GMC Launches in Costa Rica –

By Steve Beard – 

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024 –

Worldwide Methodism has been dramatically overhauled during the last few years. Thousands of local congregations disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church prior to the 2024 UMC General Conference in Charlotte, NC, held in April/May, when delegates formally approved a major shift with LGBTQ ordination and marriage.

Three and a half months later, delegates to the initial General Conference of the more-traditionalist Global Methodist Church met 1,700 miles south – in Central America – to catapult forward the newest branch of the international Wesleyan movement that has steadily been in formation for several years. 

With freshly-stamped passports from virtually every corner of the earth, Methodists converged upon San José, capital and largest city of Costa Rica, in late September for a seven-day convening General Conference to launch the Global Methodist Church. With a jam-packed schedule of worship services, work projects, and organizational meetings, more than 300 delegates – with twice that number of alternates and observers in attendance – the assembly finalized a constitution, elected new interim bishops, formalized clergy requirements, adopted a mission statement, and established doctrinal standards – complete with the Articles of Religion, Apostles’ Creed, and the Nicene Creed.

While public comparisons of the two General Conferences were minimal in San José, there were notable differences in the two conclaves. For example, one veteran observer pointed out that the UM gathering in Charlotte celebrated with a conga-line to the O’Jay’s 1960s song “Love Train,” while those gathered in Costa Rica enthusiastically opened with Charles Wesley’s hymn “Captain of Israel’s Host.”

But the differences went deeper than songs. “Jeff Greenway and I strongly asserted that the foundational difference between the UMC and the GMC was – at its core – a doctrinal dispute,” Bishop Mike Lowry (retired) told me in Costa Rica. “The exclusion of the Nicene Creed as a part of the doctrinal heart of the UMC proves our assertion.” (The UMC General Conference in both 2016 and 2024 refused to add the Nicene Creed to the UMC’s doctrinal standards.) 

In San José, the international GMC assembly debated and discussed Episcopacy plans – settling on an introductory two-year plan until a longer-term plan would be implemented in 2026. The assembly elected and consecrated a diverse and international slate of new interim bishops.   

While there are no Global Methodist Church local congregations in the Central American country, the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica warmly welcomed GMC delegates and observers to their nation. The Evangelical Methodist Church has approximately 100 local churches spread across Costa Rica, with a membership of 10,000.

There were two joint worship services with the Costa Rican church and the GMC. During one evening service, leaders of the two denominations established a covenant agreement.

Bishop Luis F. Palomo, long-time leader of the Costa Rican Methodists expressed his “absolute joy” that San José was the “site for the first and historic convening General Conference” of the Global Methodist Church. “As the GM Church advances the proclamation of Jesus our Savior around the world, the members of the Evangelical Methodist Church [are] honored participants in such an event and ready to assist in any way.”

Costa Rica has a population of 5.2 million. Large rainforests, dramatic volcanoes, and beautiful coastlines along both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean draw tourists from around the world to the country. For the delegates to the convening General Conference, however, the formation of the fledgling denomination was at the top of their to-do list.

By Steve Beard, editor of Good News.