February 20, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Scott Field
There’s probably no avoiding an asterisk* with any reference to the upcoming UM General Conference. 
In colloquial usage, an asterisk* attached to a sporting record indicates that it is somehow tainted. It’s an abbreviated way of indicating that the outcome of the sporting event is open to question or widely considered to be dodgy. The UMC General Conference is not a sporting competition, but the swelling chorus of concern threatens to undermine the perceived integrity of the conference’s actions. Some influential voices are suggesting the General Conference is dubious even before it is called to order.
On the other hand, an asterisk might indicate an event or accomplishment of historic importance. An example would be Jesse Owens, American track and field star, who won four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and thereby destroyed Hitler’s myth of Aryan superiority. There is so much more to Jesse Owens’ story but suffice it here to say an asterisk beside his name in a list of Olympic gold-medal winners indicates an accomplishment of historic importance.
Which will the coming UM General Conference be: tainted, historic, perhaps both?
Let’s consider:
The Swelling Chorus of Questions and Concerns
This past week the United Methodist News Service, which understandably tends to avoid criticism of the UMC, sent out a piece highlighting the range of questions and concerns related to preparations for the General Conference. Rev. Dr. Mark Holland, from our friends at MainstreamUMC, has the most memorable quote in the article: “If I planned a family reunion like this, with 30 of us, my sisters would beat me with a stick.”
To oversimplify the range, diversity, and complexity of concerns, I am summarizing them around three questions.
What Year Is It?
The upcoming General Conference in Charlotte is, technically, the thrice-delayed 2020 General Conference. Many are wondering why, given the length of time to prepare for this global gathering, the arrangements, communications, and details are so very late in coming. Further, the agenda of the conference will need to deal with the legislation originally proposed in 2020 as well as new legislation that is being presented for the first time in 2024. Add to that the confusion over the status of legislation originally proposed by individuals, churches, or groups that were UMC in 2020 but have subsequently disaffiliated from the denomination, and you can see that is will likely be a challenging task for everyone to know not only the petition or resolution before them for action but also the legitimacy of its pedigree.
Add to the legislative confusion the impact of losing 25% of UMC congregations in the USA. There are emerging downstream organizational and administrative effects on episcopal leadership, the available clergy pool, finances, as well as the size and number of districts and annual conferences. It is clear that in some ways, the delegates and organizers of the General Conference will be attempting to “unscramble the eggs” of multiple major changes in just the past three years.
Who Are The Delegates?
The disaffiliation of 25% of congregations in the USA has also had a downstream impact on the composition of the delegations coming to the General Conference. The overwhelming majority of congregations which have left the UMC are conservative. Any of their members who had been elected as a General Conference delegate from their Annual Conference have been replaced with, for the most part, progressive delegates. Even more, though the US portion of the UMC has lost 25% of its churches the formula for delegate apportionment to the General Conference remains the same. Impact? The US, which has fewer United Methodists, maintains the same number of delegates. And Africa, which has grown dramatically in number of United Methodists, remains artificially suppressed in the number of its delegates because of the stipulated lag time in delegate reapportionment.
Additionally, letters of invitation from the Commission on General Conference, necessary for many of the international delegates to apply for a visa to travel to the US, have been so slow in coming that some of the delegates in Africa report there is no possibility to schedule a visa interview in time for the General Conference. Africa will be further under-represented because some of its duly elected delegates are not able to obtain a visa to attend.
The impact of these and other dynamics affecting the delegates coming to Charlotte is very simple: the US has a disproportionate number of delegates, of whom most are considered by “vote counters” as progressive or, perhaps, institutionalist. In a recent presentation, the Executive Director of MainstreamUMC, part of the lobbying coalition with Methodist Federation for Social Action and Reconciling Ministries Network, indicates they have 55% of the vote sewn up already. You can see/hear his presentation at Dumbarton UMC in Washington, DC, here. (The comments on the disproportionate number of US progressive delegates and the need to press forward with their agenda before delegate reapportionment takes place for the General Conference of 2028 begins at about 14:15).
Is Connectionalism Disconnected Already?
