Ministerial Orders and Sacramental Authority in The United Methodist Church and Its Antecedents, 1784–2016

Abstract

‘The [United Methodist Church] badly needs a … deep, detailed, and thorough exposition of its theology and practice of ordination, ministerial orders, and sacramental authority’ (117). This statement, located in the final section ‘Observations and Reflections’ of Rex Matthews's book, summarizes the perspective that drives the entire work. For Matthews, Professor Emeritus in the Practice of Historical Theology and Wesleyan Studies at Candler School of Theology (Emory University), the burden of the book is to understand how the United Methodist Church (UMC) came to need such an exposition. To make this assessment, he examines and analyses selected debates and decisions taken by the UMC (1968–present) and its direct ancestors (each with its own chapter): the Methodist Episcopal Church (1784–1939); the Methodist Protestant Church (1830–1939); the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1846–1939); the Methodist Church (1939–68); and the Evangelical United Brethren (1946–68).The UMC's current situation regarding orders and sacramental administration has roots in John Wesley's organizational and ministerial strategies. Among these, in particular, are the Methodist Conference with which preachers are affiliated and in relation to which they are deployed, Wesley's ordinal within his Sunday Service of the Methodists (with rites for general superintendents, elders, and [transitional] deacons) sent to North America in 1784, and a readiness to take decisions based on pastoral or missional need. The Methodist Episcopal Church embraced this threefold inheritance and largely accepted the functions of the ordained defined in Wesley's ordinal (derived from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer), including sacramental responsibilities.Matthews details the evolving duties and authority of the ordained (general superintendent renamed ‘bishop’ in 1787) in the UMC's denominational predecessors (e.g. the Methodist Protestant Church's rejection of bishops at their founding and in 1874 the elimination of the order of deacons) and within the UMC itself. Of the three orders, the sacramental leadership of deacons (and especially questions regarding presidency at the Lord's Supper) received the most attention in these churches as evidenced by formal legislation in books of Discipline, reports of committees, discussions at General Conferences, and commentaries on denominational polity. Within the UMC, the ‘Denver Revolution of 1996’ eliminated the deacon as transitional (to elder) and redefined it as a distinct and separate order parallel to that of elder. Deacons were only to assist elders at both sacraments, though within a few years, the legislation changed to grant deacons permission for administration under certain circumstances. The loss of a transitional diaconate had implications for the order of elder, as the previous arrangement allowed for both ordination and a period of trial prior to presbyteral ordination. Candidates seeking ordination as elders were now ‘commissioned’ as they entered ministerial service as probationers, and were granted special licensing for sacramental administration in places of appointment. At present, the UMC grants sacramental authority to certain deacons though they are not ordained to a sacramental ministry, and to commissioned candidates for elder who are not ordained at all. In both cases, sacramental authority derives not from ordination, but from episcopal appointment and Conference authorization.As Matthews demonstrates throughout the book, this is hardly a new matter. Beginning with the Methodist Protestant Church in 1900, each of the denominations that directly preceded the UMC at some point approved legislation allowing certain unordained preachers in pastoral roles to preside at baptism, the Lord's Supper, or both, though this privilege had variously defined restrictions. Lengthy and lively debates preceded these approvals, and on this subject (as he did with debates related to the deacon) Matthews helpfully supplies selections from the transcriptions of the discussions contained in official denominational records. The UMC at its founding in 1968 did not allow sacramental presidency for lay pastors, but eight years later gave them circumscribed permission. Matthews observes that with changing demographics in the UMC, the numbers of the unordained who take on the sacramental function of elders is gradually increasing as the numbers of persons ordained as elders decline, making urgent the need to reconsider the relationships between ordination, ministerial orders, and sacramental authority.The uniqueness of this book as a denominational history on orders and sacraments is its clear and detailed documentation of the shifts in theology and polity that brought the UMC to its current thinking and practices. As such, it would be a useful and informative text for readers interested in Methodist history, ecclesiology, sacramental theology, and current issues related to Christian ministry.