Reisman, a United Methodist elder and executive director of World Methodist Evangelism, did a brief presentation on the 50th anniversary edition of the Faith-Sharing New Testament with the Psalms (NRSV translation). The volume also contains the basics of Christian faith and guidance for sharing faith in Jesus put together by World Methodist Evangelism, an affiliate of the World Methodist Council.

“All of that information is incredibly valuable to help us to become more confident and more authentic and more grace-filled in our sharing with others about our faith,” Reisman said.

The Rev. Steve Hickle, outgoing executive director of WesleyMen — the World Methodist Council affiliate for men’s ministry — led a workshop on reaching men in faith through the organization’s anti-hunger ministry, FastPrayGive.org.

“We want to connect men in the Wesleyan tradition of Christian fellowship and witness through active works backed by the words of Scripture itself,” Hickle said.

The Rev. Giovanni Arroyo, the top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, said attending the conference has been a way to connect with siblings in other denominations.

“I see this like a place where you could also start doing a think tank. We share, ‘This is what I’m doing. This is how I go about it,’” he said. “It’s really happening organically with all these conversations.”

Maggie Taylor, one of the young adults attending the conference, had been on the road for nearly three weeks to attend various church and academic-related events, but she said she still did not want the conference to end.

“I don’t want to leave because there are people from all around the world and different experiences and languages and places and spaces, and it’s just such a great opportunity,” she said.

Taylor is the director of youth and connectional ministries at Heart of Steamboat United Methodist in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. She said that she wished everyone in her church could have the experience of sharing resources from around the world.

In her opening sermon, Warren described her Miami congregation’s own learning experience from being on the move.

After years of decline and much prayerful discernment, First United Methodist Church in Miami made the decision in 2017 to sell its downtown building. The congregation spent years worshipping with Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which allowed First Church members to continue their ministry with the homeless.

The congregation eventually moved back into the new skyscraper built on its old property this year and is drawing young families again.

“If our Wesleyan movement is to thrive, let’s do what First Church did,” Warren said. “First Church had to move from the comfort of its past, let go of the familiarity of its routines, let go of what was established, let go of its preferences and focus on God’s purpose for downtown Miami. Amen? Moving is letting go and becoming something new.”

Heather Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News.