United Methodists give early approval to measures that could pave new path on LGBTQ+ issues

The United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly passed key measures Thursday that could refashion the denomination's global structure — and pave the way for greater regional autonomy on LGBTQ+ issues — just days into a two-week-long gathering.

More than 700 delegates from around the world convened this week in Charlotte, North Carolina to decide on legislation expected to shape the long-term future of the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination. A proposal known as “regionalization” is among the highest profile of those decisions — in addition to the possible removal of anti-LGBTQ+ policies.

The largely Nashville-based UMC lost a quarter of its total U.S. churches in recent years due to a splintering over church policy and theology, including dealing with LGBTQ+ rights. The overwhelming approval of key regionalization-related proposals, called petitions, by delegates on Thursday is the first major sign of what many United Methodist leaders hope is a new chapter in the denomination’s life.

“Are you willing to move forward in the spirit of hope and embrace a season of reformation? Are you committed to the revitalization of the United Methodist Church?” said New York bishop Rev. Thomas Bickerton, outgoing president of the UMC Council of Bishops, in an April 23 address to the conference’s opening plenary session.  “We don’t have any time for negative narratives and personal agendas. … Friends, we got work to do.”

Guided by the principle of “decolonization,” regionalization seeks to address a power imbalance between United Methodist regional oversight in the U.S. versus that of other countries — mostly throughout Africa, the Philippines and parts of Europe. Delegates approved on Thursday five of eight key petitions that comprise the regionalization proposal to the UMC General Conference.

The most critical of those five petitions was a constitutional amendment that effectively creates an entirely new system of regional authority worldwide, thereby putting regional bodies in both the U.S. and in other countries on equal footing. The measure passed with 78% of delegates voting in favor, exceeding the necessary two-thirds threshold for a constitutional amendment.

Going forward, that constitutional amendment requires ratification from regional United Methodist bodies, a process that is expected to take a couple of years.

“Worldwide regionalization is the Kairos moment of equity, contextual ministry and simultaneously dismantling the vestiges of colonialism in the structure of the … United Methodist church,” said Filipino delegate Rev. Jonathan Ulanday during a floor debate Thursday morning.

Ulanday is part of a team and represents a region that has long supported the proposal now known as regionalization, which in essence eliminates a regional hierarchy that the Methodist church originally created in 1939 to racially segregate Black clergy and laity in the U.S. from the white population, according to the UMC General Commission on Archives & History.

“We do agree that the current structure of the united Methodist is colonial,” said Zimbabwean delegate Forbes Matonga during a floor debate on Thursday, speaking against regionalization. But Matonga opposed regionalization because it divides the African continent into different regional bodies.

“Politically speaking, this is disintegrating the voice of Africa,” Matonga said.

United Methodists in Africa have perhaps most fiercely debated regionalization, with different groups emerging to support the proposal and another instead supporting the conservative-led movement to leave the UMC, or disaffiliate.

On Thursday at the UMC General Conference, delegates passed other regionalization-related proposals by approving a consent calendar. Among those was a petition clarifying permission for regional church policy on marriage according to local customs and laws.

Ahead of the Charlotte gathering, centrist and progressive United Methodist leaders and advocacy groups supported regionalization. Meanwhile, traditionalist advocacy groups opposed regionalization partly due to its relationship with other efforts to remove anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions.

Pending delegates’ decisions next week on the remaining regionalization-related petitions and proposals to remove anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions, the U.S. church may be able to move in a more LGBTQ-affirming direction while keeping in place stricter policies on same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy for more conservative parts of the world.

There was one exception to Thursday’s maneuvers aimed at holding the global denomination together: some regional bodies received permission to exit. Those regional bodies — encompassing Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan — have long struggled to leave the denomination despite policies barring disaffiliation for churches outside the U.S. In a compromise to resolve that struggle, 90% of delegates approved a measure granting the bodies autonomy, which will take effect next year.

Russian Bishop Rev. Eduard Khegay expressed gratitude for his many positive experiences in the UMC in an address to delegates following the vote, repeating “Bolshoe Spasibo,” a Russian phrase expressing gratitude.

Khegay added: “On behalf of our delegation from Eurasia, I want to express gratitude for supporting our autonomous status.”

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: UMC passes measures on structure, potential new path on LGBTQ+ issues