Methonerds, this is a special blog post just for you. It relates, however, to a Judicial Council decision that has significant implications for the whole church. In case you are not a United Methodist and are punishing yourself for some great sin by reading about our church politics, or you are a United Methodist and…
If you’ve been following the drama that is United Methodist politics, you’re probably aware of the recent statement by the Council of Bishops. The Council recently met in order to deliberate on the report submitted by the Commission on a Way Forward. After prayerful consideration, our bishops offered the following statement, which I quote from…
Shortly after the 2016 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, I wrote a post called General Conference: Four Reflections. Recently that post popped up in my Facebook feed as a memory that I might like to share. Reviewing the post, I was reminded of the difficulties we had in moving the ball forward on…
The United Methodist Council of Bishops has issued a brief statement calling the church to prayer in regard to our human sexuality debate. The statement reads: As bishops of The United Methodist Church, our hearts break because of the divisions that exist within the church. We have been in constant prayer and conversation and affirm…
Dr. Bill Arnold is a friend and dialogue partner. I got to know him first by our common work on the University Senate. We both care very much about the church, the work of ministry, and theological education. We are committed to the UMC and would see denominational division as a very sad and regrettable…
I’ve thought for some time that, while we have significant theological and ethical disagreements in the UMC, a large part of our difficulty with ecclesial disobedience at present is structural. Every tradition has internal disputes, but how we deal with these will come to bear in important ways on our life together–and whether life together is…