To our beloved Bishops of Africa United Methodist Church, from your children at Africa Voice of Unity.
Africa Voice of Unity logo
Greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. On behalf of the Africa Voice of Unity, an advocacy team that is supporting your work on keeping the unity of our Church, we wish to reiterate our support, prayers and thanksgiving for the work you are doing in Africa. As you meet this week in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, we pray for the leadership of the Holy Spirit to lead you and give you the enablement to lead us forward to the unity we all desire as Africa United Methodists.
Your meeting at this particular moment is timely and crucial in the life of the United Methodist Church in Africa and around the world. Therefore, our team wishes to bring the following important matters before you all:
1. We do not need disaffiliation in the United Methodist Church in Africa.
2. We call on you to bless those who want to leave so that they can leave now.
3. We call on you to endorse regionalization as submitted by the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters as a way forward.
Bishops you could recall that some of us in Africa who attended the 2019 General Conference special call session in St. Louis went with the hope that our church will find a common ground for everyone one of us to stay and do ministry under one big umbrella, but at the end of the conference we felt heartbroken when this common ground was not found. We were sadder when the disaffiliation paragraph 2553 was passed. Some of us in Africa have learned that the 2019 General Conference special session brought more harm than good to our dear church in the United States of America. Here lies the need for your leadership towards unity for a better General Conference in 2024. With this in mind, we want to remind you that the super majority of the United Methodist churches in Africa do not support disaffiliation in our continent. Its effects in Africa, if allowed, would cause serious conflicts among local churches, Districts and Annual Conferences, including legal battles in many places. Therefore, we support the agreement among you that removes disaffiliation in Central Conferences. We call on you to reiterate this during your meeting in Lubumbashi.
We are equally aware that there are fewer bishops, clergy, and laity in Africa who feel otherwise and want to disaffiliate and are already causing several problems in their local churches, Districts and Annual Conferences. On this we respectfully call on you to bless them and make them leave now, not later. Where they claim to be the majority, let them use the autonomous option to be where they want to be. Holding them further in the church they no longer believe in is tantamount to disunity of the United Methodist Church in Africa.
Furthermore, we call on you to endorse the plan for regionalization as submitted by the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters. As resident theologians in Africa, we believe regionalization offers us further opportunity to contextualize our Theology in the way that addresses the current realities of our Church in Africa as depicted in the works of Bishop Desmond Tutu.
As Africans, our position regarding marriage as a union between a man and a woman has not changed. That does not mean we cannot be in the same church with those who share different opinions. It is true, “there is NO scenario where Africa would ordain LGBTQ pastors, even if the General Conference told them to. There is no scenario where the United States will go back to trials and exclusion, even if the General Conference told them to.” This is the more reason why we all need to pass the regionalization plan at the General Conference and subsequently rectified by Annual Conferences. Regionalization is a graceful way to give every region of the church the autonomy to reach its mission field.
Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 6:31 “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
One more, we wish you all a successful meeting and travel mercies back to your respective Episcopal Areas.
Yours Sincerely,
Rev. Ande I. Emmanuel, Coordinator, Africa Voice of Unity (AVOU)