The Proposed UMC Separation Plan: An Appraisal

By Robin G. Jordan

This article is not an exhaustive appraisal of the proposed UMC separation plan. Rather I examine how the plan may affect one group of Methodists. I also provide information that may prove useful to Anglicans seeking to minister to this group of Methodists.

Under the proposed UMC separation plan a conservative conference or a conservative congregation can choose to affiliate with a new traditionalist Methodist Church that will be created under the plan and retain their property. The plan, however, makes no provision for Methodists whose congregation chooses to affiliate with this new ecclesial body or remain in the existing United Methodist Church and who disagree with that decision.

Methodists who find themselves in this predicament have four options. The first option is that they can start a new congregation from scratch and affiliate with the ecclesial body of their choice. They will face a particular set of challenges as a breakaway group as well as those that all new startups face. A major challenge for breakaway groups starting a new congregation is developing a positive vision. Without a positive vision a new congregation will not thrive and grow. Whether they will receive any kind of assistance and from whom is an unknown at this stage.

The second option is that they can affiliate with a congregation of another denomination, which shares their beliefs and values. A determining factor will be the availability of such a congregation in their community or within a reasonable drive time of their community.

Driving to a church in a nearby community has its drawbacks. Involvement in the church is generally limited to Sunday morning. Living in a community different from the one in which the church is located makes forming relationships in the church, finding a ministry niche in the church, and taking part in church activities outside of Sunday morning more difficult. Commuting to church like commuting to work can also take its toll in the form of physical and mental exhaustion. Road and weather conditions can make even a short drive hazardous.

The third option is that they can put their loyalty to a particular local congregation before their beliefs and values. This is the option that a number of Episcopalians chose when their denomination decided to normalize homosexuality in the Episcopal Church. It is the option that many older Methodists are likely to choose. As long as Sunday morning and church activities outside Sunday morning do not differ greatly from that to which they are accustomed, they are not going leave the congregation. They will adjust to changes in the worship and life of the congregation if these changes are introduced gradually.

The fourth option is that they can join the ranks of the "dones." They can quit attending church altogether. While I might be wrong, I don’t believe that many Methodists will choose this option. It will be a gradual process for those who do. They may try one or more of the other three options first. The failure of a church plant in which they were involved, the indifference of new or existing Methodist denominations to the plight of Methodists like themselves, the inability to find a new church home in their community or a nearby community, and/or too much abrupt change may eventually prompt them to throw up their hands in despair.

The leanings of Methodist congregations vary from region to region and from community to community. In some areas the split may be quite messy. In other areas it may not. The issues that led to the development of this plan divide not only Methodists in the United States from Methodists outside the United States but also the older generations from the younger generations.

I do not know how things are going to play out in my region which falls within the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference. A lot can happen between now and May as the pastor of a local UMC congregation whose services I occasionally attend pointed out this Sunday. Western Kentucky is one of the most politically and socially conservative regions of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Where UMC congregations in the region, however, fall on the political-social spectrum from what I can determine is dependent upon the community in which they are located. If a community has more than one UMC congregation, each congregation may fall on a different place on that spectrum.

Conservative Anglican congregations that are interested in reaching out to conservative Methodists whose congregation chooses to remain with the existing United Methodist Church and who disagree with that decision, may benefit from the following information.

The Methodist congregations with which I am acquainted, while they may have adopted some aspects of liturgical worship--the church year, vestments, paraments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, eucharististic prayers and the like--are "low church." Their worship services are simpler than those of Anglican congregations.

While one congregation with which I was involved while it was a church plant celebrated Holy Communion every Sunday, the local congregation whose worship services that I occasionally attend celebrates Holy Communion only once a month. A common cup of unfermented grape juice and a round loaf of leavened bread were used for the celebration of Holy Communion in the first church. The members of the congregation stood to receive communion. They received a piece of bread from the pastor which they then dipped in the common cup. Communion assistants appointed by the pastor flanked the pastor. Each communion assistant held a cup.

Individual communion cups of unfermented grape juice and small squares of hard unleavened communion bread like those used in Baptist churches are used for the celebration of Holy Communion in the second church. However, the elements are not distributed to the communicants in their pews as in Baptist churches. The communion elements are consecrated on a low table in front of the altar. The table resembles an ornate end table and is so low that the pastor must bend to reach anything on the top of the table. The communicants come forward row by row and kneel at a communion rail. Two acolytes offer the communicants a tray of communion bread from which the communicants take one of the squares of bread. It must be noted that the two acolytes are not teenagers or adults but elementary school age children. They also light and extinguish the candles on the altar. The pastor and an assistant service leader then offer the communicants a tray of individual communion cups from which the communicants take one of the cups. The pastor dismisses each row of communicants with a blessing. The empty communion cups are left at the communion rail, which is designed to hold them. They are picked up after the service.

In these two congregations and in other Methodist congregations with which I am acquainted, the sermon is the central act of worship on Sunday morning. The hymns, worship songs, and special music are usually keyed to the theme of the sermon. There is typically only one Scripture reading and it precedes the sermon. It is read by the pastor. An invitation normally follows the sermon.

A number of Methodist congregations have two different patterns of worship on Sunday morning—one traditional and the other contemporary. The times at which these two patterns of worship are used will vary from church to church.

The Methodists with whom I am acquainted find Anglican worship services too formal and too long. On the other hand, the non-denominational churches in the region of the United States in which I live often have significant numbers of former Baptists and Methodists in their congregations. This includes charismatic non-denominational churches as well as non-charismatic ones. The worship of these churches is typically contemporary.

This information should give conservative Anglicans some idea of what will work and what will not in reaching out to conservative Methodists whose congregation chooses to remain with the existing United Methodist Church and who disagree with that decision.