After 40 years of wrangling and rancor, delegates to the postponed 2020 United Methodist General Conference overwhelmingly removed the ban on ordaining “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” as clergy. The vote was 692 for and 51 against to approve the consent calendar…
UMC gives first approval to restructuring plan
The United Methodist Church is one step closer to restructuring its worldwide body to give greater latitude to each region to shape its faith and traditions. Delegates to the thrice-delayed General Conference voted 586 to 164 for an amendment to…
United Methodists will decide realigning church’s structure, authority in 2024
For the first time in half a century, acceptance of sexual minorities isn’t likely to be the major issue coming before The United Methodist Church’s worldwide legislative assembly next spring. Instead, the looming political fight appears to be how to…
‘Operation Reconquista’ aims to return Mainline churches to ‘orthodoxy’
Conservatives from seven Mainline Protestant denominations marked Reformation Sunday this year by publishing their own 95 theses calling for reform in their respective denominations — except for those affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, who published 9.5 theses to…
Retired pastor’s book finds Methodist history ‘strangely lukewarm’ on confronting racism
If United Methodists are to fulfill the church’s current mission to dismantle racism, then its white members must come to terms with the denomination’s racist history, contends author John Elford. Elford’s conviction spurred him to write Our Hearts Were Strangely…
Clearer picture emerging of UMC’s future
Even before its official year of splintering is completed, United Methodists are carving out a clearer identity for the denomination’s future and a clearer picture is emerging of who has stayed and who has left, about clergy health and the…
Beyond the headlines, United Methodists muster new energy for doing good
Recent news headlines have screamed that The United Methodist Church in the United States has lost one-fifth of its congregations in a split over acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ Christians. What the articles typically don’t tell are the ways in…
A pilgrim in a strange land: How one United Methodist found a home in moderate Baptist life
It is no secret that The United Methodist Church is in chaos. Churches are voting to leave the denomination left and right, once healthy congregations are now divided, longtime relationships are being damaged, and good people are being hurt. Several…
Two Baptist seminaries among six ‘recommended’ by new Global Methodist Church
Two Baptist-affiliated schools are among six “recommended educational institutions” approved by the new Global Methodist Church. The GMC is a breakaway group from The United Methodist Church created largely over disagreements about LGBTQ inclusion and acceptance. The UMC is perceived as…
Sociologists find LGBTQ United Methodists, allies stay in UMC out of hope
Sociologists Nancy Malcom and A.J. Ramirez, both United Methodists, hoped they might get at least 50 responses when they first started to research why LGBTQ church members and their allies stayed in a denomination that officially condemns “homosexual practice” as…
UMC agency asks to monitor bishop’s case as suspicion rises
A churchwide agency charged with monitoring the participation of women in the United Methodist Church has asked to observe the judicial process investigating complaints against Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, who has been suspended from active ministry for a year without…
Truett Seminary names a controversial Methodist bishop to its faculty
Baylor University’s Truett Seminary has added a second faculty member aligned with the new Global Methodist Church, the conservative breakaway from the United Methodist Church. The appointment of Scott Jones as affiliate professor and pastor-theologian in residence at Truett’s Wesley…