Yesterday was truly historical for The United Methodist Church, as the ban on “practicing” gay clergy and officiating same-sex weddings was removed from The Book of Discipline. I was “in the room where it happened,” holding onto my trans, non-binary, gay, lesbian, and bisexual siblings in Christ. We wept together, laughed, shouted, prayed, and worshipped God in awe and wonder at what we had just witnessed. I hope to address this more fully in a future page of Wesley Bros, as well as the removal of disaffiliation language and the plans for reaffiliation.
For today’s comic, though, I will be celebrating another historical achievement of the denomination that may seem less sensational for newspaper headlines. We have approved a constitutional change, passing the last of eight petitions for worldwide regionalization. UM News explains it this way:
Under the legislation, the U.S. and each central conference — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — would become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, for more missional effectiveness.
At present, only central conferences have that authority under the denomination’s constitution to adapt the Discipline as missional needs and different legal contexts require.
Much of regionalization — including enabling the creation of a U.S. regional conference, which General Conference passed April 30 — is contingent upon the ratification of a constitutional amendment. Ratification requires a total of at least two-thirds of annual conference voters support the amendment.
Regionalization is a huge win for the denomination, though there is much work yet to do for its implementation to truly benefit the ministries of local churches everywhere. In any case, I wanted today’s comic to reflect the delicate balance of pulling apart while holding together, of moving towards greater contextual ministry while staying connected by our Wesleyan roots. Today’s comic is also introducing some key founders to United Methodism, William Philip Otterbein and Martin Boehm as Batman and Robin (Bat-terbeinman and Roboehm sounds about right), Susanna Wesley as Wonder Woman (Wonder Mama, I think?), Harry Hosier as the New Captain America, and Francis Asbury as (if you can’t guess, you’ll find out in a future panel!).
If you’re not at GC 2024, please don’t miss it! You can find live-streaming, schedules, and so much more at ResourceUMC.org!