Posted on 04/27/2024 9:55:41 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The United Methodist Church General Conference has advanced a measure meant to allow different regions of the global denomination to determine their own standards on LGBT issues.
At the Thursday plenary session of the General Conference, delegates voted 586-164 in favor of a petition for an amendment to the UMC’s constitution allowing for regionalization. The petition will now be sent to the annual conferences for possible ratification.
The amendment will need to gain at least two-thirds support from the annual conference clergy and lay voters to be added to the UMC constitution, reports UM News.>
At present, the UMC Book of Discipline, the denomination's rulebook, prohibits the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals.
These rules have largely remained in the Book of Discipline because of delegates from Africa and elsewhere abroad who tend to be more theologically conservative than their American peers.
If regionalization is ratified, it could effectively pave the way for American churches to have their own Book of Discipline apart from African churches and thus amend it to allow for same-sex marriage and noncelibate homosexual clergy.
Rob Renfroe, publisher of Good News Magazine, participating at the General Conference, expressed his concern about the proposal in a statement emailed to The Christian Post.
“It is presented as a way to empower the church in each region of the world to do ministry in their particular context by adapting the Book of Discipline to their cultural settings. The real motive is to allow the church in the US to change the definition of marriage and to ordain practicing gay persons,” stated Renfroe.
“In the future, if Africa stays in the UMC, delegates from outside the US will far outnumber delegates from the West very soon. So, to keep Africa from determining the sexual ethics of the entire UMC, this legislation will marginalize the Africans and other traditionalists from around the world so that they have no say in defining marriage, sexual morality, etc., for the entire church.”
Christine Schneider, a reserve delegate from the Switzerland-France-North Africa Conference and member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, which submitted the proposal, spoke in favor of the measure during the plenary session discussion.
“This is the result of excellent collaboration by people from all walks and parts of our connection,” said Schneider, adding she was “full of hope and also excited” about the measure.
The Rev. Jonathan Ulanday, a delegate from the Philippines who was involved in crafting the Christmas Covenant, a measure calling for regionalization, also voiced support.
“What we are trying to do is to place our Lord Jesus Christ at the center of the table and all of us will exist in equity sharing the gifts so the United Methodist Church will grow and flourish in different contexts in different parts of the world,” Ulanday said, as reported by UM News.
The General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, began on Tuesday and will conclude May 3.
Over the past few decades, there has been a fierce debate within the UMC over whether to change its Book of Discipline rules on LGBT issues like marriage and ordination, mainly in response to changing social norms in the United States.
Although efforts by delegates at General Conference to change these parts of the Book of Discipline have consistently failed, many theological liberals have refused to follow or enforce them.
In 2019, at a special session of General Conference, delegates voted to amend the Book of Discipline by adding Paragraph 2553, a temporary measure that provides a disaffiliation procedure for congregations seeking to leave the UMC over the debate.
According to UM News, from 2019 to 2023, more than 7,500 congregations left the denomination via Paragraph 2553, with most joining The Global Methodist Church, a conservative theological alternative to the UMC.
Also, on Thursday, delegates voted to approve Petition 21103, which gives the Eurasian Episcopal Area, which has four annual conferences, autonomy, and the ability to disaffiliate from the denomination.
When I was a child and visiting the local Methodist church in my town, I could see how it had shallow underpinnings in Scripture.
This continues to bot surprise me, sadly. I knew some good people who went there.
In a 1915 book of fables by Horace Scudder, the story titled The Arab and His Camel ends with the moral: “It is a wise rule to resist the beginnings of evil
I thought The moral of “The Arab and his Camel” lies in the consequences of yielding to small requests.
In the fable, a camel convinces its master to allow it to put its nose inside the tent during a cold desert night. As the camel gradually occupies more space, it ultimately displaces the Arab, taking over the entire tent.
Regards,
I’ll offer the opinion that the U-M crowd is dying out, and the strategy for the past 20 years...to replace the maturing generation...is to bring in oddball characters who mostly have illusions about their life.
Meanwhile, the maturing crowd (still alive and kicking) are shaking their heads because the new membership folks don’t readily fit.
Apparently the United Methodist Church has theological variances.
Did they get that approved with Him ?
"My kid can do no wrong, and I'll deny the Bible if I have to!"
To be fair, as time passed they also had an increasingly apostate parade of pastors from the seminaries. As of 2024, they can fit the entire attendance of a normal Sunday service in a school bus and still have room for a couple of obese drag queens... and are as self-righteous and smug in their "tolerance" as they can be.
Maybe they could allow regions to adopt a position of atheism for their region as well.
This is pure insanity. You can’t have a domination where anything goes and still be a denomination.
Sadly, that describes a lot of Evangelical churches when I was growing up. Vacation Bible School has become “big business” with massive layouts, bounce houses and rides, and other attractions. Instead of it being for children of members, churches advertise to try to attract non-members. Some churches even CHARGE for it.
My gut feeling is this is this ruling was made by the Un-Godly WOKE, Jezebel big wigs in the denomination to keep their funds from drying up as more Godly members/Churches decide to leave the denominations and take their money with them.
As well they should. There is nothing wrong with advertising VBS to non-member families. When I was younger, my family did not go to church, but I was allowed to go to VBS because it was FF....fun and free.
As I got a little older, I saw the sign on the local church for Sunday school, and figured Sunday School had to be similar to VBS. I had also attended VBS there. I started showing up and attending Sunday School. Then I started staying for the church services. I was the only one in my family to go to church. Today, with children of my own. I encourage them to go and participate.
VBS reaches many children whom otherwise would not be exposed to Christ.
"But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Mathew 19:14
It’s more of a conference thing. I’m in the Holston Conference and it is pretty conservative. Our preacher is a charismatic who became a UMC pastor. Very Bible-based and nothing but old hymns (except for Gaither of course). He’s retiring and we are getting a guy fresh out of cemetery, er seminary. One of my UMC pastor friends said we will have to “unlearn” him some things.
The United Methodist Church where we now live was the largest church. It just split because 40% didn’t want the promotion of homosexuality. The spin off is doing great.
As the umc yields more and more of its soul to Satan... (that is not to say all churches in umc are, just that some are- they are abandoning God’s word in favor of pleasing the immoral masses
Before God said that, he admonished everyone in Matthew 18:6:
“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” When I see what the United Methodist are preaching these days, I am reminded by Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming, and Isaiah 9:16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Indeed, God does move in mysterious ways. Out of this chaos in the Methodist Church will come clarity.
True! VBS was huge .with us kids (although we went to baptist church VBS)- it did reach lots of kids who otherwise wouldn’t go to church.
“The spirit listed where it will” meaning that as long as the aord of God is being preached, the ho.y spirit can work in the lives of folks as God’s word will not return void. Paul spoke about men during his time that weren’t exactly following God’s word to a “t”, and he thanked God that at least God’s word was getting out and he was thankful for that. Most churches today fit the category of those men who’s teaching were off some. Some are quite off- but God can and does work even in those churches as long as the word is being given out, and folks seek salvation not through works, or dues, or attendance, but through the holy spirit himself prompting them to true salvation.
I suppose this is supposed to head off a schism over the issue? Or counteract a schism in progress? Lots of luck.
A Very Laodicean decision - lukewarm - make a decision instead of trying to appease everyone.
They are NOT being exposed to Christ, in most cases it’s a false gospel.
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