The Last Days of the Methodist Commission on Chaplains

The Methodist Church came into existence in 1939 when the rest of the world was going to war. The Methodist Commission on Chaplains came into existence at the beginning of 1941 when the denomination was less than two years old. Initially under the leadership of Bishop Adna Leonard, the commission was responsible for recruiting, assessing, endorsing, equipping, guiding, and supporting chaplains on a denominational level. Initially thought to be a temporary emergency measure, the commission became a permanent agency of the church in 1948. Every quadrennium, General Conference elected one bishop from one bishop from every jurisdiction to serve on the commission, along with several clergy and lay representatives. D. Stewart Patterson, a layman, served as the commission’s executive secretary throughout the war and into the 1950’s. In 1956, the Reverend John McLaughlin was elected as General Secretary, a post that he held until his retirement at the end of 1969. The commission’s offices were initially in the Methodist Building adjacent to the Capitol and the Supreme Court, but later moved to other locations in the Washington area. The commission reported directly the Council of Bishops and received 25% of the denomination’s Fellowship of Suffering and Service offering to fund its work. The offering was received across the Methodist Church on World Communion Sunday and at communion services throughout the year. 

The Commission in 1968

In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren to become the United Methodist Church. In many ways, the commission reached its high-water mark in 1968. Since its birth in 1941, the commission had grown from an ad-hoc emergency measure, regarded by many as a necessary evil, to a strong agency doing what most Methodists regarded as an essential ministry, fully on par with the other ministries of the church. Chaplains touched the lives of thousands of people beyond the reach of the local church. Methodist chaplains were found in many institutions beyond the military.

The commission itself was seen as a critical supervisory link between chaplains and their annual conferences. Bishops expressed satisfaction with the closer relationship with chaplains from their areas, and chaplains felt closer to the church. Chaplains also trusted the commission to help resolve problems with their annual conferences or their employers.

In 1968, with the buildup in Vietnam, the number of Methodist military chaplains had risen to 560. An additional 138 served in civilian settings. The Evangelical United Brethren were bringing 67 chaplains into the merger, raising the initial total for the United Methodist Church to 765.

The merger, however, would bring the commission’s existence as an independent agency of the church to an end and put it on a new trajectory.

The Air Force Offering

Throughout the 1960’s, the commission received a designated offering, collected in Air Force chapels on Easter and distributed proportionally to the endorsing agencies of the Air Force's chaplains. Some denominational leaders believed that either the offering should have been rejected or put under the control of the general church. General Secretary John McLaughlin was unaware of the objections until the eve of his retirement in 1969, but the offering would remain a sticking point for some.

The Self-Study

With the beginning of the 1968 quadrennium, and the birth of the United Methodist church from its two predecessors, it was time to look to the future. Bishop Dwight Loder was selected to chair the commission in 1968. When Loder was also selected to lead the Board of Missions, he had to give up his position with the Commission on Chaplains. Bishop Ellis Finger replaced him. Bishop Finger, along with many new members of the commission, saw its future differently.

The commission hired an organizational expert to examine the work and structure of the commission. The study treated the commission as an ordinary staff section and came back with findings that totally misunderstood its work and undermined its mission.

  • The staff was out of the office too much.
  • Too much of the budget was taken up as travel costs.
  • It pointed a suspicious finger at the Air Force Easter designated offering.
  • With the staff absent from the office so much, how could regular staff meetings be held?

Against McLaughlin’s objections, the members of the commission accepted the study’s recommendations.

The Change of Leadership

The new members of the commission believed it was time for a change of leadership and began a search for a new General Secretary. McLaughlin was forced into retirement at age 65.

To provide a smooth transition, the commission planned to bring the new General Secretary on board as an Associate in January 1970. There was to be a five-month transition, during which time the new secretary would learn the day-to-day operations of the commission. If possible, the new person would accompany the McLaughlin on the scheduled Far East trip and assist with the retreat in Japan. McLaughlin’s retirement was planned for May 31, 1970.

In the end, the commission selected one of its own members, Dr. Purnell Bailey, to be the Secretary. Bailey led the Division of Chaplains and Related Ministries as an Associate General Secretary until 1979, when he left to lead the National Methodist Foundation. He died in 2006.

With the election of Dr. Bailey, the plan changed. The commission notified McLaughlin in December 1969 that he needed to clean out his desk, turn in his keys, and vacate the office permanently by the end of the month. 

The commission asked Fred Heather to remain as Associate General Secretary until 1972, but Heather decided to retire in September 1970, also at age 65. Heather had served with the Commission since 1952. He died in 1989 and is buried on Chaplains Hill in Arlington National Cemetery. The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry has a scholarship named in his honor.

Within a short time, the commission gave McLaughlin the honorary title of “consultant.” He continued to work out of his home for a time and conducted the Far East trip as planned. According to McLaughlin’s notes, the only people who ever consulted him were church leaders outside the commission. He said neither Bailey nor the other members of the commission ever sought his assistance.

