A 16-panel group of United Methodist leaders from around the world have recently signed off on a plan to create a separate denomination for conservative Methodists. After years of debate over non-celibate LGBT clergy and same-sex marriage, the nine-page proposal outlines a “traditionalist Methodist” denomination. This new denomination would uphold a biblical understanding of marriage and oppose the ordination of non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy.
Under the agreement, conservative churches that leave can retain their assets and will be given $25 million to start their own denomination. Clergy members who leave will keep their United Methodist Church pensions. This split will permit remaining United Methodist Churches to allow same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy.
The proposal states that a separation was “the best means to resolve our differences, allowing each part of the Church to remain true to its theological understanding, while recognizing the dignity, equality, integrity, and respect of every person.”
Restructuring of the denomination over LGBT issues became necessary after a vote at last year’s UMC international conference in St. Louis. At that time, 53 percent of the 864 delegates struck down a proposal called the “One Church Plan” that would have removed the Book of Discipline language condemning the practice of homosexuality and left decisions about same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBT clergy up to regional bodies.
As reported by World News, “One Church Plan supporters, a bold and vocal majority in the denomination’s United States churches, seemed to find themselves in the minority in St. Louis amid a unified force of evangelical Americans and clergy and lay people from Africa, the Philippines, and Europe who time and time again voted for Biblical sexual ethics.” Mark Tooley, president of the Institute for Religion and Democracy and a lifelong United Methodist commented that the “vast majority of U.S. bishops supported the One Church Plan and assumed they could use their influence to push it through. They still think of the denomination as being America-centric.”
The United Methodist Church has over 12 million members worldwide and nearly 7 million in the United States. It is noteworthy that the delegates from outside of the U.S. overwhelmingly upheld the traditional stance on marriage and sexuality. “We Africans are not children in need of Western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics,” stated the Rev. Jerry Kulah, dean at a Methodist theology school in Liberia. “We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal church elite in the U.S. Separation in truth is better than unity in error.”
Although it is the second-largest denomination in the country, it is not surprising the United Methodist Church has seen a decline in U.S. church membership. However, churches in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe have experienced steady growth. The issue of dividing the denomination is expected to be settled during the United Methodist Church’s General Conference on May 5, 2020.
PRAY: Pray for conservative U.S. and international United Methodist churches as they stand strong in upholding traditional biblical values. Pray those pushing for division would return to a commitment to biblical human sexuality.