“A Church without a bishop in a Land without a king”

This motto was part of the Methodist PROTESTANT Church’s seminary, in Westminster, MD, until it merged with the Methodist Episcopal Church and moved to DC, where it capitulated on both counts.

The motto is a clever inversion of King James VI of England (a Scot!) who proclaimed, “No Bishop, no King” as a warning that a church with no bishop leads to a land with no king.  He had in mind the Presbyterians of Scotland and the Puritans in England.

But that is exactly what we have in the United States, especially with the Presbyterian church (along with Baptists, congregationalists,  and free churches).  The governance of the Presbyterian system relies on the balance of clergy and ruling elders (ordained from the laity) at every level of the church.  There is no one clergy or lay member with jurisdiction over all.

What better example for American governance and society could a church embody than this one?   What better form of accountability can there be than constant deliberation and accountability?  And what better source of resistance to kingship than from all the churches that understand and live by this principle?

L. Golemon