The Editor of UM-Insight, Cynthia Astle, has written a great summary email with lots of helpful links for what's happening in the UMC these days. Thank you, Cynthia! (She has given permission to reproduce this piece.)
Momentous May 1 – the date when the breakaway Global Methodist Church launched – came and went "not with the bang, but a whimper," as T.S. Eliot wrote in his famous poem "The Hollow Men." There was no bang of celebratory fireworks, but whimpers of lament at the splintering of The United Methodist Church. Later in the week, the GMC’s launch elicited greater clarity among United Methodists who posted on social media why they intend to #BeUMC, with some openly rebutting political narratives put forth by conservatives/traditionalists remaining in the UMC.
Heather Hahn of UM News captured the event of the GMC’s split in a wrap-up report on last week’s Council of Bishops meeting, United Methodists Urged to Relaunch Their Church. She also wrote a helpful “explainer,” What Happens When a New Denomination Launches?
Meanwhile, Insight readers recommended posts from blogs and social media regarding the splintered UMC:
- Failure to Launch: Reflections on The UMC by Lisa Schubert Nowling
- Pro-Slavery, Anti-Women, Anti-Gay, Same Old Hermeneutic by John Alexander Wright
- The 2024 United Methodist General Conference Delegation by Mark Davies
- This is What it Means to Me to #BeUMC by Dianne L. Tobey
- The UMC of Tomorrow Begins Today by J.J. Warren
- Reflections on the Launch of the Global Methodist Church by William C. Trench
- Shall Progressives Inherit the United Methodist Church? No. Not yet. by Jeremy Smith
- A History of Incompatibility, Part 5 by Charlie Baber
Some readers endorsed posts regarding the likelihood of continued activism within the UMC by Good News, the Wesleyan Covenant Association and other interest groups:
- Open Letter to the Wesleyan Covenant Association After the Separation Vote in Bulgaria
- Response of The Wesleyan Covenant Association to Open Letter from Some European Bishops
- Harder Things by David Livingston
- The WCA: Forked-Tongue Time by Steve Harper
- Do Unto Others? by Robert A. Hunt
(From Ben: And while you're at it, visit this piece by David Scott on the implications for international mission of the Wesley quote, "The World Is My Parish.")
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Here's an historical review from 2016 forward of how the GMC came to be from the Rev. Jeremy Smith of the Hacking Christianity Blog: We Called It: Looking back at the Rise of the Global Methodist Church.