Is There Room for Traditionalists?

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Is There Room for Traditionalists?

By Thomas Lambrecht

July/August 2024

The 2020/2024 General Conference has just concluded its ten-day run in Charlotte, North Carolina. A summary of some of the actions taken by the conference are available in last week’s Perspective, “A Tale of a New Church.”

Many participants remarked upon the different atmosphere that prevailed in Charlotte, compared to previous General Conferences. Many items were adopted on the consent calendar, meaning that they garnered no debate and had very little opposition. To those in the majority, it appeared that a spirit of unity and a common direction pervaded the assembly.

The reason for that new unity and the many lopsided votes was due to the fact that most dissenting voices were not present. The loss of one-fourth of UM congregations in the U.S. translated into the loss of more than half the traditionalist U.S. delegates, including many of the leading traditionalist voices. The fact that one-fourth to one-third of African delegates were denied a visa and unable to be present further diluted the traditionalist voice.

A greatly reduced opposition meant that the new majority was able to enact its agenda largely unimpeded. That agenda not only affirmed the full-throated acceptance of LGBTQ ordination and marriage, it erased clear moral boundaries around all forms of human sexuality. It accommodated the church to a Western sexual ethos based on consent and self-fulfillment, rather than on God’s purpose for sexuality as a binding element of marital intimacy, a reflection of the Trinity, and a depiction of the relationship between Christ and his Church.

Good News and other traditionalist observers and delegates were present as a witness to traditional values and scriptural understanding, as well as to advocate for a clear and reasonable pathway for churches unable to embrace the new UM agenda to disaffiliate with their property.

Room for All? The conference went out of its way to ensure the inclusion of LGBTQ persons. The conference affirmed same-sex marriage and empowered pastors and churches to perform such weddings. Partnered gay and lesbian people may now officially be ordained as clergy and consecrated as bishops. Sexual orientation is now included alongside race and gender as characteristics that may not be considered when appointing a pastor to a church. LGBTQ persons are mandated to be nominated to all general church boards and agencies.

In the midst of all these mandated open doors, it became obvious who was being excluded. Little respect was given to those voicing opposition to any of the above agenda. An African leader seeking to make a personal statement to the conference was completely shut down, unlike in past General Conferences where moments of personal privilege were freely granted to those supporting a progressive agenda.

From the opening sermon by Bishop Thomas Bickerton, the outgoing president of the Council of Bishops, the question was raised about who belonged in the room. He began by asking, “Do you want to be in this room? Are you willing to move forward in the spirit of hope and embrace a season of reformation?” This “reformation” was not an attempt to align the church with biblical teaching, but an adoption of the “full inclusion agenda” promoted by progressives.

Setting the direction of the General Conference, Bickerton promoted this new agenda in vague terms, but ones that all its supporters understood and welcomed. “This is the time to refocus the church for the future. Lay out the beginnings of our next expression and find a way to decide that different people from different cultures with different theological persuasions CAN be the body of Christ in unity and respect and love.” That “next expression” of United Methodism took a very progressive turn at this conference. The question remains, however, whether that progressive tent is large enough to include theological conservatives in one church body “in unity and respect and love.”

A definite direction was set for the church, and Bickerton made clear that no opposition to that direction would be welcome. “Do you want to be in that room? I pray that you do. But if you are in this room, I think you need to be prepared to get on board a train that is moving on down the track to a new day for what it means to be The United Methodist Church.”

The train’s destination is predetermined. But what if we don’t want to go to that destination? Clearly, we were invited to get off the train. Bickerton continued, “And if you are not committed to that positive narrative of who we are or where we are going, you might just be in the wrong place! And perhaps, just perhaps, in love we might just ask you with integrity that you just leave us alone to do our work.”

Disparagement and Discouragement. Throughout the conference, a running commentary from a self-described centrist special-interest group disparaged and slandered traditionalist delegates and urged them to leave. It’s email blast on May 1 criticized a traditionalist delegate for expressing a heartfelt opinion on behalf of traditionalist members across the world. Yet, it proclaimed that she should never have attended the General Conference.

