According to UM News, Central and Southern Europe delegates will meet Nov. regions are Africa, Central and Southern Europe, Congo, Germany, Northern Europe, Philippines and West Africa. Traditionalists have said they see regionalization as only a mechanism for pro-LGBTQ forces to do away with the church’s bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages.Ĭurrent non-U.S. The overall intention, say proponents, is to give each region greater autonomy in its cultural context and to reduce the denomination’s U.S.-centric political focus. The move toward greater international regionalization also proposes to make the U.S. General Conference delegates abolished it in 1968 in creating the current UMC. The Central Jurisdiction, to which all Black pastors and churches were assigned, was formed in 1939 in the merger of three branches to create The Methodist Church. jurisdictions, the UMC has seven regions it terms “central conferences,” a designation that has fallen into disrepute because of its links to the former racially segregated Central Jurisdiction in the United States. The Western Jurisdiction covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, along with the U.S. A prolific author, she has experience in missions with migrants and will join Rapanut in supervising immigration ministries along the U.S.-Mexico border. North Central Jurisdictionĭottie Escobedo-Frank, a former social worker turned clergywoman from Arizona, became the jurisdiction’s third Hispanic bishop. Seven of the 13 new bishops are clergywomen. This year’s delegates elected a 2022 class of bishops that is the most diverse group in both race and gender of any elections since the denomination was founded in 1968. Yet the departing traditionalist congregations so far comprise less than 10% of the 30,000 United Methodist churches in the United States. Since then, hundreds of traditionalist congregations have entered the “disaffiliation” process enacted by the 2019 General Conference - an exit process that ironically traditionalists approved expecting pro-LGBTQ congregations would use it to leave the UMC. In more fallout from General Conference pandemic delays, the primary dissident organization, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, launched a new traditionalist denomination, the Global Methodist Church, in May. That future appears unlikely to include many of the traditionalists who voted in tighter LGBTQ restrictions. Unable to repeal the tightened bans because of three pandemic-caused postponements of the worldwide legislative assembly, defiant delegates used bishops’ elections to signal their intentions for the UMC’s future. The first bishops’ elections showed clearly that delegates were determined to defy traditionalists’ exclusionary vision for the UMC. regional conferences comprised the 2022 jurisdictional assemblies.ĭelegates elected a 2022 class of bishops that is the most diverse group in both race and gender of any elections since the denomination was founded in 1968. Centrist and progressive delegates chosen in 2019 by nearly 75% of U.S. Her election set off a firestorm of controversy that resulted in a church trial over her consecration and a special 2019 General Conference at which traditionalists narrowly voted in greater penalties against ordaining LGBTQ clergy and performing same-sex marriages.Įchoes from 2019 rang out again in the 2022 bishops’ elections. The 12-state jurisdiction that includes Guam and Saipan elected married lesbian clergywoman Karen Oliveto in 2016. The election of Cedrick Bridgeforth marks the second time The United Methodist Church’s Western Jurisdiction has elected an LGBTQ clergyperson despite the denomination’s ban on gay ministers. And that was only one of several first-ever results of this year’s elections. A married gay clergyman from California was among 13 new bishops elected by United Methodist delegates to five regional U.S.
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