I think a large part of the reason that we refer to our esteemed group of church as a constituency is because we feel have no other option. The other words to call a group of churches would include the following:

  1. Denomination
  2. Conference
  3. Confederation
  4. Connection
  5. Fellowship
  6. Movement

We do not consider ourselves a denomination, because we are a loose affiliation of churches without any central form of government whatsoever.

A Beachy church is a Beachy church only because all the other Beachy churches accept them as such. There is no comprehensive list of Beachy churches, although everyone in the constituency, denomination, conference, confederation, connection, confederation (take your pick) knows who’s who.

Because of the loose connections between our churches, the terms denomination and conference do not seem suitable to describe our Beachy you-know-what.

Confederation might be a plausible possibility, but because, like constituency, it has political overtones, it seems unsuitable for our politically uninvolved group.

Connection is a traditionally Methodist term, and therefore is unsuitable for use as well, especially since its definition implies central goverment. (Not that I have a problem with Methodists, I go to a Wesleyan Methodist college.)

Finally, we have the term fellowship. This term implies that we have have warm relations between all the churches in the Beachy ______. Fill in the blank.

Movement implies that we are going somewhere. Enough said.

So, I, as a member of the Beachy Complex forum propose that we come up with our own word for the relationship of the churches in our esteemed body of churches.

We could use a mix of the words listed above, such as: Deconferectshipment; or we could make up our own. I’m eager to hear from you, the readers of the Beachy Complex blog. Let’s come up with a word to replace constituency.

P.S. Send your friends an E-mail referring to the Beachy Deconferectshipment.