A Pastoral Letter for Epiphany 2020
United Methodists of the Greater Northwest,
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out…
We saw the glory with our own eyes…
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
John 1, The Message
This morning United Methodists around the world received a word of hope that the strife that has racked our Church might find a peaceful end.
A group of sixteen United Methodist leaders from around the world, who hold a wide range of theological and social convictions, have negotiated protocols for a graceful separation within The United Methodist Church. If adopted by the General Conference in May, the proposal would:
- Maintain The United Methodist Church intact.
- Allow local churches and annual conferences that choose not to remain affiliated with The United Methodist Church to leave, while maintaining their property, assets, and liabilities.
- Commit $39 million to racial and ethnic inclusion and anti-racism work.
- Convene the first session of the post-separation United Methodist Church, perhaps before leaving Minneapolis in May, to create four regional conferences.
- Allow for the first session of the newly established North American Regional Conference to act on proposals to remove prohibitive language regarding LGBTQ clergy and weddings. In the meantime, signers to the Protocol have agreed to abeyance on complaints against clergy for related offenses.
While this is not the resolution I hope for, I believe it may be the best next step for the people called United Methodists who have been unable to find a way forward that maintains the unity of the Church. It does not move the Church toward Christ’s vision that we “may all be one…so that the world may believe” (John 17:21), but it is a faithful effort “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3), even as we find it necessary to walk separate paths for a season.
I trust this proposal is designed to unbind us from our “irreconcilable differences” and free us to focus on the future. It does not guarantee a particular outcome, but it appears to offer United Methodists in the United States the opportunity to choose a future that is fully inclusive of LGBTQ persons.
Please read the attached proposal, asking prayerfully whether it offers Life and Light as we seek to create a new movement of Wesleyan faithfulness in the Northwest and around the world.
May the Life of Christ live in us, and the Light of Christ lead us into the future,
Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky
Rev. Sara Power, retired
I read the protocol carefully & I don’t understand why the “traditional Methodist” church gets so much in assets but other Methodist denominations get relatively very little. Where do the churches that support full inclusion of LGBTQ members fit into this? Are they part of the “post separation UMC that will be able to change the BOD for the United States, or will they need to form one of the “other” Methodist denominations?
Gaye Fisher
Thank you Bishop Elaine!!!
Some thoughts for Local Church Pastors needing to explain why The United Methodist Church didn’t just split up | Pacific Northwest UMC News Blog
[…] There are some good resources out there to help. United Methodist News Service offered a story on this latest development in addition to the Press Release and the actual Protocol that was proposed. A number of our United Methodist Bishops released statements yesterday to try to interpret things, though their collective reach is modest compared to the Washington Post, New York Times, etc. Most of the Episcopal statements that I saw were cautiously optimistic but shied away from declaring this as a slam dunk. Here is a link to the one released by Bishop Stanovsky. […]
Janice Gratton
Thank you for this immediate and informing explanation of a promising next step for people called Methodist. janice