Methodists: The Challenge of Fortune

• Share

(4 of 11)

∙MORALITY. Theoretically, Methodists are not supposed to smoke or drink, but many of them do. Says one Methodist pastor in Salt Lake City: "Try to fill posts of leadership in any church with nondrinkers and still get capable people. You just can't do it." This year, the Division of Temperance and General Welfare is offering a new statement on alcohol that urges Methodists to abstain not just in obedience to church law but out of their sense of Christian responsibility. For the first time, the church will probably come out and admit that "Christians may differ on the use of alcoholic beverages." Many younger ministers believe that the proposed new position on drinking is a healthy step in the right direction. "It recognizes the fact that Methodists do drink," says the Rev. James Bristah of Detroit, "and it challenges the people to find a new basis for abstaining." - SEGREGATION. "The main issue before us now," says Kennedy, "is race." The Methodists include more Negroes (about 400,000) than any other integrated Protestant church; at the same time, almost half of the church's white membership is in the South. The major issue facing the conference was whether to abolish the nation-spanning Central Jurisdiction that governs most of the 2,900 Negro churches; white Methodist churches, by contrast, are divided into five geographical jurisdictions. Southerners wanted to preserve this separate-but-equal institution—and so, paradoxically, did many Negroes, since the Central Jurisdiction guaranteed them a disproportionately strong representation on church boards. For example, 10% of Methodism's active bishops are Negroes, although Negroes constitute only 4% of Methodist strength. But many young ministers and laymen from the North wanted to abolish the Central immediately, and held a prayer vigil at the conference to publicize their cause. Last week the delegates voted overwhelmingly to integrate Negro churches into white jurisdictions voluntarily over a four-year period. The compromise disappointed the civil rights advocates, but it reduced the likelihood of a walkout by Southern churches, increased the chances of a formal conference denunciation of segregation.

Beyond the Statistics. By its decisions, the General Conference will be measuring the current health or sickness of Methodism. Measured in statistics—a good Methodist way of doing it—the patient seems to be blooming. Last year parishioners put $599 million into their church collection plates-equivalent to the sales of the nation's 80th largest industrial corporation. The capital worth of Methodist institutions, including 79 hospitals and 105 colleges and universities, is more than $4.8 billion. Nashville's Abingdon Press is the world's largest religious publisher, with sales of $27 million and an output that ranges from Sunday-school texts to a new, scholarly three-volume history of the church (price: $27.50). More than 1,400 Methodist missionaries from the U.S. are spreading the Gospel abroad in 44 countries.