What is the Methodist schism impact on Millsaps College? It's more than money

There is civil strife going on within the Methodist church around the United States, and while members fight it out in disaffiliation battles centered around sexuality and power within the church, one unintended victim of the process are institutions of higher learning, such as Millsaps College.

Millsaps has been connected to the Methodist church, in one form or another, since 1890. Officials don't expect it to leave the United Methodist Church fold, but like many of the denomination's universities, it will feel the impact of the church's changes.

During the more than 130-year partnership, which has specifically been with the UMC since 1968, the Methodist financial support for the liberal arts college has dwindled as Americans, and Mississippians specifically don't give to religious organizations (such as the UMC and the regional conference and some churches) as much as they once did.

Now, more than 20% of Mississippi's United Methodist Churches have disaffiliated from the organization in the last few years in a schism, which is the latest in the nationwide split, described by some as the largest denominational schism in the last 50 years.

The loss of the more than 200 Mississippi churches during that time leaves Millsaps with the possibility of receiving even fewer dollars from the UMC.

For the 2022-2023 school year, Millsaps College received around $185,000 from the United Methodist Church Annual Conference and the new budgeted amount (adopted at this most recent conference) is $179,139.

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Millsaps' new dean of the chapel and director of church relations, the Rev. Dr. Ricky James says the impact to the schools comes in various ways, not just monetary.

"There's definitely an impact for anyone who is in the greater Methodist family during this time," said James, who took over for Rev. Dr. Joey Shelton on July 1. "There are faculty and alumni who have long histories with various churches, which are now leaving the denomination. So, any time there is a division, there is an impact."

Why the schism?

The issues for the United Methodist Church, in general, center around, but are not limited to, a difference in opinion about whether someone who identifies as LGBTQ should be ordained in churches. Other denominations, including the Episcopal church, have faced similar challenges in recent years. Amid issues surrounding human sexuality, hundreds of Episcopal churches splintered off nationally to move to the new, more conservative Anglican Church in North America, though no Mississippi parishes left the Episcopal fold.

This is not the first time churches have chosen to leave the denomination in recent years over the same issues. This year at the annual conference was just the largest group to do so as 189 of the 856 apportioned of fully connected members were allowed to disaffiliate.

Leading up to this year, a total of 55 churches disaffiliated from the conference with seven leaving in 2019, 11 in 2020, 23 in 2021 and 14 in 2022.

"We have faculty from churches that are either in a discernment and leaving or discerning and staying within the church," said James, who was previously the minister at Clinton United Methodist Church, which narrowly defeated a disaffiliation vote just a few months ago. "There is an emotional and spiritual impact that is being felt by various people in various ways."

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However, James says the tangible impact is yet to fully be seen as the amount of funding from the annual conference continues to diminish.

"There are many institutions that are going to feel the financial impact. There are those like Duke University in North Carolina and Hendrix College in Arkansas," James said. "So, any time there is a change in the conference financial situation, we know there could be a change in financial support in the future, although we don't know what that might look like down the road."

Even Mississippi's other Methodist institution, Rust College in Holly Springs will feel the impact.

James points out however that the conference is not the major or primary source of income for Millsaps. Instead, the midtown Jackson institution relies on tuition from its students and donations from its alumni.

Millsaps has an endowment of around $106 million as of May, and fewer than 1,000 students.

"While the funding from the annual conference is on our radar, it's definitely not something that is jeopardizing to the college financially," said James, who grew up in Hattiesburg and went to Parkway United Methodist Church as a child. "But we know that as the conference's financial situations change with a fewer number of churches, what they are able to support to all of its various partners is probably going to change."

More to the UMC relationship

However, James is quick to point out that Millsaps' relationship to the United Methodist church is more than just financial. His office operates campus religious life, alternate route certification for clergy and help with small membership churches in the conference.

"Millsaps remains a very proud United Methodist institution," James said. "But let's remember that the Methodist church has a history of going through these times of schism and division and then times of reunification. That happened in 1844, 1930 and 1968. So, Millsaps is committed to being an institution related to the Methodist church, and since '68 to the United Methodist Church."

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He also says that Millsaps is open to anyone of any faith or "no faith at all" and doesn't want to distance itself from anyone who wants to attend the college, including those students or alumni whose churches may have disaffiliated with the United Methodist Church.

"We are committed to academic freedom and expression," James said. "When I went to school at Millsaps many years ago, the motto was 'we teach you how to think, not what to think.' And I believe that is our mission today. We provide opportunities for people to explore the big questions of life which often include questions of spirituality and other questions of life."

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Methodist schism impact on Millsaps College