Category talk:Bishops of the United Methodist Church

Untitled
I'd like this to be a subcategory of American Bishops. I can't seem to find instructions on how to do it. Please help. Thanks! Pastorwayne 14:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Why? Surely they will not all be American? - Kittybrewster 17:09, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
 * This is an old question of PWs - I agree entirely with the 'Why?' roundhouse 19:05, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Suggestions
The UM Church is very confusing, and so a suitable category system is very tricky.

I suggest that the dates of the various ancestor churches be added to the category names (for clarity). So we have something like:

Top category - Bishops of the United Methodist Church and its predecessors 1784 to date (no articles, just subcats).

(We already have Category:Bishops of the United Methodist Church)
 * Subcat1 - Bishops of the United Methodist Church 1968 to date (articles - for those who are exactly what it says). This is relatively straightfoward (?) and can be subcatted by conference/jurisdiction (but the earlier ones can't as the jurisdictions didn't exist earlier)

(1968 - UMC formed from The Methodist Church (USA) and the Evangelical United Brethren)

(We already have Category:Bishops of The Methodist Church (USA))
 * Subcat2 - Bishops of The Methodist Church (USA) 1939-1968 (articles)

(1939 - The Methodist Church (USA) formed from the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Methodist Protestant Church)

(We already have Category:Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church)
 * Subcat3 - Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church 1784-1939 (articles) - (finished!)

(We already have Category:Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South)
 * Subcat4 - Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South 1844-1939 (articles) - (finished!)

(this split off in 1844 and was re-united in 1939)


 * Subcat5 - Bishops of the Methodist Protestant Church - this didn't have bishops - excellent


 * Subcat29 - Bishops of the Evangelical United Brethren Church 1948-1968

(this formed in 1948 and has the usual history of schisms and mergers)
 * etc etc. - enough for today. roundhouse 12:34, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Comments
Consider these examples of inconsistent categorization:

Martin Boehm, co-founder of United Brethren, is attached to categories:
 * Bishops of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
 * Bishops of the Evangelical United Brethren Church

and is also included in the List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church.

Philip William Otterbein, the other co-founder of United Brethren, belongs to the category:
 * American Methodist bishops

and is also included in the List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church.

The Methodist lineage is complicated enough, and the EA and UB strands present even more messiness. They are not well represented by the current selection of categories. Additional categories will only compound the confusion. How much simpler it would be if we limited ourselves to just one category for Bishops of TUMC and all its predecessors! Envision one list where each entry is tagged with the original denomination (MEC, MECS, EA, UB, EUB, MPC, MC, UMC) JoelleSatz 20:52, 12 January 2007 (UTC)


 * This is the sort of confusion we are trying to clear up. (One can't add tags in categories, unfortunately, unless the name of the article is tagged. It would be nice if one could.) If you object to anyone in the List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church (which says at the top that it's for the UM and its predecessors), then ask there for a citation - there's a tag you can insert, thus. (I have no idea about these things, I am merely trying to arrange things into cats.) My idea is that Boehm, as a Bishop of the United Brethren in Christ Church, would go into Category:Bishops of the United Brethren in Christ Church; as he also seems to have been a Bishop of something else, he goes into Category:Bishops of something else (and into no other bishop cats). roundhouse 21:22, 12 January 2007 (UTC)