Grandview Split
Grandview Methodists in Lancaster PA will become a new church and a wider Christian community on March 31.
In a historic vote, Grandview finalized its decision to re-form as a new congregation that will no longer be a part of the United Methodist denomination. In the process, it will also create a home for other congregations and individuals who are called to be part of a new, more inclusive expression of Methodism.
The resolution passed with 90% approval, with 295 members casting ballots, and it was announced in a livestream worship service this evening.
As of March 31, when a legal agreement with the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference is finalized, the congregation will be known as Grandview Church. It will function very much as it has been—retaining a Methodist identity, using Methodist hymnals and teaching materials, among other curricula and resources and responding with joyous hospitality to all people.
The church will do so as a growing, theologically diverse body with a biblically committed faith in Jesus Christ.
Grandview will also continue to treat all couples who want to be married at its altar equally, regardless of the gender of the people forming those covenants. However, now the church will not need to fear discipline from the UMC or its Eastern Pennsylvania Conference when it does so.
The congregation will also continue its many other active ministries: food, housing, racial and economic justice, care for those impacted by the criminal system, as well as worship, music, and nurture of people of all ages.
Additionally, Grandview will now invite other congregations, clergy, and laity to connect with it under the banner of Grandview Methodist Connection.
Grandview will take authority to ordain and license people for Word, Sacrament, Order, Service, Compassion, Justice, and other leadership roles. It is preparing to receive ministerial orders from United Methodists and others who feel the need to break or expand their present denominational ties because of discriminatory policies, and who don’t want to go it alone.
In 2014, Grandview decided, as a whole, to do what many within the congregation were already doing: to be transparent and active in its efforts to change UMC policies that are discriminatory toward LGBTQIA+ people. Over time, this commitment on the part of the local congregation strengthened, even as the denomination made its policies more harsh and punitive. The 2019 vote by General Conference in support of the Traditional Plan was a last straw. Grandview found this to be in conflict with Jesus’s teachings of love and in conflict with its Christ-centered calling to minister to all people, especially the marginalized.
With covid and ongoing conflict within the denomination heightening the likelihood that the denomination is unlikely to adopt a fully inclusive stance any time soon, Grandview felt a need to act now.
The congregation, with over 400 people actively serving and worshiping, has been growing in recent years, attracting people from many miles away.
Under terms set by the Eastern PA Conference based on its reading of the Taylor Plan, Grandview will retain its property but is required to pay a $607,000 fee, which goes mostly to protecting the conference’s pension funding. The local church is borrowing these funds so that it can continue to accomplish the vital ministries it supports.
For instance, Grandview feeds many families and individuals each week and creates affordable housing, as well as helping to prevent evictions. It partners with POWER Interfaith and other groups to address systemic racism and will be building a partnership with the Spanish American Civic Association. It joined with other local congregations via the Parish Resource Center to eliminate $3.1 millions in medical debt and to support restaurant workers impacted by COVID-19.
The congregation, which is largely white, sought an agreement with the Eastern PA conference to assure that a portion of its disaffiliation payment not aimed at pensions would be targeted toward a racial/ethnic justice program, but the conference declined that request.
Worship is livestreamed Sundays at 9am. The congregation hopes to hold outdoor, masked, in-person worship on its grounds at 888 Pleasure Road on Easter Sunday.
That will be the first Sunday it is resurrected as Grandview Church and Grandview Methodist Connection.