by Steve | Jan 6, 2023 | In the News, Jan-Feb 2023, Uncategorized
By Steve Beard —
Dublin was still rubbing sleep from its eyes. It was the crack of dawn. Well, not literally – it just seemed that way. The sidewalks along historic statue-lined O’Connell Street were largely empty as I paced toward Trinity College on the south side of the Liffey River. In just hours, tourists would once again be shoulder to shoulder up and down the popular thoroughfare.
But for the moment, it was a crisp and peaceful morning. For a city known for its literary superstars such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, and Seamus Heaney, the most celebrated and valuable book in town is a Latin text created around 800 A.D. by a team of obscure monks on a tiny wind-whipped island 200 miles north of the Irish capital. This was my opportunity to see the mysterious and captivating book.
Believed to have been developed in a monastery on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland, the Book of Kells is a 1,200 year old “illuminated manuscript” of the Four Gospels of the New Testament. “You can imagine the monks inside their beehive-shaped stone huts, battered by sea winds with squawking gulls outside, bent over their painstaking work,” observed Martha Kearney, a British-Irish journalist, for the BBC.
Within historical context, Johannes Gutenberg would not create the printing press for another six centuries. The mere existence of the Book of Kells is remarkable.
Surviving an assortment of vicious Viking raids on Iona, the sacred text was moved to the monastery of Kells in County Meath, northwest of Dublin. The magnificent volume measures 13 x 10 inches and contains 340 folios (thus 680 pages) made of calfskin vellum. The collected manuscript – created by a team of scribes and artists – was eventually sent to Dublin for safe keeping at Trinity College in 1661.
There is kind of a bittersweet irony that the elegant scribes of the world-famous Book of Kells are known simply as Hand A, Hand B, Hand C, and Hand D. The artistic collaborators – probably three – produce portraits and scenes that are simply otherworldly. Some of the mind-boggling precision can only be fully appreciated with a magnifying glass.
Weeks prior, I had signed up with a private early morning lecture group to learn more about the treasured medieval book. It was also a crass move on my part to skip the legendarily lengthy lines to see the masterpiece. One couple in my group was from Hawaii, another from Texas, still yet another family was from Italy. We joined millions of previous tourists that have filed past the heavily-secured manuscript in order to be within close proximity of such an utterly unique combination of sacred text and enigmatic art.
More than a thousand years ago, it was described in The Annals of Ulster as the “chief relic of the western world.” It was also reported that it had been stolen from Kells in 1006 and later discovered – without its richly bejeweled cover – and possibly buried under ground.
Today, the same engineers who designed the protective cases for the Crown Jewels and the Mona Lisa were assigned to the Book of Kells. In his book Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, Christopher de Hamel reports that the security surrounding the Book of Kells is “as complex as presidential protection undertaken by the secret services of a great nation.” In order for him to view the manuscript personally, he sat at a “circular green-topped table, prepared in advance with foam pads, a digital thermometer, and white gloves.”
He was granted truly privileged access. Nevertheless, to those without the white gloves, the luster of the treasure still shines through as a testimonial to faith, devotion, and imagination. The sacred and exotic art includes the first full-page portrait of the virgin Mary and Jesus in western manuscripts, intertwining snakes, eucharistic chalices, intricate knotwork, a stunning Chi-Rho (Greek monogram for the name of Christ), vivacious peacocks, tightly coiled spirals, knotted ribbons, Christ tempted by the devil, and a portrayal of the gospel evangelists as the “four living creatures” (a tetramorph): Matthew as the man, Mark as the lion, Luke as the ox, and John as the eagle.
The colorful palette includes black, red, lilac, pink, purple, and yellow ink.
The 12th century historian Gerald of Wales is assumed to have been describing the Book of Kells when he wrote: “Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but you might not notice it. Look more keenly at it and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art. You will make out intricacies – so delicate and subtle, so exact and compact, so full of knots and links, with colours so fresh and vivid – that you might say that all this was the work of an angel, and not of a man.”
