Word: methodists
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...RICHARD G. VINEY First Methodist Church Casey, Iowa
...crisis that faces every faith -but none more so than the Methodist Church, which last week opened its quadrennial General Conference in Pittsburgh's Civic Arena. With 10,234,986 members, Methodism is the second largest Protestant communion in the U.S.*After the Roman Catholic Church, it is also the wealthiest and the one that, because of its history and geographical distribution, has the best claim to be the only truly national Protestant denomination. This year many of the 858 Methodist delegates arrived at their conference with the deep conviction that their church had reached a turning point...
...itself without a large measure of Christian optimism, and the conference's sense of expectation was expressed by Bishop Gerald Kennedy of Los Angeles in the episcopal address that opened the meeting. The Christian task, he told the delegates and more than 8,000 visitors from Methodist churches around the world, is "to pursue our ancient course of attacking our own imperfections, keeping our life open to God, and perfecting our society. We are not trying to sell a system, but to demonstrate a Way which is incomparably better than all others, and shines with the promise...
...could. Democratic Methodism has neither Pope nor primate; the presidency of the Council of Bishops-an office held by Kennedy in 1960 and currently by New York's Lloyd Wicke-passes yearly from man to man, and involves only the function of chairing the semiannual meetings of the Methodist hierarchy. The church speaks with a united voice only once every four years, at the General Conference. Between times, Methodists everywhere in search of guidance listen with special care whenever Gerald Kennedy takes a stand...
Serious Theology. It was Asbury's stern belief that "the saddlebags are the best schooling for traveling preachers." Today, says the Rev. Walter Vernon of the church's Board of Education, Methodism is "taking theology more seriously." The Methodists have no Tillich or Barth, but they have seldom before had so many competent and respected thinkers to boast about. Among them: Ecumenist Albert Outler, a Methodist observer at the Vatican Council last year, and radical young (37) Systematic Theologian Schubert Ogden...