by Cynthia B. Astle
July 22, 2019
Used by permission of UM-Insight
After a wave of refusals and denunciations of the Traditional Plan during annual conference season coupled with the withholding of "fair-share" funding for church-wide ministries, United Methodists are now discussing what was once the elephant in the parlor: whether the denomination should divide or dissolve.
On the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s website, the Rev. Joseph F. DiPaolo of Eastern Pennsylvania Conference writes in a July 19 post, “Minneapolis Calmly Considered,” that the denomination may be facing a “Gamaliel moment,” referring to the wise elder chronicled in Acts 5 who counseled Jewish leaders not to persecute new Christians.
Rev. DiPaolo gives this rationale: “Though it grieves me to suggest this, it is time to formulate an orderly, amicable and just plan of separation. Such a plan should allow for persons and congregations to follow their convictions, while also providing for ongoing support for those areas of common responsibility which will remain – like social service and relief ministries, pension obligations, and care of historic sites and archives.
“I have long resisted calls to leave The United Methodist Church or see it divide. … But I have come to the reluctant conclusion that we are now headed irrevocably toward a church split. History shows us that such divisions typically are marked by rancor, costly lawsuits, the collapse of cooperative ministries, and deeply damaged relationships."
The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell of Asbury Park, N.J., a retired clergy member of the former Rocky Mountain (now Mountain Sky) conference and a longtime civil rights leader, comes down on the opposite side of the question.
In a reflection he calls “A Gil Caldwell Thinking Out Loud Epistle, emailed to colleagues and friends, Rev. Caldwell writes of The United Methodist Church’s historic – and ongoing – struggle with institutional racism as a prime reason not to divide the denomination.
After a wave of refusals and denunciations of the Traditional Plan during annual conference season coupled with the withholding of "fair-share" funding for church-wide ministries, United Methodists are now discussing what was once the elephant in the parlor: whether the denomination should divide or dissolve.
On the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s website, the Rev. Joseph F. DiPaolo of Eastern Pennsylvania Conference writes in a July 19 post, “Minneapolis Calmly Considered,” that the denomination may be facing a “Gamaliel moment,” referring to the wise elder chronicled in Acts 5 who counseled Jewish leaders not to persecute new Christians.
Rev. DiPaolo gives this rationale: “Though it grieves me to suggest this, it is time to formulate an orderly, amicable and just plan of separation. Such a plan should allow for persons and congregations to follow their convictions, while also providing for ongoing support for those areas of common responsibility which will remain – like social service and relief ministries, pension obligations, and care of historic sites and archives.
“I have long resisted calls to leave The United Methodist Church or see it divide. … But I have come to the reluctant conclusion that we are now headed irrevocably toward a church split. History shows us that such divisions typically are marked by rancor, costly lawsuits, the collapse of cooperative ministries, and deeply damaged relationships."
The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell of Asbury Park, N.J., a retired clergy member of the former Rocky Mountain (now Mountain Sky) conference and a longtime civil rights leader, comes down on the opposite side of the question.
In a reflection he calls “A Gil Caldwell Thinking Out Loud Epistle, emailed to colleagues and friends, Rev. Caldwell writes of The United Methodist Church’s historic – and ongoing – struggle with institutional racism as a prime reason not to divide the denomination.