Articles with links to official statements of non-US entities, such as Central Conferences, conferences, organizations, churches, pastors and groups of pastors, news stories, and commentaries of resistance, defiance, non-compliance and revolt against the actions of the General Conference of 2019.
by David W. Scott
July 25, 2019
As previously reported, the actions of General Conference 2019 raised questions about the future for United Methodists in Germany, the Nordic-Baltic Episcopal Area as a whole, and Denmark and Norway specifically within the Nordic-Baltic Episcopal Area. All of these areas have created groups to generate proposals for the future of the United Methodist Church and ministries with and by LGBTQ persons in these countries.
While the total number of United Methodists in these areas is small, these efforts are significant, as they show United Methodists from several cultural settings other than the US trying to grapple with how to balance affirmation of LGBTQ persons by the majority and preserving unity among United Methodists of a variety of opinions.
Since most annual conferences in those areas have now met for 2019, some updates on the processes underway in these areas are available. [Continue reading at UM-Insight]
by Lloyd T. Nyarota
June 18, 2019
Special to United Methodist Insight
As an African United Methodist pastor, I have come to view the 2019 General Conference much like the 1976 Geneva Conference that tried to resolve the issue of white colonial rule in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
My late mentor, Bishop Abel Tendekai Muzorewa, saw the Geneva Conference as focused more on who must have power and control in the new nation that was to be born. Yet after the Geneva Conference more people were killed for no apparent reason. The 2019 General Conference results haven’t killed anyone physically, but they has done great spiritual and political damage to The United Methodist Church. That’s why I call the 2019 General Conference “Africa’s Great Betrayal: A Harvest of Thorns.” [Continue reading...]
(Note: Rev. Nyarota was a speaker at the first retreat of the Western Methodist Justice Movement in 2014, where I first heard him speak.)
Important articles from Central Conference members and delegates:
The German Church has decided not to follow the Traditionalist Plan as passed.
"Stipulations in the Traditional Plan approved by General Conference 2019 are unacceptable, said the executive committee of The United Methodist Church in Germany, and the church in Germany will not impose the stricter penalties laid out in the plan."
Danish Church Disavows Traditionalist Plan (Danish) (translation)
"As Danish delegates who experienced and participated in the negotiations in St. Louis, it is completely clear and without discussion that we cannot and will not live with the resolutions at the General Conference 2019 in the Methodist Church in Denmark. It so clearly contradicts our understanding of the Christian gospel and our Wesleyan understanding of the nature and function of the Church."
Norwegian Legislative Response to GC2019 (see Hacking Christianity for the original Norwegian language document)
...88 professing members from 15 different congregations in the Norwegian Annual Conference (pastors, deacons and lay members of Metodistkirken I Norge) have presented formal legislation to the Norwegian Annual Conference 2019, that “The Annual Conference 2019 establishes a committee that will present to the annual conference 2021, possible alternative models that give LGBTQ + persons the same opportunity to enter into marriage and to serve in the Methodist Church in Norway, on the same basis as other members of the church.” In addition to the 88, a petition is circulating on the web where members and friends of the church can support the proposal. This petition has so far gathered 135 names, and it will continue until the AC starts in the middle of June.