In a recent editorial in Good News Magazine Rob Renfroe confesses that he is confounded by the fact that the majority of UM bishops favor the “One Church Plan.” ( https://goodnewsmag.org/2018/09/september-editorial/ ) He professes to comprehend progressives who want same-sex marriage and ordination of LBGTQ persons to be universally allowed in the UMC. After all, they are simply insisting, like traditionalists, that their interpretation of scripture be worked out in the governing of the church. What confounds him is bishops who could accept both a traditional and a progressive position in the same denomination. And he suspects that this is because the bishops don’t take seriously enough how committed the traditionalists are to their understanding of God’s order for human sexual relations. He feels misunderstood, which is the way we all feel when someone disagrees with us. Renfroe is not alone in being confounded. Progressives are often equally confoun...
There is a substantial difference between the real United Methodist Church and the image of the UMC asserted by traditionalists anxious to justify their decision to leave it. The real UMC is tens of thousands of congregations and pastors faithfully witnessing to Jesus Christ in the difficult context of contemporary society. In reply to my recent blog post ( https://xroadschristianityandculture.blogspot.com/2022/12/why-remain-in-umc.html ) Kevin B responded on Facebook, " The article is good in mentioning the positive contributions the Methodist connection has made even before the UMC was formed, but it fails to address the significant and ongoing rejection of Methodist doctrine and practice that has caused this split. " The charge that the UMC has "significant and ongoing rejection of Methodist doctrine and practice" is now a commonplace among the group identifying as "traditionalist" and their associated organizations like the Good News Movement, the...
Polity will never give you unity. The current United Methodist polity is in crisis, the result of a failure to adopt to emerging global realities. The General Conference is once again delayed, congregations are departing, and denominational finances continue to fall. Most importantly ,in the very practical matters of institutional maintenance we face unprecedented hurtles. http://www.umglobal.org/2022/03/what-now-episcopal-elections.html Methodism was born on the cusp of the creation of the current international order. As it grew beyond England and the United States its polities reflected that order, with an organization based on both emerging national boundaries and the essentially colonial nature of the new order. The structures of the American Methodist Church were fundamentally colonial, with ecclesial colonies (Mission Annual Conferences within larger Mission Central Conferences) managed by American bishops, run by American missionaries, and reporting to the Gene...
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