Global Methodist Church to Launch May 1 Without Formal Separation Plan From United Methodist Church

United Methodists will gather for worship, Bible studies and ministries such as housing the homeless and feeding the hungry on May 1, as they do most Sundays. That same day, organizers of the Global Methodist Church plan to mark the official launch of their new, theologically conservative breakaway denomination. The source says things in the 13-million-member international United Methodist Church are not expected to look much different on Monday morning.

Leaders in both churches agree that any separations from The United Methodist Church will take time to sort out. The source notes that Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, instructed: “Do not rashly tear asunder the sacred ties which unite you to any Christian society.” Wesley’s counsel against rash separation points to the value of unity (John 17:21).

The denomination’s rules make breaking up, especially taking church property, difficult. Wesley himself established the forerunner of the United Methodist trust clause, which holds all church property in trust for the entire denomination, so congregations cannot simply leave and take their buildings with them. The source says the requirements for gaining release from the trust clause have become a source of contention and confusion as churches plan for the future.

The tensions follow decades of intensifying debate over same-sex marriage and gay ordination, as well as a tumultuous special General Conference in 2019. The coming General Conference, the church’s top lawmaking assembly, faces multiple proposals to divide. The most endorsed is the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation, negotiated by a professional mediator with a theologically diverse group of United Methodist bishops and advocacy group leaders. The proposal outlines steps that would allow churches and conferences that support restrictions on gay marriage and ordination to leave with church property and $25 million in United Methodist funds to form a new traditionalist denomination.

The protocol has not yet received a General Conference vote. The source reports that complications from the COVID-19 pandemic led to three postponements of the legislative assembly, from May 2020 to now 2024. It also states that the protocol is not currently part of United Methodist church law and is not operative. After the third postponement, Global Methodist Church organizers announced they would no longer wait for General Conference to act and would move the new denomination’s launch date up to May 1, though they are doing so without the formal separation plan the protocol had been expected to provide.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association, described as a theologically conservative unofficial advocacy group within The United Methodist Church, has been the main organizing force behind the new denomination. The association plans to mark the launch at a legislative assembly on May 6 and a global gathering on May 7 near Indianapolis. The Rev. Keith Boyette, WCA president and chairman of the new denomination’s Transitional Leadership Council, has served as the designated spokesman for both groups but declined to be interviewed for the article. On its website, the Global Methodist Church said it would be a church in transition as it prepares for its own convening General Conference in 12 to 18 months.

Without a protocol, congregations that wish to leave The United Methodist Church must use existing measures in the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book. In practice, annual conferences, the church’s regional bodies, are responsible for handling disaffiliations. There are 53 annual conferences in the U.S. and 80 across Africa, Europe and the Philippines, each presided over by a bishop. By an overwhelming majority, the United Methodist Council of Bishops has affirmed that conferences should use Paragraph 2553 of the Discipline as the primary paragraph for disaffiliation and separation. The source notes that the law, passed at the 2019 special General Conference, allows congregations to exit with property “for reasons of conscience” related to homosexuality.

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