The Rev. Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, Chief Connectional Ministries Officer for the Connectional Table, interviews Bishop Gregory Palmer of the West Ohio Annual Conference. They discuss key definers of United Methodists; the pandemic of racism, including the history of the Central Jurisdiction; priorities that should guide the future of The United Methodist Church; and connectionalism and the global church.
What characteristics define our identity and practice as United Methodists?
The Connectional Table's Rev. Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, and Bishop Gregory Palmer of the West Ohio Annual Conference discuss the key definers of United Methodists. According to Bishop Palmer, United Methodists have been shaped by a belief in grace for all, the power of our connection, the importance of interfaith and ecumenical relationships, and engaging in transformative ministry and mission in our communities and our world.
How should the church respond to the racism manifest in recent killings of people of color in our country and also deal with our own history of segregation?
Bishop Palmer urges us to bring the conversation about race and our past “constitutionalized segregation” back to center stage in the life of the church, and to make systemic decisions that embody what happens in those conversations.
What would a global, non-U.S.-centric denomination look like?
In this conversation, Bishop Palmer and the Rev. Kennetha Bigham-Tsai discuss how The United Methodist Church can be an effective and fruitful global church by learning from one another and by allowing room for differences in beliefs while also maintaining a shared, common set of essential beliefs that are "clearer, sharper and shorter."
Emerging Methodism Video Series Introduction
Wesley's historic questions were about what to teach, how to teach and what to do. For the next interval of features for the Connectional Table's Emerging Forum we will seek to update these questions for our current moment. We will invite energetic conversation that will illumine our identity which is tied to what and how we teach, our preferred actions, what we do and our abiding hopes as we envision the future United Methodist Church.
About Emerging: God Is Doing a New Thing in United Methodism
This video interview is part of a series created for "Emerging: God Is Doing a New Thing in United Methodism," which is an online forum created by the Connectional Table to engage United Methodists with a diversity of perspectives from across our worldwide connection in thinking deeply about what is emerging at this time in the life of our connection.