The Latest United Methodist Bombshell Will Create News Throughout 2022 And Beyond

Religion Unplugged believes in a diversity of well-reasoned and well-researched opinions. This piece reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent those of Religion Unplugged, its staff and contributors.

(OPINION) Yet another United Methodist bombshell will create news throughout 2022 and beyond.

In this, the 50th anniversary year of the 12.9 million-member United Methodist Church’s fierce debate over the Bible and sexuality, a late summer General Conference was set to settle how to split. But a March 3 bombshell announcement canceled this all-important meeting, already postponed twice due to COVID-19. Without plans for an orderly and respectful breakup, rancor will persist till delegates finally do assemble, presumably in May 2024.

Here’s some lay of the land for the media through 2022 and beyond.

“The only problem with (cancellation) is everything,” remarks Religion News Service commentator Jacob Lupfer. “Every major faction in the church agrees on the need for schism. The status quo is untenable.”

The liberal Reconciling Ministries Network supports the delay, but says “this lengthening test of … patience” postpones “the road to justice for … LGBTQ+ kin” who want a policy change that regularizes weddings and clergy ordinations for Methodists in same-sex relationships.

Conservatives are more upset, so much so they immediately rushed to launch a new “Global Methodist Church” on May 1. Mark your calendars: GMC supporters will hold a global gathering in Avon, Indiana, just afterward, on May 7. The GMC will combine U.S. conservatives with sizable groups from the Methodists’ flocks in Africa, the Philippines and elsewhere in the diverse Global South — most other mainline denominations exist in the United States only.

Crucially, the breakup “protocol” on the 2022 General Conference agenda would have approved a temporary time window until 2024 during which congregations could quit the UMC and keep ownership of their buildings and other assets. The 2024 General Conference could still OK such an escape clause, but by then, the schism will be in full swing.

Here is the key for journalists working at the local and regional levels: Without a mutually agreed pact, Lupfer expects expensive, “chaotic, unruly litigation.” That’s precisely what happened with, for example, the Episcopal Church’s sexual morality schism, whereas an escape clause limited strife in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The official explanation for the 2022 cancellation blames COVID-related snarls for the 44% of delegates who would travel to the U.S. from overseas jurisdictions. A technology study concluded a General Conference cannot be conducted online because of the complex logistics for floor committee hearings, deliberations in multiple languages and securing reliable voting.

It’s important to note that a statement from United Methodists in Africa assured General Conference planners that all their delegates will be vaccinated and able to obtain U.S. visas in time to attend, partly thanks to help from U.S. conservatives.

However, other United Methodists lobbied for postponement. Reporters will certainly want to pursue a contention from conservative activists as articulated by the Rev. Thomas Lambrecht of Good News magazine. He asks whether “duplicitous” U.S. leaders who “control the levers of church power” wanted cancellation to kill the promised escape clause and “make separation more difficult and costly for churches.”

In other words, journalists need to follow the money. Bishops and regional governing units could let departing churches retain properties, but Lambrect thinks many will “take a punitive approach and demand heavy payments.”

A few property lawsuits have already been filed and the official UMNews reported last month that at least 130 congregations have left already. American Pastor Keith Boyette, temporary chairman of the council that’s organizing the GMC, says the Wesleyan Covenant Association, which he also heads, will rally conservatives that remain in the UMC, and continue to seek the escape clause. He predicts the schism will occur in waves rather than all at once this year and that many Methodists will “feel trapped” in hostile regional bodies.

SOURCES: Kim Simpson, chair of the Commission on the General Conference, and other UMC decision-makers can be contacted via Diane Degnan (ddegnan@umcom.org or 615-742-5406) at the headquarters of UMNews, which media should monitor. This conservative site — People Need Jesus — also follows developments and posts timely documents and articles, for example, “Five Big UMC Questions Soon to be Answered.”

Boyette is reachable at the GMC office, 540-898-4960. The Wesleyan Covenant Association posts contacts for 55 operatives across the U.S. and in four overseas locations. A list of GMC congregations in the U.S. can be searched here.

Other U.S. conservative groups are the Confessing Movement, Good News and UMAction. For the Reconciling Ministries Network, Chicago headquarters is at 773-736-5526 or admin@rmnetwork.org. For Executive Director Jan Lawrence, jan@rmnetwork.org, and for Communications Director Ophelia Hu, ophelia@rmnetwork.org.

Other sources are listed at this previous GetReligion Memo: “United Methodists remain on clock: Will 2022 see biggest church split since Civil War? (updated).” See also this earlier “think piece,” entitled, “Thinking about disunited Methodist future: Questions, terms and fault lines to ponder.”

Richard Ostling is a former religion reporter for The Associated Press and former correspondent for TIME Magazine. This piece first appeared at Get Religion.