Vote on clause that split Methodist churches to happen soon

Jan. 18—The General Conference of the United Methodist Church is looking to the future, and its leaders want to focus on collaboration after the shakeup over the homosexuality clause in the Book of Discipline.

The recent split of the UMC concerns a segment stating that "self-avowed homosexuals cannot be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church."

Rev. Derrek Belase, director of Connectional Ministries for the United Methodist Assembly, said 127 churches have disaffiliated from the Oklahoma Annual Conference since last October, and another 26 churches have closed.

"For my work in the church, I'm asking, how do we lead into the future? Disaffiliation is in the rearview mirror. There are over 300 United Methodist churches in Oklahoma, plus another 80 in the Oklahoma Native American Conference," Belase said.

Article 4, Section 304.3, "Qualifications for Ordination," states: "While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching."

The clause goes further to describe a self-avowed practicing homosexual as one who openly acknowledges practicing it.

The last special Oklahoma Conference was called by Bishop Jimmie Nunn in October 2023. Alan Herzberger, a spokesperson with Koch Communications, explained the ending of the period for churches to disaffiliate.

"The last churches were validated or approved to disaffiliate by the conference. Now, disaffiliation is over. The United Methodist Conference is restructuring its districts and planning for a new future with more unification and less division and no more talk about disaffiliation," Herzberger said.

Redistricting is necessary, said Belase, due to the loss of churches in the disaffiliation process. The districts will go from eight to five.

The worldwide body will meet in Charlotte, North Carolina, from April 23-May 3 to vote on the clause. This is the conference that was postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic. Some countries around the world, like in Africa, have laws against homosexuality, so this is an unknown as far as the vote for striking the clause, Belase said.

"The African delegates want to stay with UMC," Belase said. "At the world conference delegates will [consider striking the clause] and working on new language, but there is no consensus across the worldwide [conference]."

At the 2019 Oklahoma conference the clause would have been voted on but the conference did not happen due to COVID, Herzberger said.

"And generally how it played out, the traditionally-minded churches felt they should leave, become independent, or become more conservative," Herzberger said. "The conference adheres to the BOD."

The annual conference meetings for the Oklahoma Annual Conference are scheduled for later in May 2024, Herzberger said.

Whatever comes from the conference, that's that, Belase said. The Supreme Court made all marriage legal.

"Once that happened — I was at a minister alliance conference — and everybody was talking of how their church would have to basically work on their own internal policies and have to do gay marriages," Belase said. "I don't have to do anything because BOD hasn't changed even with the SC ruling. [I told myself] you are kind of in an enviable position and I remember thinking, and told friends, that this is a very temporary reprieve for me."

The Oklahoma Annual Conference strategic plan process for the five dreams come to culmination at this annual conference. That is what the Oklahoma Annual Conference, its leadership, etc., are focused on — though the OKUMC does send a delegation to the General Conference, as it does for every annual conference, Herzberger said.

In October 2023, Belase spoke to a special annual conference about the dreams. The dreams outlined are: cultivating new congregations; helping churches reach communities in new ways; empowering congregations to serve children at risk of poverty; identifying needs of the clergy; and identifying new clergy leaders and empowering lay leaders to meet the needs of the changing demographic across Oklahoma.

Lo Ison, media technology manager at the First United Methodist Church in Tahlequah, said the local congregation does not plan to disaffiliate.

"We chose not to make that vote," Ison said. "We didn't feel like this was something we had to talk about. We knew what our place was and it was to stay in the United Methodist Conference."

Ison said that from her understanding, disaffiliation could only have been on the clause in the Book of Discipline, which is the governing texts for the UMC.

"That homosexuality clause says they can't be clergy or [officiate] same-sex weddings," Ison said. "The beautiful thing about the BOD is that it is an ever-changing body of texts. It gets voted on to change every four years and it's bound to change within the next four years."

As a part of the LGBTQ+ community, Ison has been accepted and well-supported by the First United Methodist Church, Ison said.

"The BOD does not hold us back. In the national conference we now have openly gay bishops and openly gay pastors that are officiating same-sex weddings at the blessing of the bishop," Ison said.

Another issue may be at the crux of the split in the UMC. Rev. Shana Dry, of FUMC in Tahlequah, spoke to this side of the discussion. The property of all the churches is held in a trust by the UMC. When Dry became a senior pastor two years ago, she attended a meeting that laid out all the options for churches to split.

Dry recalled a conversation with a close friend who tried to explain why the friend's church was disaffiliating.

"For the first 15 minutes, all she talked about was how much money they were saving, $2.4 million in property and apportionments, and how [the church] could do so much more [if those didn't have to be paid out to UMC]," Dry said. "I told her you've got to understand that disaffiliation has nothing to do with money and I know your beliefs, and I know that you want that clause removed as much as I do."

Two months later, the friend called back and told Dry she had withdrawn her membership from her church because they had disaffiliated, and she joined another Methodist church "to make sure I'm still UM."

Dry said she told her friend, "It's not about money; this is about your belief."

"Some of the churches disaffiliate for money," Dry said. "And as UM, we have given them that property."

First United Methodist Church is the only United Methodist Church in Tahlequah, Dry said.

"Claremore, Edmond are disaffiliated; Westville and Wagoner have all disaffiliated," Dry said. "And it's over that clause. They don't want that clause removed. God said to love all, to take care of all. It's not our place to judge. It's our place to love, and so that's where we are called, and that's why we stay with United Methodist."

What's next

The second part in this two-part series will appear in the Wednesday, Jan. 24 edition.