Eastern Pennsylvania Congregation Votes to Leave UMC

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A United Methodist Insight Exclusive

Another United Methodist congregation well known for its inclusive ministry has submitted a request to disaffiliate from the denomination because it doesn’t trust General Conference 2020 to fully reverse anti-gay policies and practices.

The 500-member congregation of Grandview United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Pa., voted Feb. 10 by a 96 percent margin to submit a disaffiliation request to the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference. Church leaders said the vote was “provisional” in that it might be rescinded depending on GC2020 results.

Church leaders also said the timing was partly to conform to the requirements of Discipline Para. 2553.1, which mandates that disaffiliation be approved by the annual conference. If Grandview hadn’t submitted its request now, it would have to wait another 15 to 18 months to leave the UMC. Eastern Pennsylvania Conference will hold its 2020 session June 18-20. General Conference 2020 meets May 5-15 in Minneapolis, Minn.

The biggest motivation for the vote, however, is a lack of confidence that General Conference 2020 will vote to rescind provisions of the Traditional Plan approved by the 2019 special called General Conference, accordingn to the Rev. Andrea Brown, Grandview’s lead pastor.

By telephone, Rev. Brown described to United Methodist Insight her experience of the 2019 General Conference in St. Louis, Mo., on her first visit to the worldwide denomination’s legislative assembly.

“I’m a cradle Methodist, and I came back from that General Conference torn and broken by its actions,” Rev. Brown said. “I’m not sure I even belong in the denomination anymore.”

Reacting to GC2019, Rev. Brown wrote “A Love Letter for You: A Response to General Conference 2019” that reaffirmed Grandview’s longtime ministry with LGBTQI persons. She said she shared her General Conference experience with the congregation, which immediately began assessing whether to disaffiliate.

“We finally decided to leave, not only because of the LGBTQI votes, but because of the many contradictions between our ministry and the denomination,” said Rev. Brown. “For instance, Grandview, though it is a predominantly white and English-speaking congregation, cares about racism, too. The good work of the General Commission on Religion and Race and the UMW have been helpful to us, and we’ll continue to invest in it, but the denomination as a whole seems stuck in patterns of colonialism and white supremacy that its structure doesn’t allow it to overcome.

“Now we don’t have a lot of trust that General Conference will vote to make the denomination healthier,” said Rev. Brown, who is a GC2020 delegate from Eastern Pennsylvania. “I’m working with others to pursue outcomes that would make the UMC more just, but the structure of the church seems to be getting in the way. I don’t really have a lot of optimism about the church being able to right itself.”

Another leader, the Rev. Darryl W. Stephens, said Grandview has been discerning its mission and ministry of inclusion for at least 15 years. An ordained deacon, Rev. Stephens serves as Director of United Methodist Studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary and is affiliated with Grandview, where he assists with adult education.

“Given the way The United Methodist Church currently is and has been for decades, the Grandview congregation has experienced increasing hostility toward its inclusive ministry,” said Rev. Stephens, who has written a book, Out of Exodus: A Journey of Open and Affirming Ministry (Cascade, 2018), about the congregation.

“The hostility comes both denominationally with the penalties ramped up and in the annual conference,” he continued. “Eastern Pennsylvania is the conference that tried and defrocked both Beth Stroud and Frank Schaefer. We’ve seen firsthand how clergy colleagues and church communities were roiled by conference actions even before the Traditionalist Plan was adopted. There are those who say, ‘just wait,’ and we say ‘we’ve been waiting’ for years. The Traditionalist Plan is the last straw.”

Beyond its decision to leave the UMC, Grandview’s future is uncertain.

For one thing, there’s the money involved in leaving the denomination. The congregation will have to pay the annual conference a negotiated amount calculated on the value of its property, unfunded pension liabilities, and any debts. Current estimates of that likely payout run somewhere between $500,000 and $700,000, said Rev. Stephens. Rev. Brown noted that Grandview is nearing the end of a capital campaign to pay down its building debt.

“The congregation decided it preferred short-term financial debt to long-term moral debt,” Rev. Stephens said.

Besides money, there’s the question of future affiliation. Both Rev. Brown and Rev. Stephens said Methodist theology runs deep in the congregation’s identity. Rev. Stephens participates in Grandview’s research team that is investigating potential expressions of Methodism which the congregation might join in the future.

Rev. Brown said it’s highly unlikely that Grandview would remain an independent congregation. However, she added, Grandview, which is growing in membership, also has new members from different Christian traditions, and she values their views in discussions about future affiliations.

Ultimately, Grandview’s action and its future hinge on one thing: the congregation’s commitment to inclusive ministry and mission. Rev. Stephens said its ministry embraces “fair immigration, resettling refugees, combatting racism, advocating for mental health care – reaching into all the places where people are marginalized or unloved.”

Rev. Brown emphasized that Grandview’s decision to leave the UMC comes as a way station on a long journey.

“We have a lot of very devoted members who are deeply rooted in The United Methodist Church,” said Grandview’s lead pastor. “We’re not doing this lightly at all.”

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