On Being a United Methodist in the Year 2020

The United Methodist Church has been debating issues regarding human sexuality long before I entered seminary in 1988.  After many years of divisive debate it seems that our denomination is at a crossroads.  

Some feel that  the only solution to this impasse is to split our denomination with our more conservative congregations leaving the United Methodist Church to form a new denomination. There are those on both sides of the issue that feel that such a separation will allow our church to move forward although it may be in new expressions of our Methodist tradition.

Friday an article from the United Methodist New Service outlined the work of a sixteen member group of United Methodist leaders including a number of Bishops.  (Our own Bishop here in North Georgia was not among the participating Bishops.)  This group produced a document called a "Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation."

According to the article, "The plan looks toward a restructuring of the remaining global United Methodist Church into regions, with flexibility to adapt church policies, including [policies] on LGBTQ inclusion."  

The article goes on to say, "Traditionalists forming a new denomination could continue what they see as Bible-supported restrictions on same-sex marriage and ordination of gay persons as clergy."

The plan according to the United Methodist News Service includes the following features:

-The General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church would provide $25 million, over four years, “to the traditionalist Methodist denomination established pursuant to this protocol.” The new denomination would give up further claims to United Methodist assets, including those of general boards and agencies.

-GCFA would escrow $2 million to help other potential new denominations.

-To support communities historically marginalized by racism, GCFA would allocate $39 million over eight years to strengthen Asian, Black, Hispanic-Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander ministries, as well as Africa University. Of that total, $13 million would come from funds the separating traditionalist denomination chose to forgo.

-A (non-U.S.) central conference would be able to choose with a two-thirds vote to affiliate with a new Methodist denomination. The vote deadline would be December 31, 2021, and if no vote is taken the conference remains in The United Methodist Church.

-An annual conference, whether in a central conference or U.S. jurisdictional conference,  also could vote to affiliate with a new Methodist denomination. A vote of 20 percent or more at an annual conference session would be needed to have the disaffiliation vote, and a disaffiliation vote would have to pass by 57 percent. The disaffiliation vote deadline is July 1, 2021.
Authors note: The North Georgia Conference of which the church I pastor is a part and of which I am a member is considered an Annual Conference

-The leadership body of a local church considering disaffiliation could determine a threshold of a simple majority or two-thirds for the vote on whether to separate. Decisions about disaffiliation must be made by December 31, 2024.

-A local church affiliating with another Methodist denomination “pursuant to the protocol” would keep its assets and liabilities.

-The pension plans of The United Methodist Church would remain in place for all current clergy and lay employees, even if they affiliate with another Methodist denomination under the protocol.

This plan received a great deal of attention in the secular press.  Many secular outlets are reporting that this is an accomplished fact.  It is not.  A number of things must happen for this plan to come to pass.

It must first be approved by the General Conference which is the word-wide legislative body of the the United Methodist Church.  There is also a chance that it could be struck down by the Judicial Council which decides whether various matters of church business conform to the church's constitution.  Further, each Annual Conference and local church would have to make it's own decisions concerning it's status.

What is also important to note is that this plan is one of many plans that will come before the General Conference in 2020.

So, could there be an impending split United Methodists?  The answer is yes there could be.  However, there is also a possibility things may not change at all.

The prospect of the division of my denomination saddens me.  Regardless of how one feels concerning human sexuality we need to remember that the people on both sides of this debate are Christians.  We all read the same Bible.  We might interpret the Bible differently but we all believe it is God's Word.  We were all baptized with the same baptism.  We all take communion at the same table.  Above all, we are all saved by the grace of the same God.  Because of that grace, one day we will all take our place in the same heaven.

I am saddened by this because Christian people should model for the world how to come together in unity in spite of our differences, rather than go our separate ways because of them.

I go back to my days of summer church camp at Epworth By The Sea on St. Simmons Island in the early 1970s.  In the evening as the sun was setting over the marshes we would gather under those big oak trees and swat mosquitoes the size of a Volkswagen.  

One of our counselors would pick up a guitar and lead us in a few songs.  Many of us might remember those camp songs like "Pass it On" and "Kum By Yah."  I remember one of the songs that we would sing that said:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

"They will know we are Christians by our love."  God help us to make it so.

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