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…
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…
Is the United Methodist separation still on?
Getting to the question of whether the biggest Methodist branch will divide requires a look at why separation poses such a monumental challenge for the 12-million-member worldwide denomination, with more than 7 million members in the United States.
Tennessee twisters move Baptists into short- and long-term disaster response
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is standing by to help after storm-induced tornadoes killed at least 24 people and damaged close to 150 buildings, including several churches, in Middle Tennessee early Tuesday morning. CBF’s expertise is in long-term recovery that typically…
Why infant baptism won’t impede Baptist-Methodist cooperation in Texas
“But with this kind of dialogue we are not going to see change in the next two weeks. It’s a long-look strategy. You have to keep pushing forward.”
A queer reconciliation: my journey from outcast to ordinand
Six years after performing my same-sex wedding, my dad was defrocked by the United Methodist Church. Testifying at the ecclesiastical trial was excruciating for me. Yet that experience – and the support our family received – also reignited my call to Christian ministry.
Opposition to Trump ‘zero-tolerance’ must go grassroots, organizers say
Public outrage over President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy has given way this week to controversial Supreme Court rulings, including one upholding the president’s Muslim-focused travel ban. But religious and other non-profit groups that serve immigrants have not taken their…