UMC Fracture Marks Moment of Change

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The UMC recently announced that its policy-making body, the General Conference (GC), was delaying its quadrennial meeting for a second year. Just two years ago the decades-long conflict over LGBTQ inclusion came to a head when a special GC convened to address that issue failed to find a way to stay together. Instead, a narrow conservative majority pushed through a Traditional Plan with even more restrictive policies.

Since then, several proposals have offered ways for the denomination to move forward from this impasse. United Methodists (UMs) and others eagerly anticipated action on the most promising of these, a mediated Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation, by the GC meeting in May 2020. The pandemic forced the church to reschedule this global gathering to August 2021 and has now delayed it for another year, until August 2022.

Any momentum coming out of the 2019 GC has stalled, and many in the church are further disheartened by the deaths of two prominent bridge-builders – Bishop John Yambasu of the Sierra Leone Conference, who was killed in a car accident in August, and Rev. Junius Dotson, head of the UMC General Board of Discipleship, whose death from pancreatic cancer was announced the same day as GC’s second postponement. A look at how different factions within the church are dealing with this enforced pause show us how each responds to social change.

As explored in recent posts, the multiple difficulties of the past year represent an implosion of systems of domination that engendered racial and gender oppression, economic inequality, climate change, and political polarization. The simultaneous collapse of these systems allows for a reordering of our priorities that allows us to “build back better,” and some UMs have seized this opportunity to rethink what church looks like.

On November 29, 2020, the first Sunday of Advent and the start of the liturgical year, Liberation Methodist Connection (LMX) launched over Zoom. Describing itself as “a grassroots collective of former, current, and non-Methodist faith leaders working on the unfolding of the kin-dom of God and for the Liberation of all,” the group centers queer and trans people of color, rather than pushing them to the periphery. Rejecting hierarchy, they list a team of collaborators and an interim Wisdom Council that is guiding their work. Restrictions on in-person gatherings have allowed them to build a global community through online worship and celebrations.

Last year on Pentecost, the biblical birthday of the church, a group of GC delegates issued the statement “Out of Chaos, Creation,” calling the disruption in UMC process a kairos moment that allows for reflection on new ways of being church to meet the challenges of the time. The group includes laity and clergy from four continents with the goal of refocusing the discussion from specific legislation to how the Holy Spirit can renew the church. Through webinars and social media, they are bringing in other UMs who share their vision of transformed church.

Pre-pandemic, members of UM Central Conferences (those outside the US) issued a Christmas Covenant, reminiscent of the 1784 Christmas Conference when American Methodists broke free of the Church of England to form their own denomination. In the 2019 Christmas Covenant, UMs outside the US, who now comprise 40% of membership, seek to break free of US dominance by proposing legislation to restructure the UMC into Regional Conferences that would share the common mission of spreading the gospel, while respecting contextual ministry settings and guaranteeing legislative equality. Like the other movements, they are using this time to build support through informational videos, testimonies, and articles online.

Reflecting the goals of the other two movements, the Christmas Covenant “seeks to decolonize the polity of the UMC as an important part of efforts addressing systemic racism, sexism, economic and environmental justice, and affirming/centering the inclusion of marginalized peoples.” All of them see this moment of change as an opportunity to envision a more inclusive future that frees people from the systems of domination that have shaped the church, as well as the larger US society. These movements recognize the breakdown of old structures and seek a transformed church that can serve a transformed world.

Traditional UMs, led by Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA), continue to press for separation from the UMC over LGBTQ inclusion, which they frame as an issue of scriptural fidelity and adherence to traditional beliefs and practices. They have been ready to bolt for at least two years, having settled on a new name (the Global Methodist Church), logo, and Book of Discipline. The Protocol will allow them to make a clean break, take their property, and receive $25 million for their new denomination.

WCA President Keith Boyette pressed the Commission on General Conference to include the Protocol for Separation on a one-day virtual GC session, which is scheduled on May 8 to address administrative issues necessary for the church to function. Their singular focus is evident in their insistence that the fracture of the world’s largest mainline Protestant church be decided in a one-day online session and mail-in ballots, rather than waiting one year for holy conferencing in person. In contrast to conservatives’ eagerness to split, many UMs are deeply pained by this outcome, and they need communal rituals to grieve the separation.

We may wonder at conservatives’ impatience, given that the Traditional Plan is in effect in the UMC. However, many bishops are observing a moratorium on processing complaints against clergy who violate the Plan, and conservatives have issued a call for complaints to begin.

They may also fear the erosion of the stronghold they have had on GC delegates from Africa, who now see other possibilities. The Christmas Covenant would allow Africans autonomy to set policy consistent with their cultural context without losing the benefits of remaining connected to the larger post-separation UMC. While some African leaders, including those in Africa Initiative, still plan to exit the church with US conservatives, African bishops have consistently maintained their desire to remain united,1 and another group, Africa Voice of Unity, has rejected separation and affirmed the Christmas Covenant.

As we consider the UMC schism as part of the failures of modernism, the African UMC illustrates the church’s complicity in colonialism and historic systems of domination. Some Africans themselves have referred to US conservatives’ claim to know what is best for Africa as a form of neocolonialism.2 These Africans reject being used as pawns by conservatives who see their numbers and influence in the US diminishing.

While LMX, Out of Chaos, and the Christmas Covenant all consider future possibilities that this disruption in the status quo might permit, traditionalists remain wedded to the past. The strength of the Global Methodist Church and its global reach will depend on how many African UMs continue to follow their lead, and how many open themselves to new visions and the self-direction that other movements offer them.

A lifelong Methodist, the Rev. Jane Ellen Nickell serves as chaplain at Allegheny College. She is the author of "We Shall Not Be Moved: Methodists Debate Race, Gender, and Homosexuality." This post is adapted and republished with the author's permission from her blog, A Nickell for Your Thoughts.