Bishop's Death, WCA Plans Alter Playing Field for UMC's Future

by

Editor’s note: This column is adapted from an analysis that appeared originally on Baptist News Global.

The untimely death of Bishop John Yambasu of Sierra Leone and the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s announcement of its plans for a new denomination have altered the playing field of efforts to fashion The United Methodist Church’s future. The reset also has brought to light allegations of neocolonialism and white supremacy against the WCA for published attempts to discredit Africa United Methodist bishops committed to remaining in the UMC.

The worldwide church still reels from the Aug. 16 death of Bishop Yambasu, 63. A Sierra Leone news report said the bishop died from injuries he sustained in a one-car crash in bad weather outside the capital, Freetown. The bishop's death came 13 months after he emerged as a pivotal leader of standing and conviction outside the UMC’s American base.

Bishop Yambasu’s rise as a unifying force surprised American United Methodists, who historically have maintained a viselike grip on the reins of church power. At the time of his death, in addition to being the resident episcopal leader of his West African conference, Bishop Yambasu was president of the college of United Methodist bishops in Africa and incoming chancellor of UMC-related Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The bishop also was an respected civic leader in his own country, having led his fellow citizens through two disasters, a 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak and a 2017 mudslide outside Freetown that killed some 1,000 people.

In a video introducing his group’s proposal to divide the UMC, the bishop said that he was prompted to extraordinary action because he believed he had been challenged by God’s Holy Spirit to unify the church. The bishop said his discernment came after U.S. United Methodists rebelled at stricter bans on same-sex marriage and ordaining LGBTQ persons enacted by the 2019 special called General Conference in St. Louis, Mo.

Bishop Yambasu said his discernment led him to call together representatives of various factions in July 2019 in hopes of overcoming the differences that still threaten to tear apart the denomination. After two months of fruitless discussions among the factions, however, Bishop Yambasu was persuaded by some of his American bishop colleagues to bring in a professional mediator to aid negotiations for an equitable separation in hopes of preserving a viable UMC. The bishops approached the noted international mediator Kenneth Feinberg of Washington, D.C., who took on untying the Gordian knot of United Methodist fractiousness without a fee.

In December 2019, the ad hoc group that Bishop Yambasu had created produced a document called “A Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation.” The Protocol, as it became known, faced harsh criticism from the moment it was announced.

Not only was the proposal brought forth after the legislative deadline for the 2020 General Conference, it was negotiated outside typical United Methodist processes. Furthermore, the Protocol rankled many moderates and progressives by proposing to give $25 million in “seed money” to form a traditionalist Methodist denomination, while allotting only $2 million for the development of any other Methodist expressions. The common interpretation of this idea was that the main church would pay the traditionalists to leave the UMC as they’d been threatening to do for decades.

Despite its flaws, the unorthodox Protocol gave hope to anyone with even the slightest understanding of United Methodists’ nearly half-century of wrangling. The plan represented the first glimmer of hope in decades that United Methodism might not implode but instead scatter like seeds to blossom into new churches.

Ever optimistic despite resistance, Bishop Yambasu "went all in” on the Protocol. He and other bishops returned to their respective church regions and secured enough official approvals from their annual conferences to get the Protocol added to the agenda for the General Conference that was scheduled for May 2020.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic and the unprecedented postponement of the 2020 General Conference. Momentum for the Protocol screeched to a halt while United Methodists and the rest of the world grappled with an invisible invader. Having come through the Ebola epidemic, Bishop Yambasu and other African bishops determined to focus on the public health crisis as their priority, leaving church politics aside temporarily.

However, while United Methodists pivoted to cope with coronavirus restrictions, dissident traditionalists doggedly pursued their vision of a new church. On Aug. 10, the Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, unveiled the organization’s strategy for founding a new traditionalist Methodist church based on the terms laid out in the as-yet-unapproved Protocol.

Rev. Boyette’s announcement came on the heels of a newly recognized propaganda campaign that had been proceeding in Africa for several weeks, according to research by Dr. David W. Scott, mission theologian for the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, the church’s missionary-sending agency. In two posts from UM & Global republished by United Methodist Insight (see links below), Dr. Scott outlined how the traditionalists attempted to convince African United Methodists to join the new denomination.

“… This summer’s developments go beyond US traditionalists re-stating their global ambitions,” Dr. Scott wrote. “A number of articles have sought to undercut the African bishops as leaders and to assure Africans that their financial interests will be taken care of in a new, Traditionalist denomination.”

A second source, the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Nyarota, a Zimbabwean pastor serving in Canada, confirmed publication of several critical articles. He cited essays appearing in the longtime conservative magazine, Good News, by its vice president Thomas Lambrecht and in Firebrand, a publication launched June 1 by the evangelistic ministry Spirit & Truth. Firebrand published an article by the Rev. Forbes Matonga, a member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s Global Leadership Council. While not officially related to the WCA, Firebrand's leadership includes members of the WCA's global leadership council, Firebrand's lead editor David F. Watson and Joy Moore. Dr. Nyarota participates in an ad hoc group of non-U.S. clergy and laity, the Central Conferences Outreach Team, that has drafted a loyalty document, The Christmas Covenant, in opposition to the schismatic Protocol.

“The African Bishops have been clear through Bishop Yambasu's leadership that Africa will remain as The United Methodist Church,” Dr. Nyarota said in an email to United Methodist Insight. “The WCA council members in Africa and their so-called coordinators … [are] even going to the extent of telling them how to lead their episcopal areas – something they would not do to an American Bishop. This is a clear show of neocolonialism, power-mongering and white supremacist tendencies.”

Rev. Boyette addressed issues of racial inequality – though not the direct implications of Dr. Scott and Dr. Nyarota – in his announcement of the WCA’s plans:

“Recent events have underscored the breadth of injustice and inequality present in the world. The WCA has established a task force to ensure that the new church will do all it can to provide for full racial and ethnic equality. This task force, composed of a diverse and global group of Methodists, is evaluating the WCA’s work to date to ensure it advances the cause of racial and ethnic justice, equality, and reconciliation. It will also recommend next steps for the new church so from its very beginning it is dedicated to fostering a community where all God’s people are welcomed and included.”

UMC observers can only speculate now on what might have been Bishop Yambasu’s response to traditionalists’ efforts to poach African United Methodists for a new church. These latest developments prove that a lot still can happen between now and the start of the next General Conference on Aug. 29, 2021. For all the WCA’s confidence, the Protocol remains only a proposal. Only the General Conference can decide if the denomination will break up, whether by the Protocol that Bishop Yambasu helped create or by some other plan.

One thing is for certain: as tributes to him attest, Bishop Yambasu’s tragic death has cost United Methodists a wise and compassionate spiritual leader whose influence could have lessened the political bloodshed lurking in the next round of UMC deliberations. At the moment, no one with his gifts and graces looms on the horizon.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.