CHARLOTTE, NC — The United Methodist Church’s top policymaking assembly illustrated on Monday the legislative slog the 700-plus delegates are encountering.
On the first day of the second and final week of the UMC General Conference in Charlotte, delegates spent hours Monday debating a proposal regarding the total number of African bishops. The debate was part of a larger conversation about the international structure of the church, one of the most high-profile legislative items facing the conference in addition to LGBTQ+ rights.
The largely Nashville-based UMC is emerging from a splintering that led to a quarter of all US churches leaving the nation’s largest mainline Protestant denomination following disagreements over church policy and theology — including dealing with LGBTQ+ rights.
On Tuesday, the conference is expected to take up the remaining proposals, called petitions, to finalize the highly anticipated “regionalization” legislation to restructure the church’s system of regional oversight. Also, key petitions that aim to remove anti-LGBTQ restrictions may come before the delegates. The debate about those petitions might draw on potentially longer than Monday’s debate.
UMC news from Monday: UMC live updates: United Methodist conference faces key decisions on LGBTQ+ rights, budget
Follow along for live updates.
The United Methodist Church took the first steps to removing restrictions on LGBTQ+ people and organizations when delegates passed nine petitions dealing with denominational funds and specific disciplinary processes.
The most significant of those nine petitions was removing a “funding ban” or a prohibition on church funds “to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.” There were two petitions seeking to remove the funding ban, a policy the denomination initially implemented in 1976.
The funding ban is one of several major categories of anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions that progressives and centrists are seeking to dismantle. Other prohibitions are on UMC clergy or churches blessing same-sex unions. Petitions seeking to remove those latter restrictions await approval and likely a contentious floor debate first.
Progressives and many centrists also support a new version UMC Revised Social Principles, or the denomination’s declaration of social values. The proposed revised social principles no longer include a key passage saying homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
United Methodists who identify as LGBTQ+ and allies celebrated the approval of the first set of LGBTQ+ inclusion-related petitions on Tuesday with singing “Hallelujah,” dancing and waving rainbow umbrellas in a celebratory demonstration.
Marcia McPhee, who helped lead the celebration organized by Reconciling Ministries Network, a group advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the UMC, read out the new policy language replacing the funding ban. McPhee concluded her remarks with “This solution takes effect immediately,” causing the crowd to erupt in cheers.
Despite pivotal approval last week of petitions related to regionalization — one of the most high-profile legislative items facing the UMC General Conference — two of eight regionalization-related petitions remain. But the path to those petitions’ passage is uncertain. Regionalization is the plan to restructure the denomination’s system of regional oversight and give other parts of the world more autonomy over some issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights.
The remaining regionalization petitions outline a plan for the restructuring of the US-based church. The already approved six regionalization-related petitions include a constitutional amendment, which requires approval from two-thirds of all United Methodist regional conferences worldwide, and other petitions dealing with the church’s global structure.
Both remaining regionalization-related petitions are set for floor debates. One of the remaining regionalization-related petitions was set for approval on a consent calendar Tuesday morning, but delegates removed the item for the full debate.
In addition to regionalization-related petitions, delegates are expected to take up debate about extending and expanding a policy allowing churches to leave, or disaffiliate, from the UMC. More than 7,500 United Methodist churches in the US left the denomination between 2019-2023, which was the last year churches were allowed to leave the denomination due to an expiration date in the disaffiliation policy.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.