We saw the vote totals at this General Conference steadily decrease, as delegates absented themselves from the floor of the conference. At its high point, there were 750 delegates voting on matters. After the vote changing the definition of marriage, the vote totals declined to around 665. Even 750 delegates represents only 87 percent participation of the total of 862. That indicates the loss of many delegates from Africa, perhaps as many as 100 missing. A decline to 665 delegates represents only 77 percent participation. This could very well be a message from African and traditionalist delegates that they feel their voice and participation is no longer valued. Rather than participating in futile opposition to the prevailing winds of change, some delegates obviously found other things to do.

The message communicated to traditionalists by Bickerton and others was that we can participate in the church, as long as we fund the new agenda and keep quiet – and do not openly disagree with the stance of most of the church. That reduces traditionalists to mere checkbooks – second-class members of the church. Many traditionalists may find these terms of membership to be untenable.

A Locked Door. While being encouraged to get off the train if we don’t like the destination, many traditionalists may find the door locked. Par. 2553 allowing local churches to disaffiliate was removed from the Discipline by a 72 percent majority, even though it had already expired at the end of 2023. The presenter of that petition opined that disaffiliation should never have been considered, nor should that paragraph have ever been included in the Discipline, and he rejoiced that it would never be in a printed version, since the Discipline was not printed in 2020 following the 2019 General Conference. Other attempts to pass a process of disaffiliation, even for just those annual conferences outside the U.S. that never had a chance to consider disaffiliation, were overwhelmingly voted down.

It is highly ironic that at the 2019 General Conference, traditionalists passed an exit path for progressive congregations who could not abide by the Traditional Plan – an exit path that the vast majority of progressive churches were unwilling to use. But in 2024, the “champions of tolerance and grace” refused to pass an exit path for traditionalists who could not abide by the decisions made by this General Conference – an exit path that traditionalist congregations are more than willing to use.

If we cannot agree with the direction taken by the new UM Church, we are asked to leave. But for many, the door is deadbolted shut, at least as far as it concerns taking church property along in the disaffiliation. To some, it was a reminder of the last line of the song, “Hotel California,” “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

Hopeful Ways Forward. It is hoped that many bishops and conference leaders will see the futility of trying to keep local churches in the UM fold by forcibly denying them a way to leave with their property. There is still a way through the church closure provision (Par. 2549) that annual conferences can close a church and then sell or deed it back to the congregation. Again, to be reasonable, such a process should be no more costly than Par. 2553 was, and for some churches it may be less. It will be up to each annual conference to decide whether it will allow churches to leave using this provision and at what cost.

Unfortunately, in some instances, an exit from the UM Church with a congregation’s building will not be possible. In those cases, it may be necessary for parishioners to be willing to walk away from their building for the sake of biblical faithfulness, as they see it. It may take the form of individuals finding another Wesleyan, biblically-faithful congregation nearby to join. Or it may be that a critical mass of the congregation walks away together to start a new ministry in that community. There are many stories of vibrant new churches forming out of the necessity to leave a building behind and start a new congregation, both in Methodism, as well as in the Episcopal/Anglican and Presbyterian worlds.

Stay UMC or leave, we hope that the decisions made by the 2024 General Conference will not cause people to abandon their biblical convictions and compromise with a worldly value system that prioritizes self over obedience to Christ. It remains to be seen whether those biblical convictions will be welcome in the UM Church going forward

Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News. Worship consultant Marcia McFee and others celebrate on May 1 after the 2024 United Methodist General Conference, meeting in Charlotte, N.C., voted to remove the denomination’s ban on the ordination of clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” (Photo by Paul Jeffrey/UM News).

Marriage Decision Provokes Delegates

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Marriage Decision Provokes Delegates

By Sam Hodges and Jim Patterson

African delegates and one African bishop joined in a demonstration after General Conference delegates voted to revise the church’s position on marriage, for the first time approving same-sex couples who choose to wed.

At the opposite end of a plaza outside the Charlotte Convention Center, members of the Queer Delegate Caucus and allies celebrated the same decision.

This General Conference has embraced full LGBTQ inclusion through a number of votes, including on May 2 affirming “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith, an adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting agw, into a union of one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community.”

After the marriage language decision, about 65 Africans, with a smattering of others, sang hymns and prayed together, while also making clear their view that the Bible does not sanction same-sex marriage and The United Methodist Church shouldn’t either.

