The highest legislative physique of the United Methodist Church handed a collection of measures Thursday to restructure the worldwide denomination to offer every area larger fairness in tailoring church life to its personal customs and traditions.
The first measure, voted on because the UMC Common Convention met on the Charlotte Conference Heart in North Carolina, was an modification to the church’s structure to divide the denomination into 4 equal areas—Africa, Europe, the Philippines, and the USA.
In accordance with the plan, every area would have the ability to customise a part of the denomination’s rulebook, the E book of Self-discipline, to suit native wants. Whereas church areas in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe have already loved some leeway in customizing church life, the USA has not.
The vote on the constitutional modification handed 586–164, or by 78 %, which implies it surpassed the two-thirds majority wanted for constitutional amendments. It should now go earlier than every smaller church area, known as an annual convention, for ratification by the tip of 2025.
If ratified by two-thirds of delegates to the annual conferences, the restructuring would permit the 4 areas to set their very own {qualifications} for ordaining clergy and lay leaders; publish their very own hymnal and rituals, together with rites for marriage; and set up its personal judicial courts. A brand new E book of Self-discipline would have one part that might be revised and tailor-made for every of the 4 regional conferences.
The 2-week worldwide assembly is the primary assembly of the Common Convention in 5 years, due principally to delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It follows a painful schism that has break up some 7,600 US-based church buildings from the denomination—a loss accounting for 25 % of all US congregations.
Regionalization was the primary order of enterprise and it got here unexpectedly early within the assembly. The Common Convention usually doesn’t take up main proposals till its second week.
This isn’t the primary time Methodists have tried to regionalize their operations. The final try, in 2008, handed within the Common Convention however didn’t obtain two-thirds ratification amongst particular person conferences around the globe.
The Rev. Dee Stickley-Miner, government director of missional engagement for the Common Board of World Ministries who has labored on the plans alongside non-US-based church leaders, stated this time round, the measures are extra clearly acknowledged and have been formed and vetted by Methodists within the varied areas.
Regionalization has been framed as an enterprise of decolonization. Born of an 18th-century motion begun in England by John and Charles Wesley, the Methodist motion by its varied schisms and realignments has all the time been centered in the USA. This new regionalization, whether it is accredited, will decentralize the church.
“We’ve actually come to know how worldwide the United Methodist Church is and the way that requires some modifications in how we construction ourselves, in order that the USA is seen alongside the opposite areas so that Jesus can stay on the middle and never in a single area,” Stickley-Miner stated.
However the regionalization plan can be an acknowledgment that cultural and theological variations are driving Methodists aside, particularly relating to sexuality. Many church leaders imagine the one approach Methodists around the globe can stay below one umbrella is that if they’ve leeway to vary on issues of same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ folks.
A number of coalitions of Methodists within the US and overseas opposed the measure, together with the Wesleyan Covenant Affiliation and Good Information Journal.
On Thursday, delegates handed 5 of the eight measures within the regionalization package deal; the remaining three, which pertain to the US solely, will probably be voted on later and are thought-about procedural.
