By Simon Mafunda
August 15, 2023
“MFSA has been involved in gathering funds to help with expenses for those who want to remain United Methodist and need financial assistance to attend the Annual Conference.” This is an excerpt from a recent memo done by the Oregon-Idaho Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action (“MFSA”), a liberal caucus group and a supporter of the Reconciling Ministries Network. I find it very interesting that this memo was circulated to raise funds to help their United Methodist friends in Kenya. Some of the reasons used to justify this fundraiser are a shocker, to say the least. It makes one wonder why people must use twisted information and straight lies to have innocent folks open their purses.
The memo alleges that people are being forced to go and vote at the upcoming Annual Conference session to leave The United Methodist Church (“UMC”). This is a very mischievous and unscrupulous statement. United Methodists in Kenya-Ethiopia are adult Christians who do not think twice about what they want. They live and model Christianity rooted in the orthodox Gospel of Jesus Christ and are informed by their rich and time-tested culture and value system. To suggest that such people can be forced to vote for anything that affects the integrity of what they believe is unimaginable. It is just not true that people are being pressured into how they should vote at the annual conference session.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association (“WCA”) and the Global Methodist Church (“GMC”) are fingered as the chief culprits in these allegations having been the main source of this supposed pressure. It is further alleged that WCA and GMC representatives “have pushed to have the conference session at a distant and difficult-to-reach location.” I guess this kind of information was supplied by their liberal friends in Kenya where they particularly single out the efforts of “Rev. Kennedy Mwita, the pastor of the first Reconciling congregation in Kenya, along with others….” True United Methodist members know exactly how conference sessions are planned and it boggles the mind how WCA and GMC representatives could have the whole annual conference leadership force marched by a few outside people to go to a venue that did not suit their requirements.
For the record, Kenya-Ethiopia Annual Conference session locations have always been selected on a rotational basis and this has been coordinated by the conference planning team. In 2016 Nangana in the Busia District, which is shared with Uganda, was selected as the venue for the annual conference. Trinity in the Naiwasha District was the selected venue for the 2017 annual conference session followed by Moheto in the Nyanza District for the 2018 session. In 2019 the location moved to Githongo UMC in the Meru District after which there was a break due to the COVID-19 outbreak. UMC Kayole at St John’s Nairobi was the 2022 venue and the upcoming 2023 session will be held at Tazama, Mombasa. This has been the trend followed by the conference planning team which is an official committee of the annual conference. To then suggest that the WCA/GMC influenced the decision on this venue choice is a brazen lie.
While all this is happening, our beloved African bishops are mum. Interestingly when something like this is done by traditionalist caucuses, they quickly label it as colonialism. When liberals are involved, as in this case, I guess they call it a partnership and it is encouraged and celebrated.
As we were preparing for the now-canceled UMC General Conference 2022, the U.S. government required a full vaccination against COVID-19 to enter the country. At that time, the Renewal and Reform Coalition (WCA, Good News, IRD/UMAction, and the Confessing Movement) came up with a very noble idea to help delegates travel to vaccination centers to get their shots which would enable them to enter the USA to attend the General Conference. Other UMC boards and organizations were approached in the hope of coming up with a concerted effort for the sake of the bigger picture, but they all turned down the idea. With the WCA taking the lead, funds were raised for that sole purpose and for all who had that kind of challenge. Kindly note that vaccination centers were still few and large distances apart and that the fund was never meant to supply the vaccines. On January 17, 2022, African bishops posted a statement rubbishing this effort and calling it colonialism. You can read the full statement here. This initiative was never targeted at perceived traditionalist delegates or those who agreed with these traditionalist caucuses but at all delegates (traditionalist, centrist, and progressive) who had the need.
Using some of the bishops’ phrases about the current situation in the Kenya-Ethiopia Annual Conference, I would say the official organizer of the annual conference is the Conference Planning Committee “and when individual interest groups begin to offer benefits to delegates, they jeopardize the integrity” of the Annual Conference session. “The unfortunate thing about the entire process by” MFSA “is that it has all the marks of colonialism which our countries went through some years ago.” In all honesty, I would have thought the African bishops should have immediately come out against this colonial effort by MFSA. The trend, especially in Africa has seen traditionalist caucuses and/or efforts being vilified at every turn while those more liberally leaned are celebrated. This clearly defines the division in Africa when it comes to the overall debate that has been the result of the schism taking place.
It is a given that as Kenya-Ethiopia goes to Annual Conference on August 20, there are some General and Central Conference delegates among them. Is this not the beginning of direct influence on such delegates as we count down toward the UMC General Conference 2024? Is it not also a direct influence on the Annual Conference delegates to vote in favor of the liberal arguments at the conference session?
It is my sincere hope that the African bishops, or at least the East African episcopal leaders will stand up and condemn this “brazen interference in the affairs of The United Methodist Church…” in Kenya- Ethiopia. If African bishops continue to treat such issues with favor and bias, the rift between them and the delegates will continue to grow making it a sure receipt for another ugly fight at GC2024, something we must avoid at all costs.
Simon Mafunda is the Vice President for Africa Strategy for the Wesleyan Covenant Association and lives in Zimbabwe.