“We do not believe we know better than the Bible,” said the Rev. Jerry Kulah, a General Conference delegate from Liberia, coordinator of the traditionalist Africa Initiative and leader at the rally.

Virginia Bambur, a delegate from the Central Nigeria Conference, also disapproved of the General Conference action.

“I’m not happy about it,” she told UM News. “You cannot change the word of God.”

Bishop John Wesley Yohanna of Nigeria joined the gathering and criticized the General Conference’s more expansive language on marriage.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman, period,” he told UM News.

Most African United Methodist bishops have expressed strong support for the traditional definition of marriage, while also saying they are committed to The United Methodist Church, provided church policies can be adapted to the African context.

But Yohanna has long made clear that he would have to leave the denomination if it in any way endorsed same-sex marriage.

He said after the protest that he is nearing the end of his episcopal term and wants to stay long enough to help bring reconciliation among United Methodist factions in Nigeria. He said he was still weighing whether he would eventually join another denomination.

Yohanna predicted that the new language on marriage will come at a cost to United Methodism.

“I’m very sure this will affect the membership of the church in Africa,” he said.

Kulah echoed that while speaking at the protest.

“We return to Africa with important decisions to make regarding the future,” he said.

Kulah also said that more than 70 African delegates never made it to General Conference and blamed the Commission on General Conference for lack of communication and lateness in sending letters of invitation necessary to get a visa.

“It felt as if we were not valued or wanted,” Kulah said.

This General Conference’s credentials committee has reported on the absentee delegates but without specifying the number of Africans. The committee’s chair also has noted the challenge the staff faced in verifying properly elected delegates from Africa.

Maybe 30 yards from the Africans’ protest, supporters of the change on marriage language gathered, including Bishop Karen Oliveto.

Oliveto, a lesbian whose 2016 election as bishop by Western Jurisdictional Conference delegates caused major controversy in the denomination, spoke to the crowd.

“You are the love child of God,” she said. “The church looks a lot more like heaven today.”

Justice Mitchell, a graduate student studying for a divinity degree, had driven to Charlotte from Durham, North Carolina, the morning of May 1, after finishing finals the previous day.

“I’ve been a Methodist my whole life, and I’ve been in the ordination track for the past three or four years,” he said. “A lot of the stuff that we’re voting on has very huge impacts for my future in the next three or four years.”

Katelyn MacDonald, another observer from Durham, said she was “excited that the church structurally is moving in a more inclusive direction.”

“We’re trying to get our church polity and structures to catch up to what God has already been doing in the world,” she said.

Jan Nelson, a lay delegate from the Oregon-Idaho Conference, said her life has started to revolve around the church more since her retirement.

She said that this General Conference’s decisions on LGBTQ inclusion are a big positive.

“This means that this fight can be set aside and we can keep working for eliminating poverty and eliminating racism and all the other things that the church needs to be about,” she said.

Sam Hodges and Jim Patterson are news writers for United Methodist News. Nigeria Area Bishop John Wesley Yohanna speaks during a demonstration organized by African delegates on May 2 outside Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N.C., where General Conference met through May 3. Yohanna and others who spoke made clear they strongly oppose the church’s new language on marriage. Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.

Disaffiliation Ends

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Disaffiliation Ends

By Heather Hahn

July/August 2024

The United Methodist Church’s focus on disaffiliation has come to an end and a new push for regionalization is just beginning.

By a vote of 516 to 203, General Conference delegates supported the end of a disaffiliation policy added by the special 2019 General Conference and used by about a quarter of U.S. churches to leave The United Methodist Church.

“The season of disaffiliation ends today,” said Lonnie Chafin, a delegate from the Northern Illinois Conference and chair of the Conferences legislative committee. The committee supported and brought to the floor the petition that deletes Paragraph 2553 from the Book of Discipline. The paragraph only ever appeared in a digital addendum to the Discipline.

“Passing this petition will mean Paragraph 2553 will never appear in a printed edition of the Book of Discipline,” he told his fellow delegates, “and will send a message to our congregations that it’s time to speak of how we come together and share the love of God.”

During the same afternoon session, delegates approved by a vote of 629 to 96 a reaffiliation policy to welcome churches that wish to rejoin The United Methodist Church.

Delegates also adopted by a vote of 593 to 139 the last of the regionalization petitions aimed at giving church regions equal standing in decision-making.

