Rev Francisco BilogFor many years this issue has been part of the thinking of the Methodist Church. It is a valid issue because it creates unity and a sense of family in our church.
1 – A few theological references:
We believe in a connectional God. How do we understand this? We believe in a self-giving God who created all things, and as a culmination of that creation created human beings, man and woman. God’s creative active is maintained at all times. It is a continual action, and through that action creation produces its fruits, the fields of grain continue to grow, and life continues to develop.
This action is connectional. Every tree needs the earth, the sun, the air and the rain. Each element of creation depends on and serves the other. The earth, the water, the air and the sun are in a constant interrelationship with each other in connectionality and mutual dependence. And we, as human beings, are also included in that interaction. Genesis 1:27-28 affirms that, as the final action of creation, human beings were created in God’s image and likeness. “And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and God said to the, ‘Be fruitful
and multiply.’”
These words have caused many erroneous interpretations. The usual concept is that
“the image and likeness” means “equality” of humankind with God – something such as “humankind is like God.” But that is not so. The Hebrew word for “man” has a very special meaning. “Man” is composed of two parts: male and female. Each one has its identity, its gifts and its meaning. They are two equal parts which complement each other and have the
ability to be united into one being. Two persons – man and woman – have the ability to love each other. There is the image of God.
Just as God has the capacity to love; so do the man and the woman.
Just as God has the ability to create; so these who have been created can be
instruments to create a new being.
Just as God has the capacity of relationship; so does the human being. They can
project life in unity and work together.
A couple is a connectional phenomenon; so is God. It is here we find the image and
likeness.
God does not like solitude. This is why God creates. God becomes connected with the creation and the creation with God. Neither do we like being alone and therefore are
aware of our neighbors, we live in family, and we relate to each other in community.
As we trace the connectional imprint in the Bible, we discover that God chose Abram,
and through him a people who are connected to each other and project a history.
Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’ “ God changes the plan that Abram had for his life and tells him, “Go from your country,” and thus Abram is invited to enter into a new redemptive plan of universal and eternal significance.
God is now connected with a man and his family to project a new history. Thus God’s
people are being fashioned, a new history is being woven, and then venerable leaders
and prophets are called forth to share the plan and allow God’s voice to be heard. This entire plan is a wonderful connectional history leading to human redemption; therefore connectionality is not an end in itself but is at the service of the abundant
life announced by Jesus Christ as the Reign of God.
When Jesus began his ministry, he followed the same methodology. He called the
disciples to form a small faith community from which, through the work of the Holy
Spirit, the Church comes into being. Jesus chooses to carry out his plan for human redemption in connectionality with his disciples. There is no place here for autonomy or being alone. This is not an individual plan, each one confined to him or herself, but a plan carried out in community.
Since that time all those who believe and come face to face with God, come face to
face with their neighbor as well. To come to faith means leaving individual solitude to become part of a community, a Church that proclaims the redemptive Word and serves its neighbors with love.
Likewise the Church is God’s instrument for the transformation and reception of life.
John Wesley’s statement, “The world is my parish,” should cause us to consider that
our existence as a community of faith has its meaning and missionary significance in
the community and the world around us. Here we also see the connectionality to serve
life. It is significant to note that the images of the Church in the New Testament are
connectional. We point out only two of them: I Corinthians 12:12-27 – The Church as the Body of Jesus Christ in which all members with their diversity serve the unity of the body whose head is Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2: 19 – 22 – The Household of God built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone without which everything
collapses. The opposite of connectionality is autonomy in which each one goes his or her
separate way.
We read in Isaiah 53:6 a reference to the Suffering Servant. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The suffering of the Servant is caused by all of them going separately along their own
paths. Each one became autonomous from the others. It is not necessary to go into a greater in depth analysis to affirm that there is no Biblical basis for autonomy. The Biblical content points to another direction. That is that in connectionality we find the God’s own characteristic, and this constitutes the methodology of the work carried out by God throughout history.
2 – The request of the Churches in Latin America
It is important to point out that at the start the Latin American Churches did not ask
for autonomy from The Methodist Church but rather for greater structural freedom
in order to make their own decisions, within the framework of the Central Conference, according to the missional needs in their own countries.
That path was not possible. The only possibility that was offered was autonomy.
The historic summary of the Constitution of CIEMAL says: “Since The Methodist Church in the United States was not in conditions to grant legislative faculties to the Central Conference, a liaison committee of the Central Conference was formed to work with the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS) and came to the definitive conclusion that it should recommend that the Methodist Churches in Latin America ask for autonomy, and this was done in 1967.”