Even modern day scholars have a hard time hiding their astonishment. “The writing, in huge insular majuscule script, is flawless in its regularity and utter control,” writes de Hamel, an expert on medieval manuscripts. “One can only marvel at the penmanship. It is calligraphic and as exact as printing, and yet it flows and shapes itself into the space available. It sometimes swells and seems to take breath at the ends of lines. The decoration is more extensive and more overwhelming than one could possibly imagine. Virtually every line is embellished with color or ornament.”
We will never know the names of these saints of quill and ink with a mindfulness for bewildering detail, righteous pizzazz, and fantastical beasts. The ancient Scripture teaches that we are “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” In that number are the artists and scribes who painstakingly stretched their imaginations and devotion to create the Book of Kells. To those saints, with all gratitude, thank you.
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 4, 2023 | Home Page Hero Slider, In the News, Jan-Feb 2023
By Kimberly Constant —
Ezekiel stood, looking out across a valley filled with bones that stretched as far as he could see. Bones that were brittle. Bleached by the relentless sun and worn down by the ravages of time. Bones which represented the once proud nation of Israel, now seemingly without hope. Devastating reminders of what had been a community of God’s own formation, tasked to make his glory known. Now bearing silent witness to the devastating reality of the downfall of God’s covenant people because of their sin. As Ezekiel surveyed the wreckage, with God at his side, God posed a weighty question, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
Can these bones live? Perhaps it’s a question that we find ourselves pondering. As a new year dawns, it is natural for many of us to think about fresh starts. New beginnings. To look with expectant hope to a future in which we long to find better days. But sometimes, we face more of the same seemingly endless challenges of the past. Illness, debt, broken relationships, dwindling faith, all of which have us staring into our own valley of bones. Perhaps, mourning the loss of what once was, we look into a new year filled with terrifying unknowns and wonder if there are some situations which might be beyond hope. Maybe in this season of fresh starts and new beginnings some of us wonder if revival is possible. Can God really breathe new life into something that seems as far beyond the point of resuscitation as a valley filled with bones?
In reading Ezekiel’s vision, recounted to us in chapter 37 of the biblical book that bears his name, we might ask why Ezekiel himself didn’t pose this question to God, instead of the other way around. Didn’t Ezekiel wonder? Surely, as one of God’s prophets he knew the words of those who preceded him, which spoke to the promise of rebirth. That the exile of God’s people, both a physical separation from the land of promise and a spiritual separation from the God of promises, would not last forever. At least for a remnant. Could it be that the thought did not enter his mind? Maybe as Ezekiel looked out across that valley of death, what lay before him seemed like a heartbreaking indication that indeed all hope was lost for the majority of Israel. That if a remnant would arise, certainly it would not be from this pile of death.
So, in the silence of the moment, as God and Ezekiel took in the sorrow and despair of that valley of bones, God asked the question that Ezekiel either couldn’t or wouldn’t ask. A question for which only God could supply the answer. Ezekiel said as much, “My Lord God, you know.” Some translations insert a word of emphasis, “My Lord God, you alone know.” Can these bones live? You tell me, God. For any answer in the affirmative would require a miracle that only you can provide.
But the truth is that God had been asking and answering that question since the formation of our world. Marshalling out of nothing a universe of such brilliance and complexity that scientists and poets through the ages have found no shortage of material for exploration and invocation. Forming and fashioning that universe through the power of his voice; his words constructing light and space and time. Creatures and environments and the pinnacle of it all, us.
God had asked and answered this question over and over again. In his provision of coverings for the shame and sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. In the olive branch delivered by the dove to Noah as he waited for the waters to recede. In the words of Joseph to his brothers upon their discovery that he had not just survived their cruel actions but had become their means of salvation from a vicious famine, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” God asked and answered this question when he brought the people out from slavery in Egypt. When he assembled them at the foot of Mt. Sinai and formed them into a nation bound to him by a covenant of holiness. And later when they complained. When they worshipped the golden calf. When they bought into the fear in the eyes of ten of the spies returning from their scouting mission in Canaan. God asked and answered this question when he brought down the walls of Jericho yet brought out from the destruction the Canaanite prostitute Rahab and her family as a reward for her courageous faith.
