Current Schism in the United Methodist Church Is Not Without Precedent; Only the Cause Has Changed
The United Methodist Church is no longer as united as it was in 1968.
That’s when the Methodist Church was joined by the Evangelical United Brethren, forming the United Methodist Church.
Methodism in the United States began at the end of the 18th Century during the Great Awakening, the spread of religious faith due to the missionary zeal of Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian missionaries.
After the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in America in 1784, there were several schisms and reunions. Here is a short timetable:
- 1816 — Black Methodists withdrew to form the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
- 1821 — Black Methodists withdrew to form yet another denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
- 1828 — The Methodist Protestant Church was formed when members withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church over questions of governance, seeking a more democratic organization and eliminating bishops.
- 1845 — Slavery resulted in yet another schism when Methodists in the South withdrew to form the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. That was the last major loss to the denomination; in the 20th Century union became the watchword.
- 1939 — Northern and Southern Methodists, along with the Methodist Protestants, reunited.
- 1968 — They were joined by the Evangelical United Brethren to form the United Methodist denomination.
In 2023, there are again major disagreements about church doctrine that threaten the unity of the church. Whereas the divisions of the 19th Century resulted from disagreements over governance and slavery, the current schism has resulted from a major change in the denomination’s positions on sexuality — specifically, the prohibitions on the ordination of LGBTQ+ persons and the performance of gay marriages have now been removed.
As a global denomination, opposition to liberalization has come primarily from the Methodist churches in Africa, as well as those in the southern United States. The denomination was, however, already moving toward a relaxing of the rules governing sexuality. In 2020, a group of UMC leaders developed a plan for a friendly separation called “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation.” It was approved at the General Conference later that year.
The General Conference also approved a new church law giving UMC churches a path to leave the denomination and retain ownership of church buildings and property. For that to happen, two-thirds of a congregation must approve and agree to pay their fair share of clergy pension liabilities and two years of apportionments to the UMC. This arrangement will end at the end of 2023.
How is all this turmoil affecting the Eastern Shore? If you’ve driven around the Delmarva peninsula, you will have noticed the abundance of United Methodist Churches. After all, Francis Asbury and other 18th Century missionaries spent a lot of time in this area, preaching and helping to organize congregations.
But since June 2023, when the General Conference approved a Disaffiliation Resolution, 96 churches in Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore have presented resolutions to leave the denomination. Some of the departing congregations are joining the conservative Global Methodist Church. Others are choosing not to affiliate with any denomination.
The list of disaffiliating congregations and full text of the Resolutions of Disaffiliation can be found at this link.
The only basis for disaffiliation that is officially accepted is opposition to the new policies on sexuality. It has been suggested, however, that some churches that are leaving the denomination are ready to use that reason, but at the same time are expressing a more general dissatisfaction with the church.
In Cecil County, 14 congregations have left the denomination. One of the departing clergy is the Rev. Tim Beardsley, who is quoted in the Cecil Whig as stating, “The United Methodist Church became very wide in its beliefs.” He went on to say that the split was not about sexuality but about the primacy of scripture. Beardsley also said, “The Global Methodist Church is about the scripture, the authority of scripture, and our historic faith.”
What about the minority of congregants in the departing churches who voted against the exodus? The Peninsula Delaware Conference will put them in touch with what they are calling “lighthouse churches.” These are other United Methodist Churches that are ready to welcome newcomers.
The United Methodist Church is only the latest of the mainline Protestant churches to adopt a more liberal position on sexuality.
- In 1972, the United Church of Christ was the first mainline Protestant Church to ordain a gay minister and was also the first to affirm marriage equality of all people in 2005.
- In 1994, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church amended its canons to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, including in the ordination of clergy.
- Nine years later, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the denomination’s first gay bishop.
- In 2015, the denomination declared that same-sex couples have the right to be married in the church.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church has passed several resolutions to welcome LGBTQ+ persons since 1991.
- In 2011, the United Presbyterian Church permitted the ordination of gay ministers and in 2014, the General Assembly of the denomination ruled that the denomination’s clergy could use their own judgement on performing same-sex marriages.
The Lewis Center for Church Studies, affiliated with Wesley UM Seminary, did two studies (in 2019 and 2023) of the effects of changes of the church’s position on sexuality. The 2019 study showed that departing churches were overwhelmingly from the Southeastern and South-Central jurisdictions (84%) and were more likely to be White congregations led by a White male pastor. According to the study, in 2019 there were 30,500 congregations in the U.S. By the end of 2022, about 2,000 had exited.
The 2023 study identified 6,155 churches that had disaffiliated between 2019 and the end of June 2023. In the new study, while disaffiliations in the Southeastern and South-Central jurisdictions continued to be high, they now account for 70% of the total, down from 84%. The study also showed that those two jurisdictions no longer have most UM churches in the U.S.
In the short term, there will continue to be much soul searching, thought, and discussion among clergy and congregants to decide how to navigate these turbulent times. Faith can only help.
Below is one of the many graphs from the Lewis Center's studies on disaffiliation. Additional graphs can be seen
online.
A native of Wicomico County, George Shivers holds a doctorate from the University of Maryland and taught in the Foreign Language Dept. of Washington College for 38 years before retiring in 2007. He is also very interested in the history and culture of the Eastern Shore, African American history in particular.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
