Conservative leaders in the United Methodist Church (UMC) have revealed their arrangement to create a new denomination. The new denomination called The Global Methodist Church will not accept same-sex marriage. This is because they are determined to walk in line with the doctrines of the New Testament.
The breakup of the UMC which has been anticipated could be close due to the different thoughts on the LGBTQ inclusion. According to CBN News, the planned division of the country’s biggest denomination did not come as a surprise to church watchers. There has been a disparity among church members with some members in the United States asking for the inclusion of LGBTQ people.
The UMC’s General Conference, where the schism is expected to be debated, has been moved to late August, 2022 in Minneapolis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Methodist elder from Virginia and head of the Global Methodist initiative, Rev. Keith Boyette, says that he and his allies cannot wait to leave the UMC formally. More so, the topic of schism should be included in the planned online meeting which will involve a debate on May 8.
However, Louisiana-based Bishop and head of UMC’s Council of Bishops, Cynthia Fierro Harvey, said she is skeptical about holding the debate online as they will be having delicate deliberations. Boyette added that he and his allies do not mind delaying till the August 2022 General Conference if the matter is not looked into on May 8.
However, that is if progressives and centrists of UMC stay loyal to previous conformity about a breakup. In addition, he said any decision to reduce those agreements might make the conservatives to bring the new church into existence.
The organizers of Global Methodist have launched a fresh website which says that women would be allowed to serve at every level in the new denomination. Likewise, they would be permitted to desire a membership that is "ethnically and racially diverse."
While speaking on the LGBTQ issues, organizers affirmed that the denomination would heed to the ‘’traditional understanding of Christian marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman and as God's intended setting for human sexual expression."
According to CBN News, a meeting was called specially in February 2019 in St. Louis, where a proposal named the Traditional Plan was issued to ban LGBTQ practices. The delegates voted 438-384. Most of the United States delegates were against the plan. However, the U.S conservatives had more votes with the Methodist having a greater number of the delegates. Boyette said they are determined to restructure the United Methodist Church.
The United Methodist Church was founded in 1968 by a merger. They have a membership of 13 million people globally which includes the United States with 7 million.
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