Episcopacy committee votes to carry merger plans forward

By Daniel R. Gangler

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Area Episcopacy Committee voted unanimously Feb. 22 to recommend a plan for the creation of a new Indiana United Methodist Conference to both 2006 North and South Indiana Conference sessions.

The committee, composed of lay and clergy from both North and South Indiana Conferences, approved the report and plan of the Merger Task Force chaired by Jack Dwiggins, of Brookston in the North Indiana Conference. The task force has worked with Bishop Coyner on a merger plan proposal since the 2005 annual conferences sessions.

The decision requests that both annual conferences during their 2006 Sessions "affirm their desire to have this study of the creation of a new conference for The United Methodist Church in Indiana be continued, with a proposal brought back to both conferences for a vote in their 2007 Sessions (as well as an opportunity for further revisions and votes in their 2008 Sessions), with the understanding that the actual creation of a new conference would not commence until after the 2008 vote of the North Central Jurisdictional Conference."

Process

The plan calls for a three-action process including:

A bishop-appointed task force bring a merger plan for recommendation to the 2007 conferences sessions;
Input be sought by both laity and clergy from across the Indiana Area including church-related institutions and agencies; and
Pertinent materials be gathered from other conferences of the UMC as well as from sources beyond the UMC.

Merger idea not new

According to the six-page recommendation, merger of conferences in Indiana United Methodism is not new. When The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968 from two former denominations, Hoosiers went from six overlapping conferences to two conferences.

More recently a task force was created by Bishop Leroy Hodapp in 1990 to discuss effective ministry in Indiana and the possible merger of the two Indiana Conferences or the separation of the area with each conference having its own bishop.

Again in 1997, a discussion emerged regarding the well being of the bishop, and a committee was formed to study the possibility of one bishop for each conference. The discussions were nixed due to the reluctance of General Conference, the church's top legislative body, to add more bishops.

Discussions began again in 2004 with the arrival of Coyner and the Episcopacy Committee realizing anew the demand of one bishop leading two conferences. Last year the current Merger Task Force was formed "to look at a merger of the two conferences as a way to reduce the demands of our bishop and also address the growing concerns about loss of membership and other ministry issues."

Coyner expressed to the committee that he is not interested in merger as a convenience to our present economic woes but "to think of a 'blank page' as we ask how God is leading us to redesign our structures and administration. I hope that we can be creative in considering how to accomplish our mission and ministry here in Indiana," he said.

The Episcopacy Committee talked more in terms of creating a new conference rather than the merger of two existing conferences. Committee members see the four top benefits of one Indiana Conference that such a move:

Creates an opportunity for United Methodists in Indiana to make a new start (i.e., become a new creature) in the way ministry is carried out;
Provides for a unified approach to ministry with one vision, one coordinated leadership team (cabinet, CFA, etc.), one budget, one set of meetings;
Increases opportunities for better matches to be made in the appointment of clergy to churches throughout the State of Indiana; and
Increases the opportunities for laity to be connected and to be in mission with each other throughout the State of Indiana.

Committee members see as their greatest challenge to be finding an answer to the most crucial question of all: What is God seeking to do?

Last updated on 25 Apr 2008

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