NEWS STORY: Group of clergy, laity ask to leave United Methodist jurisdiction

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In the first sign of schism in the United Methodist Church over the gay issue, a group of 18 clergy and 25 lay people who oppose homosexual rights in the church have asked to be allowed to separate from their regional body, the California-Nevada Annual Conference.”We are divided […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ In the first sign of schism in the United Methodist Church over the gay issue, a group of 18 clergy and 25 lay people who oppose homosexual rights in the church have asked to be allowed to separate from their regional body, the California-Nevada Annual Conference.”We are divided beyond reconciliation,”the group said in an April 2 statement in which they asked leaders of the annual conference _ the regional jurisdiction to which they belong _ to design a”careful and wise process by which evangelical pastors and churches can responsibly choose to transform their theological reality into an organizational reality.” The evangelicals said separation from the rest of the conference’s 93,000 Methodists and 375 congregations would allow both sides to pursue their interests without the”distraction and injury of an ongoing war of ideas.” They said a”just process”would include allowing the local churches that might withdraw to keep their property with some financial compensation to the conference and reimbursement for past financial assistance. Generally in such church disputes, property titles are held by the jurisdiction rather than the congregation.

While citing a host of theological and other differences with the majority of churches in the conference and with the national church, the group said the trial of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, the Lincoln, Neb., pastor acquitted March 13 of charges he violated church rules by performing a same-sex ceremony, brought the group to a”crisis”within the annual conference.


They also cited actions by two district superintendents _ local church officials _ as well as Bishop Melvin G. Talbert’s signing of a statement in support of homosexual rights as provoking evangelicals in the conference”to face the inescapable truth that our differences with a liberal conference are insoluable.” Prominent area pastors signing the statement include the Rev. Robert Kuyper of Bakersfield, Calif., newsletter editor for Transforming Congregations, a ministry to the”sexual broken,”and the Rev. John C. Sheppard II, pastor of the 650-member First United Methodist Church in Yuba City, Calif.

Conference officials had no immediate reaction to the statement but Talbert told the United Methodist News Service, the denomination’s official news agency, that the statement would be considered by conference officials in mid-April.

Meanwhile, Morris Floyd, spokesman for CORONET, a group of Creech supporters and a longtime leader in Affirmation, the independent gay caucus in the church, urged church members to avoid a”rush to crisis thinking.””Warnings of potential schism may become self-fulling prophecies if we do not take a more realistic look at what has actually taken place,”he said in a statement responding to calls by gay opponents for a special, emergency session of the General Conference, the church’s top decision-making body.

In a separate but related development, three large United Methodist congregations in the Atlanta area have announced they will withhold their share of funds intended for the national church’s national and international mission programs because of the Creech verdict.

But in at least one of the congregations _ First United Methodist Church in Marietta, Ga. _ some church leaders have broken with action of the 5,200-member congregation’s Board of Stewards in deciding to”redirect”some $58,000 from churchwide causes.

The other two churches are the 1,500-member Acworth United Methodist Church and the 5,400-member Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church. Both are in Cobb County, near Atlanta.

In an April 3 statement dissenting from the Marietta board of steward’s decision, seven of the local congregation’s officials said extremists on both sides of the gay issue were acting like”moral police.””Well-intentioned people on both sides of this issue, in an attempt to `correct’ the United Methodist Church, have been led to extremism,”the seven said.”Withholding is an extreme measure cutting at the every essence of the connectionality we enjoy as Methodist,”they said.”It is a secular solution for a spiritual problem _ we become more and more like those whose positions we oppose.” But the church’s pastor, the Rev. Charles Sineath, called the withholding an”act of conscience”that demonstrated”denominational loyalty, tough love.” Methodist finances are governed by a system called”apportionments,”which are set by the denomination’s General Conference. Of the average dollar dropped in a Methodist collection plate, 81.2 cents is kept in the local church, 14.3 cents goes to regional ministries in the district, annual conferences and multistate jurisdictions, and 4.5 cents goes to the 14 national and international agencies and ministries of the denomination.


The”apportionment”requested of each congregation is determined by a formula that takes into consideration the local congregation’s size and local budget. Mt. Bethel’s total apportionment for all levels is $224,041, while Acworth’s is $65,100. About 30 percent of those amounts would go to churchwide ministries.

MJP END DEA

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