God asked and answered this question for Ruth and Naomi when they had lost everything. For David in the wilderness as he fled from Saul. For Elijah as he prayed for death to relieve his loneliness and pain. For Mordecai and Esther as they faced the eradication of their people. God asked and answered this question for the nation of Israel each time it assembled itself to renew the covenant, repentant for the sin of the past and expectant for a future of obedient faithfulness. God asked and answered this question through the promises of his prophets. That indeed restoration would follow judgement. Indeed, hope need not die even in the face of terrible suffering. For not only would a remnant return to rebuild a devastated Jerusalem, but God would also send a righteous ruler. A king, a prophet, a priest to usher in a new beginning. To restore what had been lost. Not just for Israel. But for all. And although Ezekiel could not see nor understand the implications of some of these prophecies, we know that God asked and answered this question once and for all from a cross and an empty tomb and a throne seated at his right hand.
Can these bones live? The answer is always yes for those who cry out to God. God’s grace and mercy remain an ever-present gift for us, ready to be received at any moment, not just at the turn of a new year. Ours for the taking if we will repent. If we will turn from pursuing our own will and desires and turn towards the path of God. God asked Ezekiel the question not because God needed him to supply the answer. God wanted Ezekiel to be part of the solution. To serve as God’s mouthpiece once more and to prophesy to those dead people. Ezekiel had a part to play in reviving what seemed forever lost.
So, God said, “Prophesy. Tell these bones to hear my word. They will live. And they will know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel, to his credit, didn’t run away in terror or laugh in utter incredulity. He didn’t question his abilities or ask God to send someone else. Ezekiel spoke to that pile of death and God breathed life into the broken remnants of his people. What arose was something truly magnificent, an exceedingly great army. Warriors strengthened and brought to life by God. The hope of Israel renewed and restored from the grave of its demise.
Many of us might feel as if we, too, are staring into an abyss of bones. The remnants of our own hopes and dreams. The remains of marriages, friendships, jobs, even of our churches, many of which have experienced something akin to divorce in this last year. Many of us might feel as if we’ve lost our moorings. As the secular world increasingly dismantles any notion of fundamental morality, we might feel as if our way of life is becoming more and more of a fringe movement. Perhaps we’ve endured scorn and ridicule, even cancellation, for the beliefs that define us as Christians. As the people of God perhaps we wonder where do we go now? Can God still breathe new life when and where it seems impossible?
God stands beside us and poses the very same question he asked of Ezekiel, “People of God, can these bones live?” Even as we ask ourselves, can we find our way forward through a world filled with so much anger and pain? Can we find our way forward through the disdain of society that wants nothing to do with God, let alone an understanding of moral and ethical absolutes? Can we find our way forward in new or changing denominations? Can we as God’s people find our way forward through the valley of bones that lay before us?
To that God says, prophesy. Speak to the bones. Prophesy to the breath. Proclaim the truth. The hope and the life available through Jesus Christ. The peace and comfort to be found in the Gospel. Speak of the love of God so great that there is nothing that can separate us from that love. Not even death. And then, and then my friends, we will live.
The story of the Bible is a story book-ended by beginnings. From the beginning of our universe and our creation as human beings, born from the dust of the earth, imprinted with the image of God, and imbued with his life-giving and sustaining breath. To the beginning of a new creation, at the end of days, when we will live in the very presence of God in resurrection bodies that testify to God’s ability to revive and restore. In fact, the story of the Bible is one of continual beginnings arising from what looked like endings. It’s a story of hundreds of fresh starts. Made possible because we are loved by a God whose power is limitless.
But it is a story that needs telling. God calls each of us to play a part in spreading the hope of new beginnings. We as God’s people must be willing to speak God’s word into the darkest corners of the world. Into places where it looks as if there is no one to hear; no one who cares. Even if they laugh. Even if they scream. Even if they threaten. Even if they do their worst. Prophesy. Speak to the breath of the one who can do the impossible. For from the disasters of the present, God can and will call forth his people into a time of greater unity, a time of resolute purpose. Not just a people, but an army of spiritual warriors. Where we might see nothing but old bones, a hopeless wasteland, painful endings, God envisions a fresh explosion of life.
