A World Parish?: Hopes and Challenges of The United Methodist Church in a Global Setting

This book introduces United Methodist leaders in Annual Conferences and local congregations to what it means to be a United Methodist in connection with other Methodists and Christians across the world. In recent years the denomination has moved gradually to create a church structure that is more attentive to the increasing number of United Methodists living outside the United States. Two recent General Conferences have taken only minor steps to respond to calls to be more “global.” Yet, even those changes have profound effects not yet visible across the denomination.

This book will present the challenge of living the global nature of The United Methodist Church and will question the capability of the present church structure to respond to the demands placed upon it to be more global. The author, drawing on his extensive experience with the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, recommends a world association of Methodist, “self-headed” churches and with a conference of bishops and presidents to give unity to the family. Such a structure needs connection with other Methodists across the world, with the Body of Christ composed of other Christian families across the world, and with ample opportunity and evidence of the unity locally as well as globally.