Blog by Paul Black
Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher: a bishop of the whole church
John Hartleroad is going to have a busy summer.
As the keeper of the bishop’s appointment calendar, the line has already started forming as the Illinois Great Rivers Conference prepares to receive a new bishop.
I know from experience because a similar phenomenon occurred four years ago when I was serving in the Area Office. Persons who had long-standing issues or felt frustrated by the current administration sought an audience to plead their case to the new bishop.
Of course, those appointments were abruptly cancelled when Bishop Christopher was reappointed for a third term in 2004. While some of those issues have been resolved, new issues have emerged and the line is already forming.
As the conference pays tribute to Bishop Christopher’s 12 years of ministry as our episcopal leader tonight, I believe that above everything else, Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher has been a bishop for the entire church.
The office of bishop in The United Methodist Church is a special ministry within the order of elder. Part of that specialized ministry is to support and encourage the ministry of all Christians. Implicit with that charge is encouraging and supporting all baptized persons -- not just those with whom we always find agreement.
Bishop Christopher’s gift to our conference has been that she is a bishop for the whole church. That doesn’t always sit well with those that feel the need to have the bishop’s affirmation in order to validate their ministry or point of view.
Often times, we take on the posture that “you are either for us or against us,” without realizing that The United Methodist Church is big enough to include the likes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as well as Hillary Clinton in its family.
Within our conference, we have seen countless mailings about a group of pastors and laypersons that gathered several years ago to talk about how to make the church more inclusive as it related to the church’s stance on homosexuality.
While critics decried that holding such discussions were chargeable offenses, the critical group aligned itself with renewal groups and caucuses that gather every four years to discuss changes to the church’s Book of Discipline as it deals with abortion. One cannot have it both ways and a bishop of the whole church is the bishop for both conservatives, progressives and liberals alike.
The issue that generated the greatest amount of mail during Bishop Christopher’s tenure centered around a $10,000 grant from the General Commission on Religion and Race to a group that was actively involved in retiring Chief Illiniwek.
While it would have been easy to have discredited the Commission for its action and to have played to the Illinois faithful, Bishop Christopher brought parties on both sides of the issue together in Christian conferencing so that both would have greater understanding of the other.
What emerged from the discussion was the realization that the $10,000 grant had nothing to do with retiring The Chief; the $10,000 grant was given to fund a Native American education program at the Champaign YMCA.
And because of the talks brokered by Bishop Christopher, accountability measures were put in place to ensure that funds were used for only the purpose intended.
Bishop Christopher also served a single year as president of the Council of Bishops. It was also the first year of the U.S. war in Iraq in which three pastoral letters were written.
While it is easy to allow politics to inform our faith rather than the other way around, once again Bishop Christopher demonstrated with distinction both concern over our government’s policy while showing care for those that wear the uniform of our armed forces.
And when one examines a statement on Iraq, which passed the 2008 General Conference 836-28 several weeks ago, calling for the withdrawal and safe withdrawal from Iraq; the collaboration with the United Nations and other countries to provide a lasting peace; the rebuilding of the country; and the providing of adequate funds for returning military personnel and their families, Bishop Christopher’s letters were prophetic.
In the final analysis, it is probably too early to assess the impact Bishop Christopher has had in her 12 years with us. Time and some distance have a way of providing a more balanced perspective than instant analysis.
Meanwhile, John Hartleroad’s calendar gets fuller each day.
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