In June of this year, the Church of the Nazarene will be conducting its General Assembly. The General Assembly is the supreme doctrine-formulating, lawmaking, and elective authority of the Church of the Nazarene. During past quadrenniums, I have presented to my district delegation, and through them to the General Assembly, a number of resolutions. Some of them have passed and impacted the
of the Church of the Nazarene. Some were amended. Others were rejected. - This year I have presented eight resolutions. I, frankly, do not know which ones my district has sponsored. However, for any who may be delegates to the assembly, or those who know delegates, I would draw your attention to these and hope that you might support them.
Manual.
307.4. Have discretionary power to ordain, or
appoint other[s] elders (preferably another general superintendent,
general superintendent emeriti or retired) to ordain, those who have been
duly elected to be elders or deacons. (314.1, 320, 538.5-538.6)
538.5 The candidate elected to the order of
elder or order of deacon shall be ordained by the laying on of hands of the
general superintendent and ordained [ministers] elders with appropriate
religious exercises, under the direction of the presiding general
superintendent. (307.4)
FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:
1. We, along with
Wesley and the larger Methodist tradition, have understood that “Bishops and
Presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain”
(Wesley’s Sept. 10, 1784 letter “To Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and our Brethren in
North-America”). That is to say, the
power to ordain is found within the order of elders. There is not a separate “order of bishop” or
“superintendent.” Nevertheless, we,
along with others in the larger Methodist tradition, have reserved the
authority to ordain, within our denominations, to those elders who have been
elected to the episcopal office/role
of superintendent. (Episkopos, which is usually translated “bishop,” is understood to
mean “overseer,” or “superintendent,” which is the term that we and some other
Wesleyan denominations use for the episcopal role.)
2. For the Church of
the Nazarene, the episcopal aspect of our government is expressed through the
general superintendency (cf., the “Foreword,” and par. 22.2, 306.f, 314.f, and
315.f).
3. It would be highly
desirable that ordinations, if not being performed by the general
superintendent in jurisdiction, be performed by another general superintendent
(active, emeriti, or retired), in as much as they represent the whole church.
4. When the general
superintendent in jurisdiction is not able to ordain, and when no other general
superintendent is able to ordain, it would be highly desirable that one vested
with the authority to oversee the district (i.e., the district superintendent)
be the person appointed to ordain.
5. In no case should
anyone other than an ordained elder be appointed to ordain, for the power to
ordain is found within the order of elders. This is seen in 2 Timothy 1:6,
which, referring to Timothy’s ordination, says, “For this reason I remind you
to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my
hands;” (NRSV), and most especially in the parallel passage of 1 Timothy 4:14,
which says, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders” (NRSV, emphasis
mine). This is also why
it has historically been the presbytery (i.e., elders, rather than deacons) who
have joined the bishops (i.e., general superintendents) in the laying on of
hands.
6. As the paragraph
currently reads, it would be possible (even if unlikely) that a general
superintendent could appoint someone outside of holy orders to ordain. Such would be completely and wholly
inconsistent with the historic Christian and Wesleyan and Nazarene
understanding of ordination.
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