Photo by Eveline Chikwanah/UM News
African bishops lead
Bishops lead communion at the Memorial du Centenaire Cathedral at the opening worship service for the Africa Colleges of Bishops learning retreat in Lubumbashi, Congo, Sept 3. This year’s bishops' meeting discussed regionalization, the definition of marriage and the future of The United Methodist Church in Africa, among other issues. (Photo by Eveline Chikwanah, UM News.)
Special to United Methodist Insight | July 10, 2026
Dear Africa Colleges of Bishops and Selected Delegates:
The disaffiliation debate within The United Methodist Church (UMC) in Africa reflects deep divides over global policies and whether regional conferences can leave the denomination. While US congregations had an explicit disaffiliation pathway, African conferences faced significant hurdles, leading to frustration among evangelical and traditionalist groups. U.S. annual conferences primarily utilized disaffiliation legislation (Paragraph 2553), and it has expired.
Evangelical/Conservative African leaders pushed for an equivalent process. Still, they faced resistance, as the General Conference and the majority of African bishops chose to focus on unity and regionalization rather than a denominational split.
The official leaders of the UMC in Africa, represented by the Africa Colleges of Bishops, have repeatedly stated they do not plan to leave the denomination, choosing instead to stay and work within the church framework.
Groups like the Africa Initiative and traditionalist delegates have publicly expressed anger and devastation, arguing that African churches are being trapped and devalued by the denomination progressive shifts regarding marriage and ordination as related to human sexuality.
As members and partners of the worldwide United Methodist Church, we commend your steadfast resolve to remain unified within The United Methodist Church. Yet we express our profound disappointment regarding the recent administrative and legislative outcomes of the 2024 General Conference. The exclusion of certain annual conferences and jurisdictions from viable, equitable pathways to determine their own futures has caused significant distress. While we acknowledge the historical complexities of global church governance, the current dynamic creates an imbalance that makes many regional bodies feel unheard, devalued, and disconnected from ratification and implementation of the worldwide regionalization plan, which marked a historic end to decades of US colonial oversight and its resulting structural inequality.
The exclusion of certain annual conferences and jurisdictions from viable, equitable pathways to determine their own futures has caused significant distress.
The General Conference of 2024 took historic steps to transition Central Conferences into Regional Conferences. We celebrate the overwhelming ratification of the worldwide regionalization plan, which marks a historic end to decades of US colonial oversight and structural inequality. Whereas this move was intended to foster self-governance, contextual relevance, and regional autonomy, by leaving the existing Jurisdictional structures intact and unchanged, the denomination has created a multi-tiered governance model that lacks consistency.
True regionalization cannot be selective. If the global church is to remain unified and effective, all geographic regions must operate under equal structural frameworks.
As you, our Colleges of Bishops and selected delegates, gather together in Canada for the upcoming Council of Bishops Leadership Gathering, we urge you to leverage this newly created Church body by representing the African continent with strength, integrity, and foresight.
Specifically, we ask that you champion the following pillars of faithful representation:
1. Contextual Ministry and Autonomy: We urge you to fully utilize the newly granted regional authority to promote the adaptation of the Book of Discipline to reflect African realities, local expressions of marriage rites and evangelistic priorities, without undue interference from Western economic or cultural agendas.
2. Dismantling Colonial Structures and Standardizing All Regions: We ask you to actively push back against residual financial or jurisdictional dependencies that diminish the decision-making power of non-Western leadership. Africa must lead from a position of total structural parity.
3. Mandate that all existing Jurisdictions be restructured into fully recognized Regional Conferences: The jurisdictions should mirror the exact framework applied to the former Central Conferences.
4. Grant these newly formed Regional Conferences the identical legislative, administrative, and contextual powers given to other global regions: There should be no substantive differences in formal structure from region to region around the world.
5. Remove any governance disparities between U.S. and non-U.S. Church bodies: This will ensure a flat, equitable, and truly global connectional system. To that end, we call upon the leadership of the General Conference to act with fairness to dismantle these structural inequities and to grant every region the same institutional dignity.
6. Facilitate Accountability and Theological Growth: We urge you to ensure that the newly elected and continuing African Bishops remain firmly committed to transparent stewardship, localized theological education, and the dynamic growth of the African church.
Africa is no longer an “exception” to a US-default church. This kind of equality is a foundational pillar of truly global connection.
We stand with you as you lead courageously!
The Rev. Kennedy Mulwindadza
The Rev. Dr. Kennedy F. Mukwindidza is an elder of the United Methodist Church in the Great Plains Annual Conference, which covers Kansas and Nebraska. He is originally from Zimbabwe where he was ordained elder in 1978 in the Rhodesia Annual Conference of the UMC. He has served in rural and urban churches in Zimbabwe and has served cross-cultural appointments for more than 20 years in the United States.