Rev. Jack Harnish blesses the newly elected bishops of The United Methodist Church and says, “I am so proud to be a United Methodist, from Coke to Haller.”
JACK HARNISH
Retired Clergy, Detroit Conference
For my readers who are not United Methodists…bear with me. The first pages of the United Methodist Book of Discipline show a list of names going all the way back to Thomas Coke and Frances Asbury, consecrated as the first Bishops of the church in 1784. It includes the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, Methodist Protestant and Evangelical United Brethren, all part of what is known today as the United Methodist Church, in the order of their election from 1784 to 2012. A more eloquent and flowery generation called an “endless line of splendor”, not unlike the genealogies of the Gospels which link Jesus with the long history of the people of the Covenant. This week 15 more names were added to that list. Among them will be the first Bishop to be elected out of First United Methodist Church of Birmingham, Michigan, Bishop Laurie Haller. Here she is in the consecration service beside Bishop David Bard, our new Bishop in Michigan.
The group is ethnically diverse and includes the most women ever to be elected to the episcopacy in one year in United Methodist history. It includes perhaps the most controversial election–a lesbian clergy person who is legally married to her partner.
Laurie was consecrated with a black eye. I mean a real black eye. On an airplane recently someone lugging too much baggage banged into her and left her with what she called a “real shiner”. In her acceptance speech, Laurie was able to use it to represent her humanity, her vulnerability, her openness and honesty in dealing with life in all of its challenges. I love it…a Bishop with a black eye. Laurie will bring her spiritual depth and her deep integrity to the office and the people of Iowa will be blessed with her ministry and leadership.
I know some of my friends will shake their heads over the whole idea of Bishops–I mean, aren’t they a bit like the British royal family, an out-dated relic of the past which represents too much control from above and undermines the freedom of the local church? Maybe so. But for me, the Bishops represent the continuity and hopefully the unity of the church. They remind us that the church is more than just the local churches, we are a global connection, linked to all the other churches in the conference and in the world-wide Methodist family. Unlike the churches which practice a “call system”, I have always appreciated the fact that I was not hired by the local church, I was sent by the Bishop to serve in a local setting. The Bishop casts a vision larger than just our local ministry and calls us to a larger mission.
Now we all know Bishops still put their pants on one leg at a time. None of them are perfect, in fact, all of them probably have a black eye or two. I have served under seven bishops and while I worked for the General Church, I knew just about all of them. Some were eloquent, some were not. Some were visionary, some were not. But lo and behold, God was able to work through them or around them to advance the mission of the church. So with all of their foibles and black eyes, I honor those who have been elected to this office. I am so proud to be a United Methodist, from Coke to Haller, and I pray God will bless this new class of bishops for the sake of the future of the church.
Because the fact is, we all have a black eye or two, don’t we?
~Jack blog weekly at Monday Memo.
Last Updated on July 18, 2016