At that time, those who lived through this process had the wisdom to comprehend the
necessity of preventing the isolation of the autonomous churches from each other and
thus running the risk that each one would follow its own path. Out of this vision, CIEMAL came into being in Santiago, Chile, when the Constituting Assembly was held between January 29 and February 2, 1969.
This step broadened the number of Churches with the incorporation of Mexico and
Brazil. So there were 10 Churches that took that historic step: Bolivia, Peru, Chile,
Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and Brazil.
In that Constituting Assembly Bishop Sante U. Barbieri, in his introductory words,
said: “In relation to the event that has brought us here, it is time to demonstrate a greater
Latin American responsibility, without failing to acknowledge the support of the
Church in North America, in uniting Latin American Methodism so that it not
become fragmented once the Churches have become autonomous.”
In the Constituting Assembly Bishop Carlos T. Gattinoni made a very significant
proposal when he said, “I move that the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the
Americas be invited to become a member of the Council.” The motion was approved
with a strong round of applause.
However the process of autonomy in the Churches in Latin America had begun 37
before in Mexico and Brazil which were granted the status of affiliated autonomous
churches in 1930. It is important to point out something of great importance. In the case of Mexico autonomy meant, at the same time, the unification of the work of the United States
based Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church South. I do not have historic documentation to indicate whether the same thing happened with the autonomy of Brazil, but I assume that the same thing might have occurred.
Time went by and in the decades of the 60’s and 70’s the same path was taken by the rest of the Churches in the region which, at that time, were members of the Central
Conference of South America.
The process was based on three important reasons:
1- Autonomy would permit decision making to occur in the place closest to where
the specific witness was taking place.
2- An agile and indigenous structure would allow easier access the place where
mission was occurring.
3- It would give the Churches a greater sense of its national identity, its culture,
its needs and its challenges. In the structure of The Methodist Church these things were not possible.
The image that was used and compared to autonomy was that of the process whereby a plant is taken out of a pot and planted in the soil where it can grow stronger.
In the following years, those ten Churches were joined by the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas, the United Evangelical Church of Ecuador (today the Evangelical Methodist Church of Ecuador), the National Evangelical Primitive Methodist Church of Guatemala, the Methodist Church, the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, the Methodist Church of Colombia, the Evangelical Methodist Community of Paraguay, the Evangelical Dominican Church, (today the Dominican
Evangelical Methodist Church).
In addition there are the Emerging Churches:
The Evangelical Methodist Church of El Salvador
The Evangelical Methodist Church of Nicaragua
The Christian Methodist Community of de Venezuela
The United Methodist Church in Honduras
The objectives of CIEMAL are:
1. To coordinate the mission of the member Churches so that their witness as a
continent-wide body will be more effective.
2. To endeavor to maintain the strength of the connectional concept which the
Methodist Church has historically sustained
3. To promote and encourage the study of the problems and opportunities which the
Church faces so that its mission will more effective and relevant.
4. To deepen the relationships and cooperation that exists among the Methodist
Churches in the continent and offer mutual support and encouragement.
5. To stimulate and help establish collaborative relationships with world-wide
Methodism and with all levels and expressions of the ecumenical movement.
A Prior Action
Something important had happene4d 12 years before when the Women’s Societies,
organized in national federations, held the First Congress of the Latin American
Confederation of Methodist Women in Buenos Aires September 21-26 1942. This
Congress was in response to a process that began with a resolution passed at the
Third Central Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Latin America,
meeting in Santiago, Chile in February 1932.
The Resolution that as approved on February 11 said: “That a Confederation of Methodist Women’s Societies be organized with the purpose of uniting and standardizing the activities of the Women’s Societies in every country where Methodist work exists.”
The Confederation was constituted by the Methodist Federations of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica. In subsequent years Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic became members. Associate members today include Paraguay, Colombia and Nicaragua. At the present time the Confederation has a membership of approximately 30,000 Methodist women in Latin America and the Caribbean. CIEMAL has now been in existence for 38 years.
The image that helps us as CIEMAL define the relationship between autonomy and
connectionality is that of a forest. In a forest each tree has its roots planted in its own
space, just as each Church is planted in its own country. But the foliage becomes
connectional; the branches are intertwined, and help and protect each other.
These past years have led us to understand that a “pure autonomy” is not possible.
The connectional identity that we have and the existence of CIEMAL keep us from it.
We are not alone. The connectional foundations unite us and mutually strengthen us
for a faithful and dedicated service for the Reign of God for the sake of the
redemption of life.
And there is one last question for us to consider in the Encounter.
Is it possible to take a new step forward in our unity?
Bishop (E) Aldo M. Etchegoyen
Buenos Aires, May 2005, (Context adapted in January 2007)