Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Schism-- The Challenge to United Methodism

On Tuesday, I wrote a post entitled, "Orthodoxy and Heresy, and the Necessary Interplay Between Doctrine and Mission." I posted the link on the Facebook Group "UMC Preachers." Taylor Watson Burton-Edwards, Director of Worship Resources of the General Board of Discipleship of the UMC posted the following. He gave me permission to quote him in full. His words are worth your consideration.

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A challenge Wesleyans in general have, of course, is that John Wesley dropped the Article on the Creeds from the Articles of Religion he sent for the Christmas Conference to adopt as a doctrinal standard.

This means we do not have the Nicene Creed-- which is, truly and historically, the ground of orthodoxy-- as part of our doctrinal standards. Indeed, United Methodists (and our ancestors) have only had it in our hymnal since 1989. (It was included in the 1945 and 1966 editions of the Book of Worship).


With all the talk about reasons to break apart that aren't related to the orthodoxy embraced in the Nicene Creed, might there be some wisdom in proposing to add the Nicene Creed to our doctrinal standards, by adding to the Articles and/or Confession a simple statement that says something like "The United Methodist Church receives and confesses the Nicene Creed as the sign of the apostolic faith?"


Of course, this would take some doing! We'd have to deal with Restrictive Rules (1 and 2). So we'd first have to alter Restrictive Rules 1 and/'or 2 to allow the Articles and/or Confession to be so altered. That would take action by the 2016 General Conference, plus all the annual conferences, with super-majorities to allow the alteration (GC 2/3. AC's 3/4). The altered First Restrictive Rule could begin, "Except to allow the United Methodist Church to indicate its affirmation of the historic faith of the Church by adding language to the Articles of Religion affirming the Nicene Creed".:That would be 2016. Then in 2020, the amendment itself could be added to the Articles and/or both, though probably still with the same super-majorities of 2/3 and 3/4 required.
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Let me quote a portion of Taylor's post again-- "With all the talk about reasons to break apart that aren't related to the orthodoxy embraced in the Nicene Creed, might there be some wisdom in proposing to add the Nicene Creed to our doctrinal standards, by adding to the Articles and/or Confession a simple statement that says something like "The United Methodist Church receives and confesses the Nicene Creed as the sign of the apostolic faith?"


Taylor, I quite like your suggestion.