As we march into 2023 let us remember that sometimes what comes from brokenness is even more beautiful than that which came before. From Jesus’s birth came his ministry, from his ministry came the cross, from the cross came the empty tomb, from the empty tomb a throne. Indeed, because of Jesus’ victory, we can endure. Indeed, we will live.
Kimberly Constant is a Bible teacher, author, and ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. You can find out more about Rev. Constant at kimberlyconstantministries.com.
Art: Francisco Collantes (1599-1656). Vision of Ezekiel. Public domain.
by Steve | Jan 4, 2023 | Home Page Hero Slider, In the News, Uncategorized
By Walter Fenton, Global Methodist Church –
United Methodist Bishop Mark J. Webb, the former leader of the UM Church’s Upper New York Episcopal Area, has resigned from the episcopacy and withdrawn from the denomination. Webb has joined the Global Methodist Church.
The GM Church’s Transitional Leadership Council (TLC) announced it has hired Webb as a bishop in the GM Church. Its Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline provides that UM Church bishops may be received as bishops in the GM Church to serve until the latter’s convening General Conference; Bishop Webb has been received in this capacity. Initially, he will serve as one of the general superintendents of the GM Church and will not be appointed to a specific residential area.
“I am humbled to be a part of a fresh expression of Methodism that seeks to capture and live the fullness of our Wesleyan DNA and equip individuals and congregations to boldly and urgently live out God’s call to offer the good news of Jesus Christ to a desperate world,” said Webb regarding his new role with the GM Church. “I’m also grateful for the leadership and gifts faithfully offered by so many in the formation of this movement and look forward to becoming a part of all that God is doing and will do in and through the Global Methodist Church.”
Webb served as the bishop of the Upper New York Annual Conference of the UM Church for over 10 years. Prior to his role as a bishop, he pastored three local churches and served as a district superintendent in Pennsylvania for 23 years. His clergy colleagues elected him as a delegate to General and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2004, 2008, and 2012. He received the Harry Denman Evangelism Award in 2002, and in 2018 he was named as one of the top 100 leaders by the John C. Maxwell Transformational Leadership Award.
“We are honored to have Bishop Webb join us and to immediately assume leadership responsibilities in the Global Methodist Church,” said Cara Nicklas, Chairwoman of the TLC. “His humble spirit, his courageous witness, and above all, his fidelity to the core confessions of the Wesleyan expression of the Christian faith are inspiring. I am confident his creative leadership will contribute to the growing health and vitality of our Church.”
A graduate of Shippensburg University (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania) with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Bishop Webb also holds a M. Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Kentucky) and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from the University of Connecticut (Storrs, Connecticut). He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of United Theological Seminary (Dayton, Ohio).
“What has impressed me most serving under and alongside Bishop Webb has been his keen ability to use his gifts of leadership and discernment to cast vision and work with others to implement that vision in often complicated situations,” said the Rev. Steven Taylor, Lead Pastor of Panama UM Church (Panama, New York). “He unapologetically proclaims that hope and salvation are found only in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible and through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.”
Former United Methodists who have already transitioned to the GM Church and United Methodist hoping to follow them have long regarded Bishop Webb as a courageous and gracious leader, willing to speak up on their behalf. He was very warmly received at the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s 2022 Global Gathering in Indiana, where he offered the closing devotion and served as the celebrant for Holy Communion.
“The entire staff is excited to welcome Bishop Webb to the team and is looking forward to working with him,” said the Rev. Keith Boyette, the GM Church’s Transitional Connectional Officer. “His experience, and the gifts and graces he brings to us will bless and increase the GM Church for years to come. We praise and thank God for his willingness to serve among us during the denomination’s critical transitional period.”
Just launched on May 1, 2022, hundreds of local churches in Africa, Europe, the Philippines, and the United States have already aligned with the Global Methodist Church, and many more are hoping to do so over the next few years.
