A quarter of U.S. congregations in the United Methodist Church had left the denomination as of December over disagreements over whether to ordain LGBTQ clergy and perform same-sex weddings.
Charlie Riedel/AP
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Charlie Riedel/AP
A quarter of U.S. congregations in the United Methodist Church had left the denomination as of December over disagreements over whether to ordain LGBTQ clergy and perform same-sex weddings.
Charlie Riedel/AP
Same-sex weddings and LGBTQ clergy were two of the topics front and center as the United Methodist Church opened its General Conference on Tuesday in Charlotte, NC. In recent years, the church – one of the largest Protestant groups in the United States – has seen many if its congregations ignore problems.
Currently, United Methodist Discipline book, the church’s rule book, states that “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” That sentence was added in 1972 during the rise of what was then called the gay rights movement. Elsewhere, the book also prohibits United Methodist clergy from performing same-sex weddings and says the church does not ordain LGBTQ clergy.
The General Assembly, made up of United Methodists from around the world, is the church’s sole authority that can change the rules surrounding sexual issues. It can do many different things with the rule’s language: it can leave it as is; it can remove it completely; or it can remove what some see as more negative language and add affirmative language.
In 2019, the United Methodist Church organized a special meeting in St. Louis to address LGBTQ issues, but no changes came from that meeting and decisions were due to be made in 2020. However, the pandemic intervened and church officials felt a Virtual meetings to discuss such deeply divisive issues are not recommended. So the General Assembly that begins on Tuesday is the first to be held since 2020.
Over the years, a number of things have happened in the church that have made this meeting more urgent. Many local church conferences have chosen not to enforce the ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. Many congregations were upset by that lack of enforcement and chose to leave the denomination. Some became independent congregations while others joined a more conservative time called the Universal Methodist Church.
The deadline to “separate from the United Methodist Church,” as it is called, was last December. More than 7,600 (about a quarter) of its congregation voted to leave the mainline of the Resistance sect.
A transformed church?
The departure of the most conservative congregations has led some to believe that the United Methodist Church will later transition to a liberal denomination. But a Duke University study surveying clergy and congregations in North Carolina, where Duke is located, tells a slightly different story.
As expected, the university’s Religion and Social Change Lab found that clerics who left were more conservative than those who stayed. It also found that, even among the clergy who remained, a quarter opposed LGBTQ pastors and nearly a third opposed same-sex marriage.
Another finding was also a surprise, said David Eagle, head of the Religion and Social Change Lab.
“I was also under the impression that this split would make the United Methodist Church a more progressive denomination, and in some ways, that has already happened among the clergy,” he said. But among congregations, the congregations are still very uniform.” divided both theologically and politically.”
According to Eagle, one reason for that disconnect is that to leave the denomination, congregations need to vote by a majority rather than a simple majority to do so, meaning congregations where a majority of people wanted to leave to still be part of the cult. United Methodist Church.
That said, individual members may leave their congregation over this issue and find an independent congregation or one currently affiliated with the Universal Methodist Church.
The clergy are okay
Another finding that Eagle is quite worried about concerns the mental health of clergy. Duke’s Clergy Health Initiative has tracked the mental health of all United Methodist clergy in North Carolina since 2008.
Research shows a significant number of ministers say they are suffering from high levels of stress, burnout, depression and anxiety, partly because they are facing divisions over LGBTQ issues and partly because of the lingering effects of the pandemic, including financial hardships and lower church attendance.
“Currently, about 15% of the remaining clergy in the denomination have symptoms of depression, which would qualify them for a diagnosis of clinical depression,” Eagle said.
Other studies have shown that the mental health of mainline Protestant clergy is worse than that of Protestant clergy and Roman Catholic clergy.
Mainline Protestant denominations, the largest of which include the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the United Church of Christ, have has seen a rapid decline in membership and participation over the past 50 years. LGBTQ issues have also dominated internal conversations within these same denominations, all of which, except the United Methodists, have decided after years of conflict to allow LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings to one degree or another.
These churches also have very low seminary enrollments, meaning the next generation of leaders will not be available to support pastors who are currently stressed and discouraged.
Search for the way forward
The departure of the most conservative congregations and clergy from the United Methodist Church means there is a better chance than before that the rules surrounding same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy could change. But others have proposed a middle path option, which would allow regional conferences to make their own decisions and not have a unified church-wide policy.
This option, which could be adopted at the Charlotte meeting, would essentially codify what is going on in the church: more liberal conferences like those in southern California would continue to ordain prelates. LGBTQ clergy and allow ministers to officiate same-sex weddings while more conservative conferences such as those in the southern United States or parts of Africa will not allow ordinations or weddings so.
Whatever the decision is made, many Methodists are hopeful their church will be able to continue to grow after years of focusing on these issues. Patricia Ferris, who served as senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, California, for 26 years, said she hopes moving forward means going back to the problems has long been important to the church.
“Methodists care about our community, about the homeless, about labor issues,” she said. “How do we focus our energy on taking care of people and changing the world and making life better for more people? That’s really what we care about.”
That’s not to say, Farris points out, that addressing LGBTQ issues isn’t important. She said she wants everyone to feel welcome at Methodist congregations. But many see the seeming focus on same-sex weddings and LGBTQ clergy as a distraction.
Farris says perhaps the testimony of Methodists to the wider world is to demonstrate how to live together despite profound differences.
“My hope is that church will be a place where we learn to love each other, serve the community together, pray, worship, sing together,” she said. And from these relationships, learn.” to respect each other.”
