Members, lay workers, woman missionaries and missionary children at the first (Malaysia) Annual Conference held from Feb 21-27, 1902. - Methodist Church Archives picture.

Conferences represent
foundation of
Methodist governance

By EARNEST LAU

THE season for the holding of Local and Annual Conferences in our Methodist Church year is on us. Following the holding of Local Conferences in the churches in October, the three Annual Conferences will be held next month - ETAC from Nov 8-9 at the Short Street Tamil Methodist Church, CAC from Nov 12-14 at Foochow Methodist Church, and TRAC from Nov 18-21 at Trinity Theological College, each of them presided by the respective Conference Presidents.


These meetings will be evaluating the work done by the churches and conferences during the year 2002, and look ahead with plans for 2003. Most laymen, except for members of the Local Church Executive Committee (LCEC), may not be fully aware of their taking place, and their significance in the Methodist system of governance, unless some significant decision is made that directly affects them.


Yet, in referring to the Book of Discipline of The Methodist Church in Singapore that is updated every four years at the General Conference, which alone makes the laws and amends them, we find that these Conferences represent the foundation of Methodist governance. They are a systematic and methodical way of ensuring that the 40 Methodist churches in Singapore function in a rational and lawful manner. It is relevant to note that a copy of the Book of Discipline is, by law, lodged with the relevant government authority.

Many Methodist laymen may not know that the Local Conference, which each local church convenes at least twice a year, typically at the beginning and end of the year, is "the basic body in the connectional system of the Methodist Church". It is therefore organised "from the church" and comprises the members of the LCEC, local preachers, diaconal ministers, honorary stewards, together with retired ordained and voluntarily located ministers who choose to hold their membership in that Local Conference.


But even more important is the fact that the District Superintendent presides at the meetings and is the link between the local church and the general Methodist Church. It addition, the Local Conference reviews and evaluates the total mission and ministry of the local church, receives annual reports from the various ministries and organisations and adopts mission statements, visions, strategic plans, directions, goals and projects which have been recommended by the LCEC. In providing a platform for dialogue between the local church and the "centre", as well as an opportunity for a review of its programmes, it is a key and essentially democratic aspect of Methodist Church government.


Less frequently, provision is also made for a local church to convene a Church Conference where the whole membership may attend and vote, thereby encouraging broad participation. Its session is authorised by the District Superintendent, but may be less practical where the membership is very large and the issues complex.

1784 conference in Baltimore gave rise to Annual, General Conferences

The 26th Session of Trinity Annual Conference held at Faith Methodist Church from Nov 19-22 last year. - Methodist Message picture.

As stated in the Book of Discipline, the purpose of the Annual Conference is "to make disciples for Jesus Christ by equipping its local churches for ministry and by providing a connection for ministry beyond the local church …" Its composition, however, is markedly different from that of the Local Conference because it is the body which defines the membership of the ordained ministry, as well as those being prepared for ordination as elders, affiliates and supply pastors who have full-time appointment to a church.


Elders are directly amenable to the Annual Conference and have not only the right to vote, but "have the sole responsibility for all matters of ordination, character and conference relations of ministers". It is to their Annual Conference that they owe their status as "itinerant" preachers, i.e. they are subject to annual appointments to any of the churches in the Conference. It is therefore their duty to attend and furnish such reports as the Discipline might require. Absence without satisfactory reason is a serious matter.


Lay members who are elected by their own churches to attend the Annual Conference may participate in and vote on all deliberations except those matters which pertain to questions of ministerial membership and their character and official conduct. In addition they may serve on all boards except those on ministerial relations and for the trial of ministers.

This basically open and transparent discussion and resolution of issues is meant to ensure that the churches in an Annual Conference move and act in consonance with an agreed mission and vision. Like the Local Conference sessions, the privilege is given to interested laymen to attend and speak - but not vote - on issues being debated. Therein lies the openness and strength of the Methodist system of Annual Conferences.

Local and Annual Conferences are part of the structure we have taken from our American Methodist forebears, but can be traced to their origins in the 18th Century when John Wesley called the first-ever conference in the "Foundry" in London in 1744.


Having been an "itinerant" for five years, Wesley gathered 45 preachers, in addition to a large number of local preachers from "societies" in many of the main towns. The conference was essentially a meeting of his helpers and the ministers "to give me their advice concerning the best method of carrying on the work of God".


Coming so early after the founding of the Methodist society in 1739, the main thrust of this conference centred on what to teach, how to teach and how to regulate doctrine, discipline and practice.


Because of the strict rule of conduct and methodical manner in which they performed their religious duties, members of his group were called "Methodists", a term of derision. Numbers, however, grew steadily - even rapidly, and Methodist societies were organised by Wesley throughout Britain and Ireland.


By 1774, the movement had grown such that he established yearly conferences for all the ministers in the various societies to meet. This was the origin of the "Annual Conference".


In America, the Wesleyan heritage of the Band, the Class and the Society was not only accepted at full value but developed and expanded. As organised groups, they were the primary units of fellowship within the Church.


However, a separate Methodist Episcopal Church was formed at the historic "Christmas Conference" of 1784 held in Baltimore, Maryland, in order to cater to the needs of the people called Methodists in America. They were being deprived of the sacraments as English itinerant ministers were cut off from America after the War of Independence. It was in Baltimore that Englishmen Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, together with other pioneers, became the earliest ordained ministers, while Asbury was consecrated first American Methodist Bishop - an office which Wesley and English Methodists did not see fit to appropriate. Wesley remained in Anglican orders all his life.


It is the Christmas Conference that later developed into the District, Annual and the General Conferences, and The Methodist Church in Singapore is one of its many inheritors.

Earnest Lau, Associate Editor of Methodist Message, is also the Archivist of The Methodist Church in Singapore.