“Many people are coming to the Global Methodist Church with a passion to follow Jesus and be the Church, but also with a deep weariness and pain from past experiences and struggles. We are a broken and wounded people, called to offer Jesus to a broken and wounded world. We will need to help one another heal,” said Bishop Webb. “We must choose to trust and encourage one another, while fully depending upon the power of God’s Spirit in this new journey. I strive to give thanks for the formation my past provides, but I also know that the Gospel message invites me to lay the past behind and focus on the vision and hope God is birthing today. The battles of yesterday are no longer our battles. There will be new struggles, but I know God will be faithful, and I trust that God has already equipped us to be faithful to the glory of God and for the increase of His Kingdom.”
Bishop Webb lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania and is married to Jodi. They have two sons, Tyler, who is married to Lyndsay and Benjamin, who is married to Mary.
The Rev. Walter Fenton is the Global Methodist Church’s Deputy Connectional Officer. Link to original story HERE.
Photo: Bishop Mark Webb, formerly of the Upper New York Conference, gives the closing devotional at the May 7 Global Gathering of the Wesleyan Covenant Association. (Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.)
by Steve | Jan 4, 2023 | Jan-Feb 2023
By Jenifer Jones
It is estimated that more than 360 million Christians around the world live in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination. TMS Global cross-cultural witnesses (CCWs) serve in some of these places. Two CCWs who live in South Asia share what it’s like to follow Christ where they live.
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Our country is 99 percent unreached and unengaged. Most people here are Buddhist. It is very difficult to get a work visa. Because of this the Good News is very new to the people here. The oldest first generation of believers in the country are in their 60s and 70s.
It is not illegal here to be a follower of Jesus. Believers are allowed to follow Jesus if they want to. But proselytizing is illegal and punishable by jail for locals and blacklisting for cross-cultural workers. Fellowships cannot own buildings, so all fellowships are rented out of apartments in the capital, and in people’s homes in villages. Often landlords will kick people out once they realize a fellowship is meeting in their building. The government sends spies into the fellowships to make sure they are not converting people. Some local leaders have gone to prison for sharing the Good News in monasteries or even for taking funds and using it to advance the kingdom.
In the capital city there are three fellowships in the national language. Each fellowship meets in an apartment and has no more than 30 people on a given Sunday. There are many fellowships that are the language of a large minority group that lives in this country. Those fellowships can be larger, up to 60 people. These fellowships are made up of people coming out of Hinduism and are home to most of the reached people in this country.
Those who are known to be Christ followers are often kicked out of apartments, denied jobs, and find it difficult to get things accomplished in government offices. If a person becomes a believer, family and friends often disown them.
One girl and her mother are the only believers in their family. When they decided to follow Jesus, the family wrote them out of their will. Now the mother does not own any land and finds it hard to provide for her daughter. Her daughter wants to go to college and to provide for their family. But since they have no land, they cannot apply for a loan from the bank. The uncle told his niece that if she stops being a Christian and becomes Buddhist again that he will give them back the land and help send her to college. Praise be to God that they continue to refuse to renounce their belief in Jesus.
Please pray for this woman and her family, that God would provide for all their needs, including food, shelter, and education. Pray that God would give them, and all persecuted Christians, courage, comfort, the right words to say, access to a Bible, and access to community. Please pray that they would experience God’s peace, hope, protection, and provision.
Jenifer Jones is a communicator for TMS Global (tms-global.org). Photo by Riken Patel (Unsplash).
by Steve | Dec 30, 2022 | In the News
By Thomas Lambrecht
It is hard to wrap our minds around how things have changed in The United Methodist Church over the past year.
