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VOL. 13, NO. 22

Clergy examine role of elders, itinerancy in BWC

By Erik Alsgaard UMConnection Staff

In 1996 the United Methodist Church created two orders of ordained ministry: deacons and elders. On Oct. 21, the elders in the Baltimore-Washington Conference met for the first time as an Order at Brook Hill UMC in Frederick.

The speaker at the gathering was the Rev. Jerome Del Pio, general secretary of the denominations Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Del Pio was invited to the gathering to address two questions that formed the outline for the day: Is there a role for the Order of Elders in contemporary United Methodism; and is itinerancy a viable ministry strategy?

According to Del Pio, elders have been handed an order of ministry that they dont fully understand.

He had some harsh criticisms for the ordering of ministry in the church today. The Order of Deacon has very few linkages with the historic order of deacon because it was torn from its sacramental moorings in order to argue distinctiveness over against ecclesiology, Del Pio said.

The role of elder, Del Pio stated, is closely tied to that of being priest. The elders unique identity resides in her ministry of representing, or re-presenting, crucial dimensions of the churchs calling to be a sign of Gods reign in human history, he said. The elder functions as focal image, as sign and as icon of primarily the priestly dimensions of the churchs calling and ministry. The deacon fundamentally represents, and thus functions equally, as icon and sign, of the servant dimensions of the churchs calling.

If these representative roles are lost, the church loses its focus, said Del Pio. This lack of focus can contribute to a two-class understanding of the ministry of the baptized.

We in the United Methodist Church are a church that is clergy dominated we have a clergy-dominated church and a lay-dominated clergy, said Del Pio. However, the role of the elder should not be undervalued.

The elder orders the life of the congregation as a function of guarding the character of the church in such a way that it faithfully represents the deepest meanings and yearnings of Gods mission in the world, Del Pio continued. The purpose and the role of the elder stands at the heart of the churchs ability to be the church in the world; all of the other ministries that we have evolvedare for the good of the order; they are not at the heart.

Local pastors (and) deacons do not represent the full plenitude of Christs ministry in the church as that is understood according to the classical marks of the church. And for someone to assert that or pretend that it does, is a fiction.

Del Pio then turned his comments to the issue of itinerating clergy. Is itinerancy a viable missional strategy for the church in the 21st century? Answer this question, and you will get a million dollars, he said.

For the first time in our history, United Methodists have an ordained ministry elders that itinerate, and others do not deacons and local pastors. The confusion and tension that this creates, not to mention the theological dissonance, gives rise to precisely questions like this one.

Del Pio also talked about the increasing shift from the annual conference to the local church as the primary locus for mission. This insipient congregationalism stands in fundamental tension with a connectional vision of ministry, he said. When the annual conference is seen as locus for mission, local churches are seen as extensions of the churchs mission; as missional outposts in the churchs calling to spread scriptural holiness across the land. Clergy itinerate because this is how the church remains faithful to its mission, by pairing missional need with the gifts of a minister, regardless of who he or she is. I know that we have a flawed system with which to work, in many respects. With what would you replace it?

Finally, Del Pio spoke about the economic and cultural impacts of society today on itinerancy. The itinerate system has been complicated by the reality of upward mobility, he said, to which many clergy assume that appointments will be either lateral or upward, but never downward. When was the last time a pastor of a large church was appointed to a three- point charge because this is how the bishop construed the missional needs of the conference?

The Rev. Roberta Scoville, pastor of Camp Chapel UMC in Perry Hall, is chair of the Order of Elders. The meeting went well for the first time out, she said. We learned a lot.

One of the learnings, she said, was that elders wanted more time for fellowship and conversation. The executive committee of the Order, she said, will be organizing some regional gatherings where conversation will be the only focus of the day. A letter providing details is expected by the end of the month, she said.

Next spring, Scoville expects another gathering of the Order to discuss summaries of the issues from the regional gatherings. The ultimate goal, she said, is that by January 2004, we might have a summary document that reflects what elders are thinking in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, and we can share that with our new bishop.