Church Closures
Chart shows the official General Council on Finance and Administration figures on church closures, including disaffiliations, since 2019. (Image courtesy of the General Council on Finance and Administration.)
The Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) may have hit rock bottom. They just issued a video that equates General Conference delegates who disagree with top-down disaffiliations with white supremacy. I did not make this up.
You can watch their outrageous video here.
White supremacy and racism are real issues in the church. For the overwhelmingly white WCA to try and leverage this deep issue for their shallow political gain is tone-deaf and dangerous. This WCA video was posted one week after their officemates, Good News, issued threats to delegates. Their race to the bottom is underway.
To be clear, Mainstream UMC believes that churches should be able to leave the UMC, but this should be left up to the annual conferences and central (or regional) conferences to handle from this point forward. The General Conference should not impose another universal, top-down disaffiliation process Like ¶2553 that will further harm the annual conferences that have already done this work. This position is widely supported in Europe and by non-white Delegates and Bishops from the Philippines and Africa. In fact, the Africa Forum (which is entirely African) voted unanimously in January not to support top-down disaffiliations in Africa. Are these Africans white supremacists?
Suggesting that it is an act of white supremacy to advocate for regional control of the church is just more evidence of the colonial mindset of the WCA and its coalition. We should not forget that the College of Bishops in Africa condemned the WCA and their African counterpart, the Africa Initiative, as working to “destroy” the church.
By contrast, Mainstream UMC wants Africa to decide about disaffiliations for Africa. Mainstream UMC wants the Philippines to decide about disaffiliations for the Philippines. Mainstream UMC wants Europe to decide about disaffiliations for Europe. And to be straightforward, Mainstream UMC wants the US to decide about disaffiliations in the US.
And this is the REAL issue for the WCA; they want more disaffiliations in the United States. You can ignore all their phantom support for Africa. Their new Global Methodist Church (GMC) has already announced they will have ZERO dollars in their denominational budget for global mission. Since there is very little sympathy for the WCA in the US or Africa, they are gaslighting for their own gain.
The WCA is desperate because the vast majority of their voters at General Conference have already left. The real question is why is a remnant of the WCA still meddling in their former church? There will be ZERO UMC delegates at the GMC General Conference in September. There should be ZERO GMC delegates in Charlotte.
Friends, we would be naïve to think the GMC and their allies are not coming to crash the General Conference. Our organizational work is more important than ever. We only have a few weeks left to prepare.
Notes:
Read the threats from Good News: https://mainstreamumc.com/blog/good-news-issues-threats-to-delegates/
Read the Africa College of Bishops’ complete statement denouncing the WCA and their Africa Initiative: https://www.unitedmethodistbishops.org/files/statement+from+africa+colleges+of+bishops+-+sept+8.pdf
Read the math about how the GMC will not give money to Africa: https://mainstreamumc.com/blog/math-gmc-has-abandoned-africa/
Mark Holland
The Rev. Dr. Mark Holland, a co-founder of Mainstream UMC, has been rehired as the re-launched advocacy organization's executive director. (Mainstream UMC Photo)
The Rev. Dr. Mark Holland is a clergy member of the Great Plains Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church and serves as executive director of Mainstream UMC.