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Learn More About the United Methodist Church Learn More About the New York Annual ConferenceResponding in This Season of Need
October 31, 2024
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of God in heaven, . . .” — Matthew 5:43-35
In the fall of 1991, I was teaching my regular Wednesday night Bible Study in the local church I was serving at that time. Word came to us during the service that the United States was leading an attack on Iraq that would become the Gulf War. We immediately gathered at the altar for prayer then dismissed for the night. At home, our televisions began to detail the attack with graphic coverage of the events of that night. It was a time of uncertainty and concern as the coalition forces from 35 countries responded to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
The next day I sent out word to my congregation that there would be a prayer vigil at the church that evening. When I walked into the sanctuary that night, the pews were filled. It was evident that there was a real need for spiritual centering, so much so that I announced that the church would remain open 24 hours for those who wanted to come and pray. I lit a Christ Candle every morning and made sure the church doors were unlocked.
People came — and they kept on coming. Some evenings I would walk over to the church and pray with a soldier’s parents. On other occasions I would walk into the church well after midnight only to discover the single candle burning and someone kneeling at the altar. The need was there, and the need was met.
Just a couple of years later, Hurricane Andrew swept through southern Florida with a wide swath of devastation. That same congregation was challenged to respond with relief supplies. They filled not only the fellowship hall but the sanctuary with bag after bag to be delivered to Homestead, Florida. The need was there, and the need was met.
Today we are, again, in a season of need. As you read these words, our country finds itself on the edge. We are more divided than we are united. Signs fill neighborhoods with political preference. Television ads are filled with accusations. The rhetoric is filled with finger-pointing. There is no unity and, as a result, our communities are filled with chaos. No matter who wins this election, the day after will be filled with accusations, disunity, chaos, and uncertainty.
Where will we find peace?
Today I write in a climate that is filled with extreme need. Hurricanes and floods have ravished communities and changed the landscape for years to come, if not permanently. As a result, businesses are destroyed, families are displaced, and homelessness is rising. It’s only a matter of time before depression and loneliness give way to mental illness and drug addiction.
Where will we find hope?
In most communities, there is a building that has historically been at the center of the community. In that building are people who have found inspiration, hope, and faith. In that building there has been found a peace that has passed understanding, a fellowship that has provided support, and a feeling of unity that extended way beyond our individual preferences. In that building the mysterious power of a Holy Spirit has provided the courage to face injustice and a drive to meet the needs that revealed themselves. That building is our church.
I believe that this is the moment for the people in those churches, our churches, to mobilize to meet the need at hand. We know there is disunity. We know there is anger. We know there is fear. We know that chaos is present and will continue no matter who wins.
I want to call upon every one of our churches to mobilize immediately to do what we do best when a need exists. It is time to open our churches for prayer. Time to offer a safe space for conversation. Time to call the community to unity and a common sense of purpose.
I also want to call upon every one of our churches to mobilize and gather resources and offerings for flood- and hurricane-ravaged regions. It is time to extend our passion into our communities and our world. Time to demonstrate to the community that we can do extraordinary things when the need presents itself. And, friends, the need is presenting itself.
We dare not sit by idly and let the world’s priorities dominate the landscape. Hatred will prevail unless love exerts itself. Apathy will lull us to sleep unless passion stirs the hearts of good people. Division will alienate us from one another unless we call people, in the name of Jesus, to a higher plane of unity.
This is our time. Our moment. Our opportunity. The need is present. Will we meet it?
In my last local church, every Sunday, after the benediction was pronounced, the congregation I was privileged to serve would sing this song:
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God, our creator, children all are we.
Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now.
With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
May it be so.
The Journey Continues, . . .
