The United Methodist Church is a global church and it is a connectional church. As we sit in the pews each Sunday, we are joined across continents and time zones with a great community of faith that stretches around the entire globe. Our life together as united Methodists is based in the rules and order established in The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. You can read the contents of Book of Discipline for yourself here.
The Book of Discipline is a living document, discussed, debated and amended as necessary by a quadrennial meeting called General Conference. General conference is comprised of both lay and clergy delegates duly elected from their local Annual Conferences. Every four years, this body gathers from around the world to discern the work of the Holy Spirit among the people called Methodist.
The last planned meeting of General Conference was in 2020. It was cancelled because of the outbreak of SARS-CoV2 and has been rescheduled several times since. It was most recently re-scheduled for August of 2022, but the Commission on the General Conference of the United Methodist Church has made the decision to postpone General Conference until 2024. This commission is a joint commission between laity and clergy and it represents the worldwide connection of the United Methodist Church. The decision was made in response to the persistent and ongoing logistical issues of bringing representatives of a global church together in one place in the midst of a world strained by pandemic. The full statement of the commission is available here.
This decision was not made lightly, but comes as a disappointing delay to many who were hoping for the resolution of some questions regarding the unity of the United Methodist Church and the desire for some factions of the church to separate themselves from the United Methodist Church and form a new denomination. The division in the church is multi-faceted. Some will say that it has to do with scriptural authority, others with an unworkable church polity. At the heart of the matter for many has been the question of human sexuality, namely the ability to perform same-sex marriages and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy. The churches who wish to leave the denomination over these issues were anticipating a General Conference vote on a path for separation called the Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation.
For a well balanced interpretation of this decision to postpone General Conference and the issues surrounding the decision, I commend to you the commentary of Bishop Ken Carter and the response of our own Bishop Leonard Fairley.
In his address, Bishop Fairley echoes my own sentiments when he says:
We still have people to feed, peace to make, justice to do, and a call to walk humbly with God. We still have people to reach for Jesus. I hope we do not lose sight of this in the midst of our frustration and disappointment.
May we receive this moment of uncertainty with the courage afforded us by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and may we continue to work for his kingdom rather than our own.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jim