6/19/2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.
NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is available.
A UMNS Commentary By the Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell
By the end of June, all of the United Methodist Church's U.S. annual conferences will have met. There have been years when I have been weary and depressed over the "conference experience." There have been years when my wife, Grace, and I have had to say goodbye to our congregation as we left one appointment to move to another. There have even been years when the debates at clergy and plenary sessions have saddened me.
But this year is different. I say that not because I am retiring after 45 years as a clergy person in United Methodism and its predecessor churches. This year is different because I have felt more than ever the power that is in our connection, despite our debates and differences. The power that sustains and holds us together is not the result of our structural organization, but is clearly the power and love of God as expressed through Jesus Christ and made manifest in a peculiar people who call themselves "United Methodist."
What do I mean, specifically?
First, the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference, as a result of last year's Western Jurisdiction Conference, received our new bishop, Warner H. Brown Jr. Our former bishop, Mary Ann Swenson, is now in Los Angeles after leading the Denver Area (which includes Rocky Mountain) for eight years. The passing of the leadership baton from one bishop to another is one of the most efficient things the church does. In all of the episcopal areas that have received new leaders, it is important for us to honor the gifts of both the new and former bishops. Bishops Brown and Swenson were honored this way when the Rocky Mountain Conference met, and I am sure the same is true throughout our denomination.
Second, I felt, more than ever before, the connecting power of prayer, as people throughout our conference told me that they had remembered me in their prayers. They were responding to the fact that I had two serious operations last August and September. They came up to me and said, "I have been praying for you." One especially powerful moment occurred when a clergy colleague -- who had taken strong exception, verbally and in writing, to a sermon I had preached at conference two years ago - walked up and embraced me.
There are tears in my eyes as I remember that prayerful concerns about my health have been expressed by United Methodists from this conference, where I have been only four years, and from colleagues who have known me much longer throughout the denomination. It may be that a church that knows how to pray and cry in response to our human predicaments is not as divided as we sometimes imagine.
Finally, retirement has reminded me of how proud I am to be a United Methodist. I say this not because I am no longer dependent (or frightened) by a bishop's appointments, but because in retirement, I have realized again the efficiency of our denomination.
There is, of course, much paperwork. (The bishops and district superintendents in the five conferences where I have served realized that filling out and returning forms on time was not one of my God-given gifts.) But the care and sensitivity of the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits and the conference Board of Pensions, as well as the guidance that I received in selecting health insurance, made me realize again that the paperwork that I detest is United Methodism's way of saying, "Gil Caldwell, we love you and appreciate your ministry. Therefore, return this form!"
Today, with another annual conference behind me, I realize I am a member of a new class, the retirement class of 2001. However, retirement doesn't mean that I am withdrawing from church life. United Methodism is stuck with me, and I am stuck with United Methodism, in good times and times not-so-good. Praise God.
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*Caldwell is minister of special projects at Park Hill United Methodist Church in Denver until June 30.
Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.
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