U.S. United Methodists Report Annual Meetings Calmer and Joyful, but Africans Reject LGBTQ Bans' Removal

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United Methodists in the United States are reporting their annual meetings are calmer and more joyful this year after the denomination's top lawmaking body, the General Conference, removed the UMC's 52-year-old policy holding "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching."

However, their Africa counterparts are roiled with conflict as church members in Liberia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and other regions struggle with the UMC's elimination of its "incompatible" language and all the church laws that rested on it.

The Rev. Dr. Darryl W. Stephens, director of United Methodist studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, described the source of the conflict in a June 6 post on UM & Global blog: "The UMC Discipline (book of law and doctrine) now takes a permissive stance, allowing discernment on (human sexuality) issues at the local and regional levels of the UMC, which has conferences in Africa, Europe, North America, and the Philippines."

General Conference's actions have been welcomed among U.S. United Methodists.

'Harmony and unity'

Retired United Methodist pastor Ed Williamson posted June 18 on Facebook that the New Mexico Annual Conference session was one of "harmony and unity."

"I believe that with the absence of the confrontational and disgruntled persons who were dissatisfied with our Church denomination, or did not understand our true beliefs and feelings as United Methodists, so much friction dissipated, and left a joy-filled atmosphere of hope and energy for the future," Williamson posted on the Stay UMC page.

"I expect that is happening now all across United Methodism as the storm clouds recede and the sunlight comes out again. Praise the Lord! May the Spirit guide us as we serve the Lord and people together!"

Williamson's post elicited more that 100 replies as of June 18, most from United Methodists who said they experienced similar atmospheres of serenity, joy, hope and energy for the future in their annual (regional) conference sessions.

Other annual conferences where cordial and cooperative atmospheres were observed included Baltimore-Washington, Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Alabama, North Carolina, North Georgia, Northern Illinois, North Texas, Northwest Texas, Rio Texas, South Georgia, Texas, Western Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. They represent about a third of the 53 annual conferences in the United States.

The Central Texas Conference, which has voted to merge with the North Texas and Northwest Texas conferences, posted June 9: "Our supposed death and decline from Christ and his mission in the United Methodist Church has been greatly overestimated. We are here. We are alive and we are moving towards a new day!"

Beyond Williamson's Facebook thread, similar calmer and happier atmospheres were reported from conferences in the church's Western Jurisdiction, the most politically and theologically progressive of U.S. regions. In 2016, the Western Jurisdiction elected Karen P. Oliveto, a married lesbian clergywoman, as bishop, breaking UMC law against LGBTQ clergy. Her election brought to a head the half-century-long fight over LGBTQ acceptance. A special General Conference session in 2019 reinforced anti-LGBTQ policies and instituted harsher penalties for their violation. U.S. annual conferences rebelled immediately, with 75 percent of them adopting resolutions opposed to the changes. They also elected new slates of progressive delegates to General Conference, expecting to decide the issue in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in that session being postponed to 2024.

The Western Jurisdiction includes California-Nevada, California-Pacific, Desert Southwest, Mountain Sky, Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest conferences. They cover the western United States from the Rocky Mountains to Guam.

Not all happy

Not all the Facebook chatter was happy. United Methodists in Kentucky and Alabama-West Florida conferences reported advocates for exiting the denomination continued to debate the mechanics of leaving. A simplified process known as "disaffiliation" existed from 2019 to 2023 in the UMC, but it was removed by the 2024 General Conference. Churches can still leave the denomination, but the process is more complicated and much more expensive.

United Methodist churches are held "in trust" for their annual conferences, which are the official owner of all United Methodist property according to church law. While dozens of disaffected churches have sued their annual conferences over the trust clause, only one to date – a case in Georgia – has resulted in a court invalidating the trust clause.

In Kentucky, clergy and lay members voted to have conference leaders come up with a way for churches to exit the denomination with their property according to a different section of the Book of Discipline, the UMC's collections of policies and church laws. That section, Paragraph 2549,  allows for UMC churches to be deeded over to another denomination, presumably to the breakaway Global Methodist Church established in 2022. The Global Methodist Church and the "traditionalist" organization from which it sprang, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, have been the primary advocates of disaffiliation.