But each proposal brought debate. Ahead of General Conference, the theologically conservative advocacy groups Good News, Wesleyan Covenant Association and Africa Initiative announced their intent to advocate for disaffiliation to be extended and expanded. The groups also opposed regionalization.

Nevertheless, unlike during the special 2019 General Conference, these groups did not see their legislative goals prevail.

Eliminating disaffiliation. The 2019 special General Conference adopted Paragraph 2553, which allowed congregations to depart the denomination with their property “for reasons of conscience” related to homosexuality, if they met certain procedural and financial requirements.

The church law essentially offered a limited way for congregations to gain release from The United Methodist Church’s centuries-old trust clause, which states that church property is held in trust for the benefit of the entire denomination.

Because of actions taken by the 2019 General Conference, Paragraph 2553 only applied in the U.S., but some parts of Europe used their authority under the denomination’s constitution to adapt the Discipline to allow congregations to leave.

Under the disaffiliation policy, more than 7,600 U.S. churches left before it expired at the end of last year.

Departures accelerated with the 2022 launch of the Global Methodist Church, a theologically conservative denomination formed with the support of Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association. Most of the churches that left the United Methodist fold were theologically conservative.

Many argued that it was only fair that the disaffiliation policy be extended in Africa.

However, the Rev. Guy Nyembo of the North Katanga Conference in Congo said through an interpreter that many African United Methodists want to remain part of the denomination that nurtured them and their ancestors.

“I want to say we are against disaffiliations from The United Methodist Church,” he said. But he added: “Please don’t inflict pain on our churches.”

Dixie Brewster, a delegate from the Great Plains Conference, spoke of her fear that churches troubled by the changes passed by General Conference will be trapped.

“I speak in favor of disaffiliation,” she said. “I’m very nervous because I want a place for our conservative churches with traditional values to have a way to go peacefully. I don’t want them to be caught up in our court system.”

Welcoming churches back. Far less controversial was the policy inviting churches to reaffiliate.

“With a spirit of grace, we welcome those churches which have disaffiliated or withdrawn to rejoin The United Methodist Church,” the newly adopted policy says.

“Where applicable, every annual conference shall have a policy of reaffiliation for the churches seeking to return to the connection.”

Delegates amended the petition to require that returning churches affirm their commitment to the denomination’s trust clause.

“I believe we need to leave the door open,” said Helen Ryde, a delegate from the Western North Carolina Conference and an organizer with the advocacy group Reconciling Ministries Network. “This movement to bring our church to a new place has never, ever been about asking people to leave.”

Regionalization. Over the past three days, delegates have passed the last three Worldwide Regionalization petitions that aim to put the different geographic regions of the denomination on equal footing.

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.

General Conference already passed that amendment with 78% of the vote on April 25. Now, it will be up to annual conference voters whether the regionalization plan comes to fruition.

The ratification process by the annual conferences for the constitutional amendments in this petition shall begin no later than 30 days after the adjournment of the postponed 2020 General Conference, which means U.S. annual conferences could begin voting on the amendments in June.

The Council of Bishops likely will announce the results of the vote late next year.

But the petition debated on May 1 will take effect regardless of whether the constitutional amendment is ratified.

It creates a legislative committee at General Conference that would deal with solely U.S. matters, similar to the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters. Anything passed by the committee would have to go before the full General Conference plenary. If regionalization is ratified, the legislation creating the committee will expire.

The Rev. Jerry Kulah, a delegate from Liberia and leader in the Africa Initiative, said regionalization is “unacceptable.”

“You cannot claim to be one United Methodist Church when you compartmentalize,” he said.

Uchena Awa, a delegate from the New England Conference, said the U.S. should have the same level of autonomy enjoyed by the African central conferences.

The Rev. Dee Stickley-Miner, a delegate from West Ohio Conference and a standing committee member, anticipates that regionalization will ultimately strengthen the denomination’s connection.

“It’s going to allow us to commit to trusting each other and giving each other freedom without trying to dictate to one another,” she told United Methodist News.

“It’s a way of being able to live out the grace of Jesus Christ.”