McLaughlin conducted his last retreat at the Sano Hotel in Tokyo on February 3-6, 1970. He followed the retreat with a trip to Vietnam on February 11-12, where he visited the 25th Infantry Division’s Cu Chi base camp and three fire support bases.

The commission held a formal retirement dinner for McLaughlin in the spring. McLaughlin died in 2005 at the age of 99.  

The End of the Commission on Chaplains

The 1968 General Conference had authorized a committee to restructure the entire church as well. McLaughlin spent a half day with the chairman of the restructuring committee and one of its members talking about the place of chaplaincy in the new denominational structure. McLaughlin argued passionately for the Commission on Chaplains to remain under the direct control of the Council of Bishops. The committee listened patiently as McLaughlin enthusiastically described the commission’s work and laid out the logic of keeping the commission in existence as an separate agency. At the end of the meeting, the committee chair explained that the decision had already been made. All the small agencies were being absorbed into four large ones. Since one of the new boards had the word "ministry" in its title, that is where chaplaincy would be placed. The new plan was put into effect at the 1972 General Conference. McLaughlin wrote that he was not permitted to attend.

And Then What Happened?

Chaplaincy found its new home in the United Methodist Church as a division of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM). The Division was one of three headed by associate general secretaries: Ordained Ministry (DOM), Higher Education (DHE), and Chaplains and Related Ministries (DCRM).  

Prior to 1972, the elected members of Commission on Chaplains were chosen because of their experience, expertise, or interest in chaplaincy. After 1972, the Division’s directors consisted of a subset of the General Board’s elected directors, as chosen by the board itself. Beginning in 1972, geographic and demographic representation became the primary factors in election to general boards. There was no guarantee that the Division’s elected leadership would have the same investment in chaplaincy that commission members did.

It was not until 1976 that the Book of Discipline explicitly identified the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry as the legal successor to the Commission on Chaplains.

1604. Incorporation.-The Board of Higher Education and Ministry shall be a corporation under the laws of Tennessee and shall be responsible for the functions previously conducted by the Division of Higher Education of the General Board of Education and the Commission on Chaplains and Related Ministries of The United Methodist Church.

GHBEM was headquartered in Nashville, but the Division on Chaplains remained in the D.C. area. Soon, however, the board’s General Secretary explained that while he understood the advantages of leaving the Division on Chaplains in Washington, he needed the Division leadership in Nashville. Therefore, in 1980 the Division joined the rest of GBHEM in Nashville’s Kern Building, the former home of the Methodist Board of Education. Only one existing staff member moved to Nashville, while new director (and former Army Chief of Chaplains) Orris Kelly opened the Nashville office. 

In 1980, the Fellowship of Service and Suffering evolved into the World Communion Offering and the Division of Chaplains stopped receiving funds from it. The Division no longer possessed an independent funding stream. From then on, the Division would be dependent on budgets set in accordance with the priorities of its parent agency.

In 1996, the Division on Chaplains and Related Ministries was reduced to the Section on Chaplains and Related Ministries, a component of the Division of Ordained Ministry. Its staff leadership was demoted from Associate General Secretary status. Patricia Barrett was named Assistant General Secretary in 1997. Barrett joined the Division on Chaplains and Related Ministries in 1980 when it moved to Nashville, and continued to lead the Section until her retirement in 2008. 

Eventually, the section adopted “The United Methodist Endorsing Agency” (UMEA) as its name, much less of a tongue twister and its meaning more self-evident to institutions outside the church.

UMEA's directors – known as the Endorsing Committee – consisted of a subset of the Division of Ordained Ministry’s directors, who in turn were a subset of the GHBEM’s elected Board of Directors. Prior to 1972, the elected commission consisted of 6 bishops, 5 clergy, and 5 laity, a total of 16 members. For the 2016 quadrennium, 4 board members (including 1 bishop) were selected to serve on the Endorsing Committee. Committee members all serve multiple roles on the General Board. Due to attrition, only one Endorsing Committee member remained by 2022.

GBHEM reorganized again in 2021, eliminating the divisions altogether in the daily work of the staff. UMEA became part of GBHEM’s “Constituent Relationships and Services” program area.

GBHEM reduced UMEA's budget and staffing throughout the 2000's, with deep cuts being rapidly imposed in the aftermath of COVID and the 2019 disaffiliation crisis. GBHEM also sold its building in Nashville, eliminating UMEA's physical offices. 

In March 2023, UMEA’s report to the Board of Directors identified 611 endorsed chaplains serving under appointment, either full or part time. As of that date, the agency consisted of a single full-time employee – a retired chaplain – who worked from home.

Sources

The primary source for this article is an unpublished and incomplete paper with related notes by John McLaughlin, the first General Secretary of the Methodist Commission on Chaplains, elected in 1956, and Fred Heather, Associate General Secretary in the 1950s and 1960s. The current version of the manuscript dates to 1999. According to a letter from McLaughlin, Heather was the primary author of the material covered in this essay. All these source documents are now housed with the United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History at Drew University in Madison, NJ.

Disciplines and Journals of the General Conference, 1944-1996

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