(Note: This post is United Methodist-centric. If United Methodism isn't your tribe, or if you have no interest in our current situation, feel free to disregard this one and enjoy a lovely winter day.)
As you’re aware, the UMC is in conversation about splitting over matters regarding sexual orientation, in particular marriage and ordination. General Conference 2020 was going to iron out the details, enabling churches to move ahead in their preferred direction. The working assumption is that the moderate/progressive UMs will retain custody of “The United Methodist Church” and all its workings, and the conservatives will move into a new denomination of their creation, “The Global Methodist Church.” A highly-negotiated plan, The Protocol, had been ironed out by key parties and was holding together by a thread coming into General Conference 2020.
And then COVID. General Conference 2020 was rescheduled to 2021 and now re-rescheduled to 2022, and it’s not looking good for the September 2022 date.
Why does COVID have power to stall the UMC? The only body that can make these decisions about separation is the General Conference, a gathering of delegates from around the world. In addition to the normal barriers to large gatherings that have been and still are in place, over 40% of our General Conference delegates come from outside the US, many from nations in Africa and elsewhere with scant access to the vaccine. Although great minds around the world have tried to come up with various solutions to allow us to actually hold General Conference, limitations imposed by a worldwide pandemic and our UM Book of Discipline continue to prevent us from holding General Conference.
We are hamstrung by our own rules. And we can’t change the rules that are keeping us from gathering until we are able to gather in person to change the rules.
So, what’s been happening in United Methodism while we’re all stuck in this interminable holding pattern? The answer is both that nothing is happening, and that a great deal is happening.
On the “nothing is happening” side of things, the restrictive, punitive rules of General Conference 2019 remain in place. There is no agreed-upon plan for separation.
On the “a great deal is happening” side of things, churches and clergy on both sides are increasingly tired of waiting. Some progressives, both clergy and churches, have been living as if we are already a renewed, progressive denomination. Some conservatives, both clergy and churches, have begun to break away. It is a messy, liminal time in which we are COVID-trapped together for the duration.
In short, we are like a couple that has decided to divorce but is stuck living in the same house. It is not easy, and it is often not pretty.
In Missouri, there have been some developments that have warranted a response from our bishop. There are a few sizeable traditionalist churches in Missouri that are choosing to break away, to “disaffiliate,” even before General Conference has been able to meet to hash out the separation. The UMC and the Missouri Annual Conference have established guidelines for this process for churches that want to leave now, intended to create equity on all sides. One particular issue, for instance, is to insure that departing churches pay their fair share towards the pension fund for retired pastors. Otherwise, if our pension funds become unstable, remaining churches would have to pay more because of churches that walked out on their pension obligation.
Unfortunately, there are churches that are choosing to act outside of this process and, in their leaving, are leaving our retirees in the lurch. Their actions necessitate a response from the Missouri Conference. If you’d like to know more, read the attachments to this email.
I’m grateful that Bishop Farr and the Conference are doing the hard work of accountability with these clergy and churches. Their strong response is helping to protect our retired clergy and all of the churches in the Missouri Conference. Because they are taking on this role so ably, I am freed from the burden of having to express outrage or indignation, although I confess to the occasional eye roll. My most righteous of indignations wouldn’t do anything to affect the reality of the situation, and it would only serve to steal a little light from my own soul on this already-gloomy winter day.
So, I am choosing to trust the system and to spend my time and energy working and praying for grace.
It’s not news that divorce is messy. After all, if things were good between the two sides, there wouldn’t be need for a divorce, would there? These deep divisions within the United Methodist part of Christ’s body seem to be leading inevitably to separation. We didn’t choose these circumstances, yet we can choose our response to the circumstances.
I hope you’ll join me in praying for one another, even folks who are choosing to leave our UM family. Pray for our bishop and Conference leadership as they navigate the legal complexities of this situation on our behalf. Pray for those of us who are staying within the UMC, that grace may be the defining characteristic of our renewed denomination.
As we work to re-create a denomination based upon grace, may the very same grace that we dream be lived out in our own grace-full actions in these moments.
(Okay, and maybe with an occasional eye-roll.)
Read Bishop Farr's letter here. Read FAQs on Disaffiliation in Missouri here
