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A Religious Divorce is Happening Over LGBTQ Inclusion Congregations will branch off to form the Global Methodist Church in May
and Grace through Separation,” or Protocol. Key elements have not been decided, including a stipulation for the UMC to pay the new denomination $25 million or how to handle church property and assets. “I think the separation between United Methodist and Global Methodist, while it is a sad thing in some ways, it is the right thing and it is the just thing,” says Pastor Julia Webb-Bowden of Elizabeth Street United Methodist Church, an affirming church in Durham. “I believe it is where we have been divinely guided at this point.” Bowden says the split is much in line with society as a whole today. It is not the first time that denominations have faced internal struggles. In 1844, the Methodist
by Chris Rudisill Qnotes Contributor
D
isagreements in the United Methodist Church have been going on for years. For some, it is reminiscent of a long, messy divorce. That separation nearing its finality with feuds over land, money and 12.7 million children (or congregants). In 2019, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. voted to keep and strengthen its ban on same-sex marriage and forbid members of the LGBTQ community from serving as clergy. Fiftyfour votes tipped the scales at the UMC’s national conference in St. Louis that year and set off a division between conservative and more affirming congregations. For Beckie McCall, it was a heartbreaking decision. “I cannot be a member of a church where my son doesn’t have the same rights as I do,” she says. “I would never be a member of a country club where my son wasn’t allowed in the dining room, and that’s basically what you’re telling me about my son.” It wasn’t an easy fight though. Her openly gay son wanted the family to make a stand, to leave the church. “That wasn’t the choice that I made. I had to stay and fight,” she recalls. And they did for the time being, at their home church in Davidson, N.C. She started her journey by forming the Davidson United Methodist LGBTQIA Family & Friends group which meets once a month to “provide leadership for further understanding of human sexuality and affirmation of all people.” But after launching the group, McCall learned that their pastor was not on their side in the argument over LGBTQ acceptance. She and her husband decided that it was time to leave. In July 2021, Davidson United Methodist Church got a new Senior Pastor – one that provided a space where McCall’s family decided they could return. David Hockett previously served as the District Superintendent of the Charlotte Metro area for the Church and has been a pastor in Greensboro, Salisbury, Concord
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The LGBTQIA Friends and Family Group of Davidson United Methodist Church meets monthly to offer support, service and education to families in the community. (Photo Credit: Davidson United Methodist Church) and Boone. Hockett brought a more welcoming atmosphere, one where the McCalls and others found a church that included them. One example of that inclusion was evident in a recent letter to the church where Hockett states a commitment to “radical hospitality – cultivating a culture in which no one is turned away and all have a seat at the table and are included in the life and mission of the Church.” Separating Us and Them Last month the UMC postponed its General Conference for the third time, this time until 2024. The General Conference is the top policy-making body of the church and is a gathering of Methodists from over 40 countries. It typically meets every four
Mar. 18.-Mar. 31, 2022
years to consider revisions to church law and policy, adopt resolutions on current issues and approve plans and budgets for church-wide programs and ministries. This year’s conference would have also included a vote on the creation of a new denomination, the more conservative Global Methodist Church. With news of another postponement, the Global Methodist Church announced its plans to officially launch in May. “Theologically conservative local churches and annual conferences want to be free of divisive and destructive debates, and to have the freedom to move forward together,” the Rev. Keith Boyette, chair of the GMC’s transitional leadership council, said in a statement. The launch was part of an agreed upon plan called the “Protocol of Reconciliation
Pastor Julia Webb-Bowden, Elizabeth Street United Methodist Church
Episcopal Church split over slavery. A resolution from North Carolina delegates at the time stated, “unwarranted interference of the Northern portion of the Church with the subject of slavery alone, a sufficient cause for a division of our Church.” North Carolina is made up of two conferences, or geographical areas, organized under the leadership of a bishop. The North Carolina Conference includes 56 counties in eastern North Carolina, from Elon to the coast, and the Western North Carolina Conference includes the 44 counties west to the Tennessee border. While there is no exact number of churches in North Carolina that will disaffiliate over LGBTQ inclusion, some say
