Another New Methodist Denomination

For years, the United Methodist Church (UMC) has been having internal debates about the ordination of LGTBQ clergy and same-sex marriage.  It's most recent internal vote on these issues supported the traditional policies, but the church was supposed to have a vote on these matters again last spring.  The new vote, which was expected to approve a negotiated split within the denomination, was postponed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The vote is still postponed (now planned for August-September 2022), but not all church members are waiting for the vote to move forward with their desired plans.  Just a few months ago, a group of Methodists formed their own group, apparently in support reform in the church (see my earlier post here).  And just yesterday another group formed, this one in favor of the church's traditional stance.  Called the Global Methodist Church, this group plans to become a new denomination sometime in 2022.  They already have a working website here.

It is expected that this new denomination will be acknowledged in the upcoming vote, and, as part of the formal split within the church at the time, it will receive $25 million over the following four years.  However, if the vote does not support the split, this new denomination has announced that it will still move forward with their own split. Schism in the United Methodist Church seems a foregone conclusion now.

These are big changes for the United Methodist Church, but they are also big changes for the religious marketplace.  The United Methodist Church has been one of the largest denomination in the U.S. for decades, but it has also been steadily losing membership for decades.  The parties on both sides of the internal dispute hope the split will revitalize their own efforts.  In time we should be able to determine whether this hope was fulfilled.