The Rev. Dr. Mark R. Holland is Executive Director of Mainstream UMC, a group formed to enccourage passage, this past February, of the "One-Church Plan." He has written an important article giving 5 reasons why the U.S. Methodist church should be its own Central Conference or denomination. Read his full analysis and argument here.
For an interesting take on the power of the more progressive U.S. church, see this Hacking Christianity article. And if looking at the denomination from a world-wide perspective interests you, see this collection of documents on the Report to the General Conference in 2012 on the Worldwide Nature of the Church. (We've been working at this for awhile.)
Excerpts:
Paragraph 101 in the United Methodist Book of Discipline codifies the colonial ethos of our church. This paragraph allows Central Conferences (those outside of the United States) to adapt portions of the rules to fit their cultural contexts. The U.S. church does not have the same permission. This paragraph was put in place when the U.S. church had an overwhelming majority of votes at General Conference and it was, ironically, an attempt to be less colonial than we had been in the past. Now that representation at General Conference between U.S. and non-U.S. delegates is nearly even, the lack of reciprocity in paragraph 101 is a glaring tribute to our enduring form of colonialism.
A two thirds (2/3) majority of the U.S. church voted for cultural contextualization through the One Church Plan. It was telling that eighty percent (80%) of the delegates from outside the U.S. declared, through their support of the Traditional Plan, that they are unwilling to allow the U.S. jurisdictions the same cultural contextualization they enjoy....
1. We are not really a global church.
The United Methodist Church is the single largest of the many denominations that make up the “Methodist” family around the world. Yet, we make up only about 30% of all Methodists. ... The UMC is in ministry and mission with all Methodists around the world, but we do not share a common Book of Discipline.
2. The voting imbalance at General Conference is irreversible.
Prior to the 1990’s, as provisional annual conferences outside of the United States reached a certain size, they became independent, “autonomous” Methodist churches. But during the 1990’s there was a shift in practice—though I have not seen that there was ever a formal vote to change policy. The numbers speak for themselves.
3. The voting at General Conference shows the global divide in the church.
80% of all non-U.S. delegates and 90% of all African delegates voted against 2/3 of the U.S. church on a policy that only affects the practice of ministry in the United States. There is no question that full rights for LGBTQ persons in the United States would have passed as many as 12 years ago with a U.S. only vote.
4. We have a quirky, not very democratic system.
...44 [of 129] annual conferences outside the United States reported votes on one or more of the 2016 constitutional amendments as a bloc—either 100% for or 100% against. Consequently, the constitutional amendment about the equality of women failed by 0.2% worldwide. This bloc voting was expected and carried out at General Conference with more than 90% of the African delegates voting for the Traditional Plan
5. The financial imbalance in the church is unsustainable.
Under the current apportionment system, the U.S. church contributes $600 million of the $604 million 2017-2020 quadrennial budget (99.3%). The rest of the world contributes $4 million (0.7%).
Conclusion: Our entire global governance/administrative/financial structure, must change.
...the current apparatus is an outdated relic of Western colonialism and is irreparably broken. If the structure does not change, inapt cultural values will continue to be imposed upon one region of the world by another. ... The only recourse appears to be a new structure of regional governance that makes sense for our various contexts.
Get Mark's full analysis and suggestions here.