Methodists’ emotions mixed after split
Division has cost church an estimated one-quarter of its congregations
The painful schism that split the United Methodist Church was an outcome few wanted, but it seemed unstoppable.
The United Methodist Church has been one of America’s largest Protestant denominations, second in size only to the Southern Baptists. The largest denominational schism in U.S. history has resulted in a quarter of the church’s approximately 30,000 congregations leaving to join the newly formed, conservative-leaning Global Methodist Church.
“It’s a divorce, and a messy one,” said Tracey Karcher, a former Methodist pastor who now runs a general store in Sand Springs, Montana. “That’s all it is, if you break it down. Who gets to keep what, who gets to live with who. But both sides will move forward.”
As the two sides go their separate ways, Methodist pastors and congregants expressed a mix of relief, sadness and hope.
Divided over LGBTQ+ participation
Over the past decade, progressive factions in the church have grown more vocal about welcoming LGBTQ+ participation. The UMC continues to officially hold more conservative policies on ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy and same-sex weddings. But pro-disaffiliation traditionalists have criticized the degree to which UMC leaders are enforcing those policies.
The number of “reconciling” congregations – those voting to accept full participation of LGBTQ+ people in church life and community – had been growing in the U.S., fueling hopes among them that the UMC might eliminate anti-LGBTQ+ language from its laws.
The issue was set to be reevaluated at the UMC’s 2020 conference but the pandemic pushed the issue to the sidelines, where it has remained ever since.
Instead, there has been a push toward creation of global regions that could decide matters for themselves. And the yearslong stalemate prompted church leaders to bring in a mediator. That resulted in a resolution including the creation of a new denomination with traditional views on gender and sexual orientation, the Global Methodist Church, as well as an exit plan allowing churches to disaffiliate “for reasons of conscience.”
Frank Schaefer, pastor of University UMC in Isla Vista, California, worries that the schism will leave the issue of LGBTQ+ participation unresolved in church teachings.
For Schaefer, the matter is personal: A decade ago, he was defrocked after performing a same-sex wedding and refusing to pledge not to do so again. He was ultimately reinstated.
He was bothered by the idea that the UMC likely won’t officially welcome LGBTQ+ participation as a whole.
“If we leave things just as they are, there would be congregations that could continue on a path of discrimination,” he said. “Is that what we’ve been fighting for all these years?”
Joel Bullock, senior pastor at St. Matthew UMC in Mesa, Arizona, said leaders of the regional group to which his church belongs – the UMC’s Desert Southwest Conference – had already voted to support full LGBTQ+ participation, so the congregation did not hold its own disaffiliation vote.
Still, the issue was divisive. Bullock, who is gay, read emails and letters written by former members passionately opposed to the congregation’s open views on sexuality.
Some, he said, left before he arrived at the church last July. He can’t help but wonder whether he was the impetus.
Other complaints driving split
Debates over gender and sexual ori“I entation aren’t the only issues splitting the denomination.
Karcher said her issue is not with more progressive views. Rather, it stems from dissatisfaction with the UMC’s inflated bureaucracy, an increase in harmful rhetoric on both sides and deteriorating respect for church discipline among regional leaders who have approved ordination of openly gay clergy despite regulations declaring otherwise.
Such infighting has been occurring for years, she said, but it’s gotten worse.
“That’s when I had to step back and say, I’m not going to be part of it,” she said. She’ll take a back seat “until things get sorted out.”
Joyce Miller’s congregation, Christ Venice Church in Venice, Florida, overwhelmingly voted to disaffiliate despite the strong emotional attachment among those who’d grown up in the UMC.
“(We) did not leave the UM,” Miller wrote in an email. “It left us.”
She said those pursuing a more progressive theology could have launched their own denomination “but decided to hijack the church instead,” laying claim to the funds and infrastructure “built by the faithful over hundreds of years.”
Schaefer feels the opposite happened. Before 1972, he said, the denomination had no language prohibiting LGBTQ+ participation. feel like the church got hijacked by political conservatives,” he said.
Karcher said she can understand how traditionalists might feel pushed out. At the same time, she recognizes the impatience among progressives in the church who have spent decades fighting for change.
She hopes some sort of resolution on LGBTQ+ issues can be reached at the UMC’s meeting this spring.
While some worry about the church’s future, others say the break opens the door for each side to move forward.
But while the hemorrhaging has stopped, Schaefer said the struggle for LGBTQ+ recognition remains.
“This is a huge loss for everybody,” Schaefer said. “I don’t feel any kind of relief. Those who have left have to come up with cash and start over again in some ways. There’s a lot of anxiety.
“This is something we say every Sunday morning in the greeting after announcements,” he continued, becoming emotional. “No matter what you believe or what doubts you have, no matter what age or color of skin or who you love, you are welcome in this space. And that is the heart, I believe, of who we are as a church. I was somebody who was not accepted at one point – and now I am, and I’m thankful to be at a church that accepts me.”
Contributing: Liam Adams, Nashville Tennessean