Thomas J. Bickerton
Resident Bishop
Celebrating What it Means to be United Methodist
September 30, 2024
Grace and Peace,
In her latest book, Something Lost, Something Gained, Hillary Rodham Clinton weaves the story of her faith into every aspect of her service to our country and world. Clinton, a lifelong United Methodist, gives credit to her youth minister and her mother for planting the foundational understanding of Methodism in her heart and soul. She writes:
“]They] made sure I internalized the famous Methodist credo attributed to John Wesley: ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’ Those words inspired generations of Methodists – including a lot of fantastic, fearless Methodist women – to take their faith out of the pews and into the streets, volunteering in hospitals, schools, and slums. For me, growing up in a comfortable middle-class suburb, it provided a sense of purpose and direction.” (pg. 262-263)
One of the true celebrations of what it means to be United Methodist is to understand that the faith we proclaim must find a way to be lived out — in mission, advocacy, and humble service.
For years now when I have read the appointments of pastors to local churches, I have used these words: “I am not appointing you to a church. I am appointing you to a community. You are to use your church as a mission outpost for a ministry of mission and outreach to the community around you.” As Hillary says, our work is to take the faith we proclaim, “out of the pews and into the streets.”
John Wesley himself had and taught a holistic view of faith. In Wesley’s mind, faith produced both an internal development and an outward expression. One without the other could not truly develop into Wesley’s understanding of Christian perfection. To put it in simple terms, faith, in its purest form, naturally finds its way from the pew to the people.
These days, the need to work hard at developing our internal spiritual lives cannot be underestimated. The attack on both organized religion and individuals who use their faith as a platform for service is real. Building up our own spiritual lives, and one another, for the hard work of living out our faith demands intentional, thoughtful, and deliberate disciplines.
And yet, Wesley himself acknowledged that only looking inward is not enough for a fully developed understanding of faith. In 1739, Wesley wrote in a volume titled, Hymns and Sacred Poems, “Solitary religion is not to be found in the Gospel accounts of Jesus. . . . The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love, is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.”
In other words, we cannot live a Christian life in isolation. Our faith is lived out in community, being held accountable in love even as we continually find ways to deepen our love for God and our love for one another.
These days, the need for Christian community also cannot be underestimated. How we lovingly hold one another accountable will directly affect the manner in which reach out to world that is broken, alienated, angry, and afraid. If we are faithful in our response to God’s claim on our lives, we must be deliberate and intentional in the ways we carry God’s love “out of the pews and into the world.”
What does that mean for us right here, right now?
It means that we will find tangible ways to integrate our faith into meaningful action.
It means that we will work hard to make sure that people vote in upcoming elections that will determine the degree to which our faith can be integrated into public policy.
It means that we work hard to continue to advocate for women’s rights, full inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community, deepen awareness of and response to the racial disparity that continues to dominate the landscape of our world.
It means that we will work hard to help people in Vermont, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida recover from the devastating effects of hurricanes and raging flood waters.
It means that we will work hard to find ways to enable Global Health to be realized even in the most impoverished places in our world.
This is what it means to be a United Methodist Christian.
And you know what will happen as a result? The faith we proclaim in our churches will be far more satisfying and joyful than we could ever imagine because we will begin to make the connection between what personal holiness can mean and social holiness can do.
As result, Hillary Clinton’s words can become our own:
“My faith has sustained me, informed me, saved me, chided me, and challenged me. I don’t know who I would be or where I would have ended up without it.” (Something Lost, Something Gained, page 260)
May it be so.
The Journey Continues, . . .
Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton
Resident Bishop
New Hope Episcopal Area
The New England and New York Annual Conferences
Bishop: Time to move from rancor to revival
By Heather Hahn
March 2, 2023 | UM News
In a highly unusual churchwide address, the Council of Bishops president urged fellow United Methodists to pivot away from the rancor around church disaffiliations to the work of church renewal.
“It is time — no, dare I say, long overdue — for us to go back to the heart of who we are, to use words once again like reclamation, revival and renewal because we believe that those words lead to nothing less than a conversion of the heart,” Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton said in the video address released March 2.
Bickerton, who also leads the New York Conference, delivered his midterm State of the Church address as the denomination is grappling with a mounting number of disaffiliations under a church law that allows U.S. congregations to leave with property if they meet certain procedural and financial requirements.
The denomination added the church law — Paragraph 2553 in the denomination’s Book of Discipline — in 2019 after decades of intensifying debates over LGBTQ inclusion. However, the departures have accelerated since last year’s launch of the Global Methodist Church, a theologically conservative breakaway denomination that has been recruiting United Methodist churches to join.
