The UMC of Tomorrow Begins Today

by

Context: As of May 1, 2022, a fringe group of anti-LGBTQ+ former United Methodist clergy and lay people officially launched a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church (GMC). United Methodist polity was confusing even before the pandemic so if you’re wondering “how did they do that?”, UMNews has a helpful article about the GMC’s launch and what it means for everyday United Methodists.

The short story

The UMC has not officially split. The General Conference is the only body that has the authority to consider and act on legislation regarding a split. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Conference has been unable to meet and has been postponed to 2024. However, a small group of people within the denomination have decided that they will not wait for the General Conference to meet, and will officially launch their own denomination—today. Rev. Jeremy Smith has persistently published and investigated the GMC from its beginnings as the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA), and has published a detailed overview of his reporting since 2016: “We Called It: Looking back at the Rise of the Global Methodist Church.” Jeremy has summed up the WCA’s work since the beginning as “a renewal group dedicated to preserving global LGBTQ Exclusion in The United Methodist Church and, failing that, siphoning off the capital, property, and people from The UMC to a new Wesleyan denomination.”

The Practical Questions

Will many people leave The UMC today? No. At this point, it is unknown how many churches will join the GMC, but without the General Conference passing a proposal to split, exiting The UMC today is costly—not out of spite, but because we believe, as a denomination, that United Methodist properties are held in trust together as Annual Conferences. Like the early church depicted in the book of Acts, we aim to share resources together and hold properties “in common” (Acts 2:43-47, NRSV). For more information on what the process to leave The UMC requires, click here.

Will clergy who join the GMC still be United Methodists? No. UMNews has reported that, according to Bishop Cynthia Harvey, the outgoing president of the Council of Bishops, and a 1993 decision by the Judicial Council (our highest court) that UM clergy cannot be members of other denominations.

Can Annual Conferences really vote to leave The UMC? No—or at least not yet. The Judicial Council is currently reviewing this question.

Will The UMC be an LGBTQ+-affirming denomination now? Unfortunately, no. Rev. Jeremy Smith has another insightful article on this topic, “Shall Progressives Inherit the United Methodist Church? No. Not yet.” Essentially, The UMC will need to pass a regionalization plan at the next General Conference, a plan like the Christmas Covenant, which was developed by United Methodists from Africa, Europe, and the Philippines. This plan would offer “United Methodists in all regions of the UMC, the space to engage in context-specific conversations for each region that otherwise would have been brought to the General Conference.” So, rather than debating topics like sexuality on a global scale that neglects cultural differences, the U.S. would be able to make decisions for the U.S., and the Philippines for the Philippines, and so on. No longer would certain regions of the Church be telling other regions who they can and can’t ordain.

My Takeaway and Hope

I titled this blog “The UMC of Tomorrow Begins Today” not because The UMC is now magically affirming of LGBTQ+ people, nor because some official change has taken place within The UMC. Neither of these are true. I chose this title because our anti-LGBTQ+ (former/soon-to-be-former United Methodist) siblings have placed their cards on the table and have, to some extent, walked away. People who have promoted or condoned harmful anti-LGBTQ+ policies within The UMC now have a place to go. They will leave gradually, but by forming their own denomination, they have informed us all they would like to leave. Let’s shake the dust from our sandals and leave each other in peace, shall we?

What their eventual departure means is that we must double our efforts now to define what it really means to be a United Methodist. As I said in an earlier blog,

“If we are to claim the heritage of Wesley, to take grace, and therefore salvation, seriously, then United Methodists are called to embrace and affirm LGBTQ+ people and our presence in the Church. If the telos (inner aim) of our lives as Methodist Christians is to grow in the love of God and neighbor, for love to fill our hearts and the whole capacity of our souls, then the systematic exclusion of LGBTQ+ Methodist Christians is antithetical to the very foundation upon which our tradition has been formed. By embracing the grace upon which Methodism was built, we can find our way forward.”

Now is the time be in dialogue with one another in our churches, in our Annual Conferences, and across the global United Methodist Connection to dream and begin to practice what our life together as The United Methodist Church will look like after the inevitable separation in 2024. As part of this dialogical process, I encourage your churches to watch this overview by the Council of Bishops’ Anti-Racism task force on the history of denominational schisms within Methodist history. The task force did a fantastic job of weaving together different perspectives on the causes and lessons learned from the splits throughout our history as a movement. I also recommend churches to engage in conversations about the future of the Church through the plethora of resources provided as part of the #BeUMC Campaign (including sermon series, small group discussions, media posts and more).

I invite you, as I’ll be inviting each church I visit this summer, to fill in the blank: “I want to be part of a church that _____.” For me, I want to be part of a church that:

  • Makes justice-seeking disciples who transform the church and the world.
  • Is guided by an ethos of inclusion, affirmation, and liberation.
  • Is an equitable and global connection.
  • Continues our Wesleyan heritage into and beyond the 21st century.

May we make this day the beginning of The UMC of tomorrow—the day we each commit to learning about Wesleyan/Methodist history and theology so that they might guide our future. May today be the day we commit to abiding by Wesley’s three “General Rules” (do no harm; do good; stay in love with God). May today be the day we practice being part of a global connection—being in conversation with United Methodists in different parts of the country and world, building relationships rooted in mutual respect and agape love. May today be the beginning of The UMC of tomorrow. And may we, with God’s help, make it so!

J.J. Warren is a public theologian, advocate, author, speaker and seminary student at Boston University School of Theology. He is a graduate of New York’s Sarah Lawrence College (’19), and a certified candidate for ordination in The United Methodist Church (UMC). After making an impassioned plea for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons at the UMC’s top law-making assembly, J.J.’s speech went viral, and his advocacy has been covered by HuffPost, NBC, Brut Media, and WXXI Radio. His first book, Reclaiming Church: A Call to Action for Religious Rejects, is available now from Abingdon Press.