General Assembly Resolution: General Superintendents Footnote

 

In June of 2027, 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 Manual of the Church of the Nazarene.  Some were amended.  Others were rejected. 

This year I have presented nine resolutions to my district delegation.  -  If you are a district superintendent or a delegate from another district, I would draw your attention to these and hope you might consider supporting them.  If you are not a ds or delegate, but you know a ds or delegate from a district other than SWID, please consider sharing these resolutions with your superintendent and/or delegates.

Note: Strikedthrough words are to be deleted from the current Manual. Underlined words are to be added to the current Manual. 

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G. The General Superintendents¹

 

1(General Superintendent was John Wesley’s term for the biblical episkopos. The Church of the Nazarene has retained this terminology for those elders who fulfill the episcopal office referred to as bishops in other Wesleyan/Methodist denominations.)

 

 FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. When Phineas Bresee used the term general superintendent, he understood that it was the Methodist term for bishop. Both terms were used interchangeably to describe those elders serving in this role in Bresee’s former denomination (viz., the Methodist Episcopal Church).  Further, general superintendent was the terminology Wesley used for bishops Coke and Asbury.

2. This footnote would provide clarity when relating to and cooperating with other denominations.

3.  This footnote does not change our use of the term general superintendent.  However, it does provide an important biblical grounding for our terminology, and clearly positions our ecclesiology within our Wesleyan tradition.

 4. This footnote helps us to recognize that the term general superintendent has roots in the biblical and ecclesial world, rather than the corporate world.

5.  This footnote may help to reinforce the reality that the “general” in general superintendent is a geographical term relating to the scope of the superintendency, rather than a title of (military type) rank.

6. The footnote changes nothing at all concerning the stated duties and powers of the general superintendents, their elected tenure, or their elder’s orders.