Last January, we were looking forward to a General Conference meeting in August 2022. The Protocol of Grace and Reconciliation through Separation was on track to be adopted and provide an amicable and uniform way for congregations to separate from the denomination in order to join a new Methodist entity (for traditionalists, the Global Methodist Church – GMC). The value of the Protocol was that it allowed annual conferences to separate, negating the need for hundreds of local church votes that could be divisive in a congregation. It allowed United Methodists outside the U.S. to separate with their property. The Protocol allowed local churches to vote to separate by a majority vote, rather than two-thirds, and without making any payments to the annual conference. It allowed the unfunded pension liabilities to be transferred to the new Methodist denomination, so that churches would not have to pay it up front. It created a uniform pathway and rules for separation that did not allow annual conferences to jack up the price or create onerous discernment processes.
The Protocol was our chance as a denomination to do what other mainline denominations had not done – provide an amicable way to separate while blessing each other through the process. It could have given a witness to the world that it is possible for Christians to resolve their differences in a loving and respectful way. It would have allowed the vast majority of United Methodists to fairly and equitably choose the future that best reflected their beliefs, without pressure or coercion.
Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the opportunity was lost. In February, the Commission on the General Conference made the decision to further postpone the General Conference until 2024. Good News believes that behind-the-scenes pressure led to that decision, as bishops and conference leaders began to realize how many annual conferences and local churches would indeed separate when the trust clause and financial obstacles were removed. In a panic, they determined to fight separation and keep as many conferences and churches in the fold as possible, regardless of the preferences of those church members.
In response to this unjustified delay, many traditionalist Methodists had had enough. Members and financial support for local churches were slipping away. In order to preserve the integrity of their faith commitments, many local churches saw a need to act, rather than wait for two more years under a growing progressive tidal wave carrying the denomination away from those traditional faith commitments.
As a result, the leaders of the Global Methodist Church announced their intention to launch the new denomination on May 1. They invited all local churches that desired to separate and align with the new denomination to take steps immediately to do so under provisions already in the Book of Discipline that allow local church disaffiliation.
The defeat of the Protocol became more certain when all the centrist and progressive leaders and organizations that had negotiated and endorsed the Protocol withdrew their support in the spring. They cited “changed circumstances” as their reason for backing off from the commitment they had made in 2020 to pursue the Protocol as a means toward an amicable resolution of the church’s conflict. Sadly, in failing to promote the Protocol and in withdrawing their support, they sealed the change in approach from negotiation to confrontation. Most of the dire consequences the Protocol was meant to avoid have become a reality.
Again unfortunately, the Council of Bishops and some individual bishops decided to fight against separation and create an adversarial relationship with separating churches. They first argued that, without the Protocol, annual conferences should not be able to vote to separate, and they got the Judicial Council to agree, closing that door. Next, they argued that annual conferences should not be allowed to reduce the terms of separation below what Par. 2553 requires, and they got the Judicial Council to agree, closing the door to the use of Par. 2548.2. (This was after a team of bishops had already spent months negotiating with Wesleyan Covenant Association leaders on possible terms for using Par. 2548.2. The abrupt reversal of course by the Council of Bishops was breathtaking.)
Then, a number of bishops led their annual conferences to impose additional financial costs for disaffiliation, on top of the two years’ apportionments and unfunded pension liability payment required by Par. 2553. Initially, there were about a dozen annual conferences making disaffiliation practically impossible due to heavy financial burdens. A couple conferences have backed off their requirements, leaving currently ten conferences in that next-to-impossible category.
An additional dozen conferences have added financial burdens that increase the cost or lengthen the process, but not so much as to make disaffiliation nearly impossible. These conferences are discouraging disaffiliation, but are not preventing it. At the same time, fortunately, over 30 annual conferences are following a straight 2553 process with no added terms, and a few conferences have taken action to reduce the payments by applying annual conference reserves.
Then many bishops outside the U.S. have not allowed congregations to disaffiliate with property because they say Par. 2553 does not apply outside the U.S. This is happening even though the actual language of 2553 says, “This new paragraph became effective at the close of the 2019 General Conference.” With the lack of accountability for bishops, there is no effective way to force bishops to abide by the Discipline in this matter. And the Council of Bishops appears to support this wrong interpretation.
