Thousands of words have been published about the separation of The United Methodist Church into two denominations. Although the formal separation is still in a legal transitional stage, the spin-off The Global Methodist Church is operational even though it seems to be a big secret to many.
A review of their web site claims 3,000 churches, but the exodus will not be complete until after the 2024 General Conference of the United Methodist Church this summer. In the meantime, these independent congregations are meeting under the new banner. Not all congregations who left the United Methodist Church chose to affiliate with this denomination and some chose to be independent. It appears to be a selling point that these churches need to retain a connectional alignment that is the hallmark of the Methodist Church.
At this point, only a small full-time staff is onboard. The organization includes 22 members of a Transitional Leadership Council. The organization has published a formal Catechism. It also has a Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline that is a work in progress until a formal conference that will be held in about 12-18 months. The Book has nine parts, and I admit that I downloaded the Book but I did not read the entire book. It is considerably shorter than the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. The denomination includes 12 Provisional Annual Conferences, the term that Methodists use to describe their regional administrative units. Some are located internationally.
Most of the churches took their properties with them under a special provision approved in 2019, while others formed a new congregation and left their properties. When the denomination is legally formed, all churches will own their properties rather than hold them in trust for the annual conference. The issue of what benefits clergy will retain in the new organization remains somewhat murky until a formal budget is adopted. Women clergy will be acceptable; gays will not.
To provide direction during the interim, the new denomination offers three digital resource guides that may be downloaded from the web site. Of course, The GMC claims to follow in the tradition of John Wesley. They claim The United Methodist Church has strayed from that tradition. In fact, the most apt description of the group is that they are traditionalists. They place a high emphasis on dogma.
The final administration and organization of the Global Methodist Church probably will be somewhat different than the United Methodist Church as it continues to grow. The theology certainly will be more conservative.
For more information refer to their website: globalmethodist.org.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.