Traditionalist Caucus President Speaks to Criticism

Commentary

by

March 25, 2024 | UM News

Key points

  • The time for disaffiliation is not over, since churches and conferences outside the United States have not had a fair opportunity to leave, writes the Rev. Rob Renfroe.
  • Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association plan to advocate at the upcoming General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, for extending disaffiliation rights for non-U.S. churches and for U.S. churches that followed a district superintendent or bishop’s advice to wait and see what changes delegates in Charlotte make to church policies.
  • If fair disaffiliation paths are approved early in the Charlotte meeting, Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association will be inclined not to stick around and oppose regionalization proposals, Renfroe says.

Recently, UM News posted an article reporting that some of us who lead Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association intend to be present at the upcoming General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. A subsequent commentary published by UM News and the reaction on social media are worthy of a response.

First, and most importantly, I want to challenge the idea that “disaffiliation is over – it’s time to move on.” How can disaffiliation be over when it never began for the majority of United Methodists around the world?

Delegates at the 2019 General Conference decided that the legislation they approved would not take effect in the non-U.S. central conferences until a year after the next General Conference. The legislation included Book of Discipline Paragraph 2553, under which thousands of U.S. churches chose to disaffiliate. That provision expired at the end of 2023. Due to COVID-related delays, the next General Conference still hasn’t happened and won’t begin until April 23, in Charlotte. So central conference churches never got to take advantage of 2553.

The statement that “disaffiliation is over” evidences a U.S.-centric view of the church that diminishes the importance and the rights of churches in Africa, Europe, Russia and Asia. 

If the General Conference in Charlotte acts as if disaffiliation is over and does not give international churches the same right to determine their future that we in the U.S. were afforded, the message will be clear to members in Africa and the Philippines: United Methodists are willing to extend privileges to primarily white and wealthy congregations in the United States that it will deny to churches in the developing world whose members are predominantly poor and persons of color.

We agree that it is time for The United Methodist Church to move on. But not before it provides the same rights to those outside the U.S. that were given to churches here.

Second, there is the understandable sentiment that those no longer in The United Methodist Church should not have a voice at the General Conference.

Just to be clear, the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, Good News’ vice president, and I, its president, are still in The United Methodist Church. Tom is an ordained elder in the Wisconsin Annual Conference, under active appointment. I am a retired United Methodist elder in the Texas Conference, properly located at a United Methodist congregation in Houston. I understand many are tired of hearing our voices and disagree with our views, but we are still United Methodists.

Others have charged that we have created division within The United Methodist Church for too long and our work at the General Conference will only continue the dissension we have sowed in the past. The truth is The United Methodist Church was divided long before the Wesleyan Covenant Association came into existence in 2016. Divisions go back further, indeed many years prior to the Rev. Lambrecht’s and my ordinations — and even before Good News was formed in 1967.

We did not create the issues that have led to the exit of a quarter of The United Methodist Church’s congregations. We, like those within the denomination possessing views different than ours, have expressed our beliefs and encouraged delegates to vote in line with what we believed was best for the church. But we did not create the differences that led to disaffiliation. Nor did we promote disobedience to the Book of Discipline, as some charging us with fomenting division have done.

Lastly, we have heard the objection that those who do not plan on remaining in The United Methodist Church should not try to impact its future. This is a right and valid concern. Good News and the WCA will not be working in Charlotte to influence the future direction or policies of The United Methodist Church — not its views of marriage or ordination, not its policy on abortion, not its Social Principles, not its budget.

Our efforts will be constrained to asking the General Conference to provide justice for two groups. One of those groups consists of the churches outside the U.S. that have been denied the chance to discern if disaffiliation is right for them. The other consists of U.S. congregations that were told by their bishop or district superintendent that they did not have to act before Paragraph 2553 expired — they could wait to see what changes the General Conference made and determine whether to disaffiliate afterwards. 

If a just opportunity for disaffiliation is not provided for churches outside the U.S. and if international delegates ask for our help, we will assist them in trying to defeat the regionalization plan. Our friends in Africa with whom we work closely have told us they cannot remain in a church that allows for a contradictory, “contextualized” sexual ethic. If they are given no opportunity to exit, we will stand with our brothers and sisters who have described regionalization as a plan for creating “the separate but equal United Methodist Church.”

Requiring constitutional amendments, which necessitate a two-thirds vote at the General Conference and then the approval of two-thirds of all the connection’s annual conferences, regionalization, we feel certain, can be defeated. But we have no desire to engage in that struggle and will do nothing to thwart its passage if an exit path is offered to churches outside the U.S.

What if The General Conference voted early in its deliberations to extend Paragraph 2553 to churches outside the United States and to those churches that would like to enter discernment in this country after seeing the changes made to the Book of Discipline in Charlotte?

Honestly, I think Good News and the WCA would say “thank you,” pack our bags and go home early. Or, I guess, we can go at it one more time. I prefer the former. It’s fair. It’s just. It stops the fighting. It's a path that will allow The United Methodist Church — and us — to “move on.”  

The Rev. Rob Renfroe is president of Good News, an unofficial traditionalist caucus within The United Methodist Church.