Bishops Clarify Way Forward Recommendation

May 18, 2018

2:56 PM

Bishops Statement 2018

Photo Courtesy of Jeremy Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Council of Bishops is issuing the following statement, written by the bishops who served on the Commission on a Way Forward, and approved by the Executive Committee of the Council of Bishops this week.

The Council of Bishops has voted by an overwhelming majority to share the work done by the Commission on a Way Forward on the three plans and to recommend the One Church Plan.

The One Church Plan will be placed before the 2019 General Conference for legislative action.

To honor the work of the commission, and in service to the delegates to the 2019 Special Session of the General Conference, the Council of Bishops will also provide supplemental materials that include a historical narrative with disciplinary implications related to the connectional conference plan and the traditionalist plan. The recommendation adopted by the COB reflects the wide diversity of theological perspectives and the global nature of the UMC as the best way forward for our future as a denomination.

Comments (7)

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Sinking Ship

The conservative element should win, since the UMC should cling to God's moral law. The ship of prejudice, hatred, and homophobia is going down; the UMC should at least have the conviction to go down with it. There is no good solution when your supposed moral code turns out to be immoral and damaging to individuals and society - you either double down and get left behind in the waste bin of history, or you're a bald-faced hypocrite who isn't actually following your holy texts. I wonder how many conservative purists know that secular humanists and atheists usually root for them in these situations. First, fundamentalists are generally more true to what you say they believe, which is admirable. Second, the more stubborn you are, the faster people leave religion behind. Interesting times.

exUM more than 8 years ago

Sinking Ship

If the conservative ship is sinking then why is it that the rapidly growing churches by and large are evangelical and conservative while the progressive protestant denominations are all sinking rapidly. Where has progressive ideology grown the church? I would like answers to where progressive ideology has worked on more than an isolated scale. We all have faith, now show me your works.

Scott more than 8 years ago

following the culture

The church is a moral community. With option 2, we are choosing to follow the morals of the culture instead of God's moral law. The choice is clear.

In Christ,

The enemy hates clarity

theenemyhatesclarity more than 8 years ago

The truth about the fruits of local option

Feel free to disagree with his theology, but when it come to what the local option will bring to the UMC, he speaks the absolute truth because others have already been there done that:

"I remember a day long ago when I was watching the Watergate hearings and my own Senator, Sam Ervin was sick and tired of what he was hearing from John Dean. He finally shook his finger at Mr. Dean and quoted Galatians, “Mr Dean, ‘God is not mocked, whatsoever you sow, that you shall also reap.’ Tell the truth!” Well, God is watching, and we should have been watching what happened to the Episcopal Church and other mainline Protestant denominations who have already gone the way United Methodists are now contemplating going. If you will know the tree by the fruit it bears — the fruit that such moves have borne is just bad fruit — membership decline, lawsuits over property, and more rancor because now the fight takes place in local churches. United Methodists can avoid kicking the can into every local church sanctuary and to make each one, or each annual conference decide these matters. We should take this opportunity to just say, “No!”" https://wesleyancovenant.org/2018/05/15/just-say-no-to-local-church-options-for-the-umc/

betsy more than 8 years ago

Precedents of failure of local option

Just how successful has the local option been for The Episcopal Church, The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Evangelical Lutheran Church, and United Church of Christ? The only success each of these denominations achieved with local option for sexuality was accelerating their already steady numerical decline. So, how is local option going to arrest or even slow down the 50 years of numerical decline the United Methodist Church in America has been experiencing? UMC Bishops need to take the logs out of their eyes and face reality! But then, like with all the other denominations, the local option really wasn't about promoting unity, it was about making the church more liberal/progressive. But then the leadership of those other denominations did not have a General Conference that is the supreme decision making body that the leadership is supposed to be responsive to--and we know that has not been consistently happening among Bishops for a long time.

betsy more than 8 years ago

Bishops just formalized the schism

By placing the “follow your feelings” option as the only option to be considered in 2019 (unless the Judicial Council authorizes other motions dealing with the issue to be considered) the COB has guaranteed schism is the only resolution. The only question remaining is whether it will be the traditionalists who favor Option 1 who will leave or whether after the delegates reject Option 2 the Progressives leave.

John more than 8 years ago

graceful exit

The bishops plan does not contain a graceful exit for those who disagree with option 2. Therefore without the plan the only exit will be through lawsuits and disobedience. The church will explode from within if the bishops try to force traditionalists to follow their plan. They will not maintain unity, they will create a civil war in the UMC and civil wars are always the most devastating. The best option may be for a graceful exit to be amended into the one church option, pass it and let those of us who are conservative exit. We could form a new church without all the baggage the UMC now has such as GBCS, the bureaucracy, seminaries full of professors who do not believe in the scriptures and most of all lifetime bishops who do not believe in our traditional biblical beliefs. One way or another we will separate, either in a sane and compromising manner or through chaos and animosity. Let the delegates to GC listen to God.

Scott more than 8 years ago