Should the UMC Schism Happen?

[hedrick]

What is odd is that churches outside the US can set their own policies and modify the Discipline for local conditions while the US can’t. There is no US-wide body. This leads the international meeting to focus too much on the US and not enough on international priorities. The proposal to give the US the same rights as Africa seems to have support from Africa. It looks like they would rather keep the church together with some US autonomy than split it. Of course without having a real vote, I’m depending upon press accounts that can only guess how much support there really is.

 

[The Liturgist]

What is odd is that churches outside the US can set their own policies and modify the Discipline for local conditions while the US can’t. There is no US-wide body. This leads the international meeting to focus too much on the US and not enough on international priorities. The proposal to give the US the same rights as Africa seems to have support from Africa. It looks like they would rather keep the church together with some US autonomy than split it. Of course without having a real vote, I’m depending upon press accounts that can only guess how much support there really is.

The churches in Africa have the same rights as the churches in the US. It just happens there are more African members of the UMC.

 

[hedrick]

The churches in Africa have the same rights as the churches in the US. It just happens there are more African members of the UMC.

See Plans under way to make Discipline truly global | United Methodist News Service. As described there, central conferences can to some extent modify rules in the Discipline. Here's an example of a central conference's modifications to the Discipline: Book of Discipline | UMC Northern Europe

Note however that it appears that a central conference can't change some or all qualifications for ordination. I believe that proposal to give the US the same ability to customize rules as the central conferences would make sure that the US could modify the rule prohibiting ordination of gays. As the article notes, there was already an effort to reconsider the relationship between global and regional structure and authority.

 

[hedrick]

The broader oddity about the UMC is that it requires the vote of an international body to operate. Covid has shown the danger to that. They're going to have a virtual meeting to authorize votes on continuing the budget and bishop retirements. Generally US churches can operate without needing an international meeting. The Catholics are centralized, but it's easier to consult with just the Vatican than to convoke a world-wide meeting.

I don't think Covid-19 is going to be the last pandemic. The UMC, and any other churches with that organization, would be well advised to allow a bit more autonomy for national or regional churches.

 

[tampasteve]

The problem is, even if the UMC allowed more automony in the USA, even if the Africans are on board for such a plan - the conservative congregations that aspire to the GMC have already laid it out. They are going to split the church, whether the UMC wants it or not in the end.

 

[hedrick]

The problem is, even if the UMC allowed more automony in the USA, even if the Africans are on board for such a plan - the conservative congregations that aspire to the GMC have already laid it out. They are going to split the church, whether the UMC wants it or not in the end.

Sure. I never thought it was possible to avoid that. The moment you have a disagreement where one side is unwilling to exist in the same church, a split is inevitable.