Heather Hahn is assistant news editor at UM News. Image: Lonnie Chafin, a delegate from the Northern Illinois Conference and chair of the Conferences legislative committee, speaks May 1 during the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. The committee supported and brought to the floor a petition that deletes Paragraph 2553 from the Book of Discipline. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Ukranian Delegate Glad to be United Methodist

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Ukranian Delegate Glad to be United Methodist

By Sam Hodges

The Rev. Yulia Starodubets came to the United Methodist General Conference from Ukraine, which is more than two years into a grinding war with Russia.

Because commercial air travel in her country remains impossible, her husband, the Rev. Oleg Starodubets, drove her to Budapest, Hungary. From there she flew to Munich, then on to Charlotte for the church lawmaking assembly that began April 23 and concludes May 3.

Starodubets said she is glad to be a General Conference delegate for the Ukraine-Moldova Provisional Conference, and serves on both the Committee on Reference and the Committee on Faith and Order.

“It’s more peaceful, more friendly,” she said of this General Conference, her third.

United Methodists in Ukraine have inspired many in the church with their mission-minded response to the war, and Starodubets and her husband have a fan in Nordic-Baltic Area Bishop Christian Alsted.

“They are excellent and committed leaders,” Alsted said. “I have the highest admiration for them, how they’re able to do ministry under these circumstances, the stress they’re under.”

Not long before leaving for the U.S., Starodubets had another emotional lift. She, her husband and fellow United Methodists — including Alsted — gathered April 7 in the village Kamyanitsa, near the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, for the dedication of a new United Methodist center for internally displaced persons.

A $1.5 million grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief made possible the purchase of a former hotel that will, once certified, have a mission beyond housing.

“We all see it as a rehabilitation center in the future,” Starodubets said. “We want to receive people with physical and psychological trauma.”

Alsted noted that Starodubets is a pediatrician as well as a clergywoman. Indeed, she’s currently teaching remotely for a medical school in Kyiv..

Sam Hodges is a reporter for United Methodists News Service. Image: The Rev. Yulia Starodubets (center) votes on legislation during the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. Starodubets is a delegate for the Ukraine-Moldova Conference. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Reduced Budget Passed

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Reduced Budget Passed

By Heather Hahn

General Conference delegates on May 3 approved a denominational budget with a bottom line that will vary by about $20 million, depending on giving collection rates over the next two years.

But no matter what happens, the total budget will be significantly smaller than what General Conference approved in 2016, and annual conferences will be asked to pay less to support denomination-wide ministries.

By a vote of 647 to 31 (a 95% majority), this year’s delegates approved a 2025-2028 denominational budget of $373.4 million. That total is contingent on collection rates being at 90% or more for the next two years. If giving is below that percentage, the budget bottom line will be $353.6 million.

What that means is that the budget will be between 38% and 41% lower compared to the $604 million budget the 2016 General Conference approved.

Why budget varies

The variation in budget is due to action General Conference took on April 30. That day, delegates voted to reduce the base rate — a key component of calculating annual conference apportionments.

The current base rate is 3.29 percent. Delegates voted for that base rate to go down to 2.6 percent in 2025 and 2026. They also voted to potentially raise the base rate to 2.9 percent in 2027 and 2028 if apportionment giving rates are at 90 percent or above. No matter what, annual conferences will be asked to pay lower apportionments than under the 2016 budget. Here’s what General Conference approved:

•  $167.5 million or $158.5 million for the World Service Fund that supports most of the denomination’s 13 general agencies (including United Methodist Communications, which encompasses United Methodist News)

•  $87.4 million or $82.8 million for the Episcopal Fund, which supports active bishops, their support staff, retired bishops, surviving spouses and minor children of deceased bishops

•  $57.9 million or $54.8 million for the Ministerial Education Fund that supports United Methodist seminaries and provides financial aid for UM seminary students

•  $23.1 million or $21.8 million for the Black College Fund that supports 11 United Methodist-related historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S.

•  $30 million or $28.4 million f or the General Administration Fund, which supports General Conference, Judicial Council, the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, and the General Council on Finance and Administration

•  $5.2 million or $4.9 million for Africa University, a pan-African United Methodist university in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

•  $2.4 million or $2.3 million for the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund, which supports the church’s ecumenical work.

Heather Hahn is the assistant news editor for UM News. Image: Moses Kumar reports on the work of the General Council on Finance and Administration.