So far, a UM News review found 2,036 congregations — or about 6.6% of U.S. churches — have cleared the necessary hurdles to leave under the provision. Multiple annual conferences — the denomination’s regional bodies — plan to take up more disaffiliation requests before the end of the year when the church law expires.
In the meantime, Bickerton acknowledged, the rhetoric urging churches to exit has taken its toll — leaving many who want to stay United Methodist feeling bullied and sapped of energy.
“It’s created a significant amount of fatigue in us,” Bickerton said. “And it has clearly diverted our attention away from the real reason we have this church in the first place — to fulfill the mandate of loving God and loving neighbor through a mission to make disciples in order to literally change the world.”
He urged United Methodists to reclaim that mandate and their evangelistic mission. He also shared a word of hope of United Methodists doing just that even in this time of anger and uncertainty.
Usually, the Council of Bishops president delivers an address at the bishops’ twice-yearly meetings with a message mainly directed at episcopal colleagues. But in this unusual time, Bickerton said he wanted to reach out to the whole denomination.
“In the midst of the current situation that the denomination is facing, I felt that it was important to provide the church with a word of motivation, hope and centering on the opportunity in front of us rather than the constant current narrative of decline and separation,” he told United Methodist News.
One passage of Scripture he has focused on in recent days has been God’s exhortation in Isaiah 43:19: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Even before the current church withdrawals, the denomination has dealt with decreasing U.S. membership for decades. That trend now is seen across Christianity in the United States, as the number of Americans not affiliated with any faith community continues to rise.
Bickerton preached that it doesn’t have to be this way, and he attributed church decline in part to people letting the polarization of the wider culture divide the church. He urged United Methodists to discover once again what it means to be “a beloved community.”
He suggested framework for building a beloved community could be found in an 1850 edition of the Book of Discipline — a far smaller volume than the Book of Discipline is today. Back before it became a book of legislation, he said, the Discipline mainly called Methodists to a lifestyle. The old Discipline contained a section with the title, “The Necessity of Union Among Ourselves.”
The section urged Methodists to speak freely with and pray for each other, to defend each other’s character, to never depart without prayer and to not despise each other’s gifts.
“The reality stated is simple, yet profound: If we are united, we are strong,” Bickerton said in summary. “But if we’re divided, we will destroy ourselves, kill the work of God we have been called to, and do irreparable harm to vulnerable souls.”
He pointed to the Rev. Shuler Sitsch, a pastor in the Texas Conference, who is bringing together United Methodists who formerly attended congregations that disaffiliated.
“They are building a spirit of community out of their brokenness, and they’re feeling like a new United Methodist family,” Bickerton said.
Sitsch is not alone in building something new where once there was loss. The Texas Conference is being reshaped after seeing 294, or nearly half of its 598 churches, disaffiliate last year.
But the people who remain are reclaiming their presence in The United Methodist Church, said Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey, who has led the Texas Conference since January.
The conference is currently starting multiple new faith communities, she said.
“In most cases it is the laity who are planting their feet firmly and leading the way to faith communities meeting in schools, homes, event venues, churches that were previously closed and even barns,” she said. “We have also been blessed by the generosity of ecumenical partners who have opened their church doors for United Methodist worship.”
She said she is seeing holy moments and sacred surprises from small rural communities to larger cities.
Bickerton began his address sharing the story of his own conversion to Christianity at church camp after experiencing a season of bullying as a teenager. The experience found him forming relationships with peers who built him up, gave him a sense of hope and ultimately helped lead him to offer his life to Christ.
That kind of joy he found at church camp deserves to be shared, he said, and an old church camp song that’s now in the United Methodist Hymnal shows the way. “It only takes a spark, to get a fire going,” he recited. “And soon, all those around, can warm up in its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love … You want to pass it on.”
The hymn, he said, offers a simple statement of faith and a firm belief.
“God’s not through with us yet,” Bickerton said. “We can be the architects of a renewed, revived and reclaimed United Methodist Church.”