United Methodism has a unique organizational structure called “connectionalism”. It is an odd word that my spell-checker automatically flags as some sort of misspelling. Connectionalism means that all United Methodists in congregations, districts, annual conferences, and jurisdictions across the globe are connected with a common doctrinal core, common discipline, and common mission. The practical outworking of this organization is in the areas of governance, ordination, finance, and accountability.
Yet, some UMC bishops, administrative leaders, and annual conferences have refused to uphold the Traditional Plan adopted by the Special General Conference of 2019, have celebrated the ordinations and election of bishops who are, according to the UMC Book of Discipline, unqualified to be ordained, let alone placed in the role of episcopal leaders, and have taken particularly punitive actions toward congregations and pastors, notably local pastors and Korean pastors, who attempted to follow the disaffiliation provisions of paragraph 2553. Instances of the widely-reported overreach by episcopal leaders has now landed a half-dozen annual conferences in legal battles with the local churches for whom they are commissioned to provide care and support. All of these are indications that the connectional system is in tatters.
The Regionalization Plan, proposed to the General Conference, ends the era of connectionalism altogether by re-organizing the UMC into an association of regions or a network of national churches. In so doing, the UMC in the USA will insulate itself from the global church in doctrine, ordination, and accountability. (For more on the impact of the regionalization proposal, click here).
What will the 2020/2024 UM General Conference asterisk* mean? Tainted? Maybe. Rigged? Perhaps.
Or, in spite of these and other dynamics, maybe historic? How about both tainted AND historic?
Will Methodist history be made in Charlotte?
The Scriptures include this memorable metaphor: “A three-corded strand is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). This verse in its context relates to the value of companionship and community, but it came to mind in thinking about the upcoming General Conference. For my purposes here, I’d contemporize it this way: “Three cords in a knot are hard to break.” No doubt.
There are over 1,100 petitions coming to the General Conference. Yet there are just three determinative and legislatively interrelated concerns that will mark the future of the UMC:
- Disaffiliation: will a fair, transparent, feasible, and uniform exit pathway be authorized for those congregations and annual conferences that choose to separate from the UMC?
- LGBTQIA+ inclusion: will the definition of marriage be extended beyond a woman and a man to include two people of whatever gender, sexual orientation, or identity in an exclusive relationship? Will partnered LGBTQIA+ persons be welcomed as candidates for ordination, appointment, and election to episcopal office?
- Regionalization: Will the UMC amend its constitutive documents to become a network of semi-autonomous or autonomous regions rather than a connection of conferences?
The General Conference will face these as a knotty problem. Whenever we are attempting to unknot something, particularly with more than two strands, we normally find the way forward by identifying one strand that can be loosened first and then deal with the others.
I suggest that of these three major concerns before the General Conference, the first to be addressed and approved should be the provision of a fair, transparent, feasible, and uniform process of disaffiliation for congregations and annual conferences throughout United Methodism.
This would relieve the anxiety and fears related to the other two proposals. No one would feel they might be trapped in a denomination where they might not, in good conscience, remain. And no one would fear the retribution of conservatives, progressives, or institutionalists in consideration of the other two major proposals since, at the end of the UMC General Conference, each congregation and annual conference will have the liberty to end up where it decides to be.
Tainted though many may have decided the General Conference is and will be, there is still the possibility of making history.
The delegates to the General Conference, even with a disproportionate number from the USA, can continue the strife of scuffling, accusing, attacking, and politicking their way to another stalemate. But a half-century of conflict seems like more than enough. The history-making alternative is for the General Conference delegates to authorize a pathway to disaffiliation first. Then the pressure will be off for thoughtful consideration of the other pressing matters before the General Conference.
The UM General Conference of 2020/2024 will without question have an asterisk* attached to it. By setting aside the hostilities and affirming liberty for congregations and annual conferences that choose to depart, the possibility emerges for this General Conference to focus its attention on the future rather than repeating the conflict-riddled cycles of past. And that would be a history-making, corner-turning, future-focused gathering worthy of an asterisk, without question.
What the asterisk* will mean remains in the hands, prayers, legislative committee discussions, and votes in Charlotte. We’ll all know the answer in 73 days.