by Mark Holland, Executive Director of Mainstream UMC
The most important thing right now is to be empowered about the future of the Methodist Church. We lost the votes for 4 days in St. Louis. We win the remaining 361 days of the year as we vote with our actions and our dollars. The 2/3rds of the U.S. church that is in support of full inclusivity cannot be controlled by votes from outside our mission field. Paragraph 101 of the Book of Discipline gives the global church broad autonomy over their mission fields. This is not currently reciprocated to the U.S. church. Yet, we have all the members and resources we need to form a church in the Wesleyan tradition that is filled with grace and not mean-spirited rules. The Traditional Plan lives in the past. Together, we need to form a new future. Here are three things we can all do.... (Read on)
The Western Jurisdiction is another part of the church considering futures. See this page for more. And so is this group.