Status of United Methodist Church
I have heard very little recently about the upheaval in the UMC over the issues of gay marriage and gay clergy. Can anyone bring me up to date? I have heard of at least one congregation that is leaving the UMC, but I had expected a lot more, one way or the other.
Comments
I don't think we have any UMC here in Brexit Island - is it a US denomination?
Yes. It is the denomination of George W. Bush.
The Wikipedia entry goes on to say that there was to be a vote in May of this year on a plan to split the denomination, but the vote has been postponed to next year due to the pandemic.
The UMC has a big presence in some other countries, including in Africa. A lot of the opposition to changes regarding sexuality and marriage comes parts of the UMC in more socially conservative countries, although there is opposition in the US as well.
The UMC is also the denomination of Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton grew up Baptist but started attending a UMC church with Hillary, although I don’t know what either of them do now. Isn’t Elizabeth Warren Methodist too?
Postponing the vote until next year sounds like a sensible move, if I may say so, given the situation. Churches of all shades have perhaps more important priorities just now...
IIRC, many of the Anglican African churches belong to GAFCON, Peter Jensen's little invention. They don't align with Jensen's churchmanship, but with his opinions on gays, ordination of women and so forth
Not all align on the ordination of women. Hating the gays is the only universal point of agreement as I understand it.
ie, not Australia or Canada, for example, where there are some GAFCON affiliated diocese, but no national affiliation.
Some but not all. Kenya has ordained women, for example, as have Uganda.
But yes, the United Methodist Church has conferences (jurisdictions) outside the US, including in Africa. It also has historically African American congregations in the US.