Even before any formal division has been enacted, an ad hoc group of United Methodists say they’ve formed a new denomination based on “radical hospitality” for LGBTQ persons, people of color and anyone who has felt rejected by the church….
2020’s earth-shattering events threaten United Methodist Church’s future
In the movie “Seabiscuit,” an early sequence shows how the fabled racehorse’s owner, Charles Howard, transformed his bicycle-repair business into the San Francisco Bay Area’s most successful automobile dealership in the early age of motoring. Howard met the challenge of…
African bishops demand independence in deciding United Methodist Church’s future
The conflict over acceptance of LGBTQ persons in The United Methodist Church has become a three-way fight — with even more contenders likely waiting to turn the bout into a battle royal between opposing American forces and the rest of…
Bishops issue rare letter urging United Methodists to vote
While still uncertain of their own institutional future, United Methodist leaders recently called on clergy and church members to vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election in order to “protect democracy.” Although some in pew and pulpit complain that their…
United Methodists seek both separation and unity because of ‘Catholic Spirit’
If United Methodists were transformed into an animal, they no doubt would be Dr. Doolittle’s famous “pushmi-pullyu.” In other words, they’d like to have their future go two ways at once. Today’s United Methodists come by this tendency honestly, because…
A primer for non-Methodists on the Methodist ties that bind
Divorce is never easy. Even in the most amicable partings, the division of assets causes more contention than any other irreconcilable differences. In the case of United Methodists, breaking up may be even harder to do because of the structural…
Death of a bishop, birth of a new denomination intertwined for UMC
The untimely death of a visionary African bishop and the disclosure of a traditionalist faction’s plans for a new denomination have reset the playing field for the United Methodist Church’s future. With that reset have come allegations of neocolonialism and…
Amid its own racist history, United Methodist Church unites against racism
Two months have passed since the world watched George Floyd die under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. In that two months, United Methodist bishops have mounted an initiative echoing the Black Lives Matter movement that they call…
Another United Methodist plan demands patience more than specifics
Here’s the thing about getting guidance from God: It takes the kind of spiritual labor that we humans, with our penchant for control, mostly abhor — patient waiting marked by willing surrender, emptying oneself of ego and expectations. With an…