Some European districts and annual conferences took matters into their own hands, regardless of what the Discipline says. Bulgaria was the first conference to vote to separate from the UM Church and became the first annual conference in the GMC. Other Europeans are in the process of following suit. GMC churches are being planted in the Philippines, and some districts or annual conferences there may still try to separate. The GMC is forming in some parts of Africa, while other parts of Africa are working toward the eventual goal of separating as annual conferences. (U.S. law does not apply in other countries, and the laws in those countries sometimes enable changing the trust clause.)
The Council of Bishops determined that only Par. 2553 should be used for disaffiliating churches. That paragraph expires on December 31, 2023. Comments by episcopal leaders indicate a desire to turn the page and move on from conflicts over separation, so it is unlikely most bishops will support an extension of Par. 2553 or a similar disaffiliation process past the deadline. We know of two conferences that have promised to do so.
The summer and fall saw about 17 U.S. annual conferences hold special sessions to approve the disaffiliation of local churches. At this point, over 2,000 U.S. congregations have been approved to disaffiliate and will be separated by January 1. Hundreds more are in the process to disaffiliate at regular annual conference sessions next spring. By the end of next year, we could see a total of 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. churches having disaffiliated. Congregations continue to work through the particular requirements and processes of their annual conference, as each annual conference is different.
At the same time, in some conferences where the terms of disaffiliation are egregious, churches have resorted to legal strategies, including filing of lawsuits against the annual conference. This is the very litigation that negotiators of the Protocol hoped to avoid. This unfortunate situation was entirely preventable.
This fall brought new clarity about what to expect in the post-separation United Methodist Church. The five jurisdictions in the U.S. met to elect bishops. Not one traditionalist was elected. All five jurisdictions passed overwhelmingly three resolutions affirming LGBTQ+ persons, same-sex marriage, and the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians as clergy, as well as urging a moratorium on all complaints and charges related to such. The momentum is toward removing from the Discipline the traditional language regarding the definition of marriage and sexual ethics.
That momentum received a boost in December from the decision by the Judicial Council to disregard the Discipline’s requirement that delegates to General Conference be elected no more than two years prior. The delegates to the 2024 session of General Conference will be (for the most part) those elected in 2019, which saw a marked swing toward a more progressive delegation. The decision also deprives Africa of the estimated additional 44 delegates to which they would otherwise be entitled, reducing the traditionalist vote by over five percentage points.
It seems clear that the 2024 General Conference will have a progressive-centrist majority, in contrast to previous General Conferences that have had a narrow traditionalist majority. The makeup of General Conference encourages one to believe that the language in the Discipline and church policy will take a progressive turn. It also calls into question whether General Conference will pass a new disaffiliation process to replace the expired Par. 2553. Such an effort will require the support of some progressives or centrists, who will have little incentive to do so beyond an inclination to do what is right and loving under the Golden Rule. One hopes that will be enough, but there are no guarantees.
So, a year that started off with great promise for a clear and amicable resolution of the church’s conflict through a plan of separation ends with the parties engaged in conflict and litigation, penalizing churches that want to disaffiliate and creating animosity between the parties that bodes ill for any future cooperation.
Despite the changed situation, individual congregations and clergy are choosing (and in some cases fighting) to disaffiliate from a denomination that is making a swift shift toward a more theologically progressive church. Once the most theologically conservative mainline denomination, the UM Church is fast joining its mainline sisters in pursuing a progressive ideological agenda.
Working through adversity will help solidify congregations’ theological commitments and the decision to align with a new Methodist denomination. It will eventually make the Global Methodist Church stronger. Even as congregations disaffiliate, many are experiencing new growth and vitality, as well as the miraculous provision of God for their leadership and finances. The more difficult the situation, the more clearly we can see the hand of God at work, doing what only he could do when we are beyond our own abilities and resources.
2022 has been a momentous year, filled with bewildering twists and turns in the development of the Methodist story. It has also been a momentous year, filled with evidence of the Lord’s leading and empowerment. As we end this year, we can be encouraged by the last words of our founder, John Wesley, “The best of all, God is with us.” May you experience the presence of Immanuel – God with us – now and in the year ahead.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News.