However, the GMC doesn't formally exist yet as a denomination, according to public records. The GMC won't hold its organizing conference until September. Furthermore, the UMC has no formal covenant with the GMC, making it ineligible for property transfer under existing rules.

In Alabama-West Florida, a group of 44 churches lost their bid to leave the denomination without following the prescribed process, according to a state supreme court decision in May. The deadline for exiting the UMC under the simplified process expired Dec. 31, 2023, so if the disaffected churches still want to leave, they'll have to follow the more complicated procedure that still exists.

Even though there are procedures on the books for leaving the denomination, "the conference voted to ask the denomination’s Judicial Council for a ruling on procedures for how churches may be allowed to leave in the future. No church judicial ruling is expected before October," reported Greg Garrison of AL.com June 18.

A similar stumbling block faces dissidents in Africa, where the Wesleyan Covenant Association and the Global Methodist Church have engaged indigenous leadership to push for leaving The United Methodist Church.

In Liberia, the Rev. Jerry Kulah, leader of the WCA's Africa Initiative, has agitated along with others for the Liberia Annual Conference to hold a special session in July to disaffiliate. However, another Liberian church leader, Jefferson B. Knight, wrote recently that dissident forces there "have been spreading misinformation that the Liberia Conference is a gay church, which is false and misleading, particularly targeting members in rural areas, in an attempt to sway opinions against the UMC."

In Tanzania, conference members voted to remain in the UMC despite disagreeing with the removal of LGBTQ bans, according to its report on UM News' annual conferences page. Tanzania United Methodists say they endorse the proposed regionalization that will give them authority to set their own standards on human sexuality. The Global Methodist Church reports that it has organized a provisional annual conference in Tanzania.

In Zimbabwe, United Methodists joined other churches in public demonstrations against homosexuality, which is outlawed there. In at least one incident the demonstration turned violent. The Washington Blade, an LGBTQ-focused publication, reported June 13: "A handful of protesters over this past weekend vandalized the offices of Zimbabwe’s largest LGBTQ rights organization. ... Several United Methodist Church parishioners last month held a protest in Harare during which they protested the church’s recent decision to allow LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages."

In Zambia, the conference voted to stay in the UMC but rejected the definition of marriage in the Revised Social Principles. According to a comment on Zambia's Facebook page by Kalenga Kawaya, the conference adopted a resolution that reads in part:  "We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant that is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman. We believe that God’s Blessings rests upon such marriage, whether or not there are children of the union. We reject social norms that assume different standards for women than for men in marriage. We support laws in civil society that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman." The statement also says that Zambia will remain UMC because the pending regionalization will give it the authority to reject homosexuality.

In Nigeria, General Conference actions inflamed a longtime dispute between resident Bishop John Wesley Yohanna and loyalist United Methodists in the country's four annual conferences. The Rev. Chris Ritter, author of the blog People Need Jesus, tweeted a link to a document from the bishop's office claiming that the episcopal area's 912 delegates voted to leave the UMC. However, the Rev. Ande Emmanuel, a leader of loyalist forces in Nigeria, emailed to United Methodist Insight a press release disputing the document's narrative. Rev. Emmanuel claims that Bishop Yohanna engaged local law enforcement to prevent a majority of United Methodists from attending a June 1 meeting, allowing in only 120 conference members equally divided between UMC loyalists and dissidents. 

Even with the prospect of losing some of their African co-religionists, U.S. United Methodists by and large are happy to have diaffected members gone.

"Last week's (annual conference) in North Georgia was remarkably different than the previous 3 I attended as a lay delegate," wrote Hal Storey on Stay UMC. "The reports and allegations that United Methodism is dead were premature and grossly exaggerated. I came away from Athens with a sense of love and focus – focus on welcoming ALL who seek the love of Christ! May it be so!"

Veteran journalist Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel for news and views by and about marginalized and under-served United Methodists. She has reported on The United Methodist Church at all levels since 1988.