A dispute between members of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria (UMCN) and the Global Methodist Church (GMC) escalated to violence Sunday, resulting in three fatalities.
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(OPINION) Speaking for God can be a messy business. Very messy. No matter how sincere you are, you might turn out eventually to have been wrong. No matter how many Scriptures you cite to prove your point, those who disagree will trot out contrary passages to demonstrate why you’re tragically misguided — if not heretical.
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Following decades of infighting, the United Methodist Church voted on a series of sweeping doctrinal changes, including repealing a ban on LGBTQ clergy and allowing for same-sex marriages. For the U.S.’s third-largest Protestant denomination, the changes represent a seismic shift and one that calls on fully embracing LGBTQ members in every aspect of church life.
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(ANALYSIS) The United States is experiencing one of the most significant shifts in Protestant Christianity in its history. What do I mean by that?
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in tackles five questions related to the United Methodist Church’s long-awaited General Conference, which starts next week in Charlotte, North Carolina. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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Majority-Korean Methodist churches, which tend to be more conservative and evangelical than other congregations within the United Methodist Church denomination, are finding it difficult to disaffiliate for fear they will lose their land and leaders.
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In the latest wave of departures from the United Methodist Church, the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church voted last week to approve the disaffiliation of another 46 churches. It was the conference’s second such vote this year.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in starts with a major story that receives too little attention. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(OPINION) Houses of worship are in decline. One reason is Americans’ waning interest in religious institutions. Another may be the change in consumer behavior away from the “average” and toward the large, the online and the small but specialized. Houses of worship can develop hope by learning from the experiences of the retail, financial-services and health care industries.
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(OPINION) I hate to see Christian groups, whether large or small, break up. But they do. Regularly. It seems fitting to put this development into some historical perspective. Church splits aren’t the exception; they’re the rule. The history of Christianity sometimes seems to be one division after another, endlessly, each split as agonizing for those involved as the previous ones were for earlier generations.
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(OPINION) Starting with a band of Anglicans landing at Jamestown in 1607 and then Pilgrim dissenters at Plymouth in 1620, various forms of Protestantism collectively dominated what became the United States. But the Religious Landscape Study from the Pew Research Center tells us the U.S. population is now only 46.6% Protestant.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the ongoing battles over who’s in — and who’s out — among Southern Baptists and United Methodists. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church has approved the conditional disaffiliation of 55 churches over human sexuality issues, including same-sex marriages and potential ordination of pastors who identify as LGBTQ+.
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The Confessing Movement, a lay-led conservative Christian movement that pushed back against the influence of liberalism and progressivism in the United Methodist Church, has shut down in reaction to the recent launch of a new conservative Methodist denomination.
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(OPINION) Churches were always active in abortion debates, with some embracing centuries of doctrine on the sanctity of human life and others becoming strategic abortion-rights supporters. Thus journalists in the Religion News Association named the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as the year’s top American religion-news story.
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A Dallas-area church, St. Andrew United Methodist Church of Plano, with more than 6,500 members said it will disaffiliate with the United Methodist Church and will remain independent while it investigates alliances with other Methodist denominations.
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(OPINION) A balanced coalition of leaders in the large United Methodist Church developed a treaty for mutually respectful separation that’s currently degenerating into a wasteful fight like other groups have suffered. The current maneuvers by the North American UMC establishment may well limit the number of dropouts joining the Global Methodist Church.
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(OPINION) The Reformed Church in America, one of those small denominations that usually get little ink despite rich history and accomplishments, is set to celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2028. But what will the RCA consist of by then?
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(OPINION) While The United Methodist Church debates societal issues — LGBTQ rights, Black Lives Matter, welcome of refugees and the like — its congregations’ real estate is eating away at the denomination and threatening its viability.
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(OPINION) The United Methodist Church is on the brink of America's biggest religious schism since the Civil War, with the conflict centering on sexual morality, biblical authority and theological liberalism. The 2020 General Conference to settle matters was postponed until this coming Aug. 29- Sept. 7 in Minneapolis, a city that currently limits meetings to 150 people.
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