United Methodist Church
Mainline Protestant denomination based in the US / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about United Methodist Church?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant[9] denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States.[6][10] As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan.[11] It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.[12][13][14][15]
United Methodist Church | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | UMC |
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Methodist and United Brethren |
Theology | Wesleyan |
Polity | Connexionalism[1] |
President | Thomas James Bickerton III[2] |
President Designate | Tracy Malone[3] |
Secretary | L. J. Holston[4] |
Annual conferences | 132 |
Episcopal areas | 66 |
Associations | World Council of Churches Churches Uniting in Christ Christian Churches Together National Council of Churches Wesleyan Holiness Consortium Christian Holiness Partnership World Methodist Council |
Founder | John Wesley[5][6] (spiritually) |
Origin | 1968 |
Merger of | The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church |
Separations | New Methodist Conference (2005) Ang Iglesia Metodista sa Pilipinas (2011) Global Methodist Church (2022) |
Congregations | 29,598 in the US[7] |
Members | 12,000,000+ (Central Conference numbers awaiting update and 5,714,815 in the US[8]) |
Ministers | 83,800 |
Aid organization | United Methodist Committee on Relief |
Secondary schools | 10 |
Tertiary institutions | 109 |
Official website | umc.org |
The United Methodist Church has a connectional polity, a typical feature of a number of Methodist denominations. It is organized into conferences. The highest level is called the General Conference and is the only organization which may speak officially for the UMC. The church is a member of the World Council of Churches, the World Methodist Council, and other religious associations.
As of 2021, the UMC had 5,714,815 members and 30,543 churches in the United States.[16] As of 2018, it had 12,951,427 members and 43,409 churches worldwide.[17] In 2015, the Pew Research Center estimated that 3.6 percent of the US population, or nine million adult adherents, identified with the United Methodist Church, revealing a much larger number of adherents than registered members.[18]
On January 3, 2020, a group of Methodist leaders proposed a plan to split the United Methodist Church over issues of sexual orientation (particularly same-sex marriage) and create a new traditionalist Methodist denomination.[19][20][21] The Global Methodist Church was formed in 2022.[22] Prior to the establishment of the Global Methodist Church, some Methodist congregations had already left the UMC to join the Free Methodist Church, a traditionalist Methodist denomination aligned with the Wesleyan-holiness movement.[23][24] As of December 30, 2023, the number of UMC churches in the United States that were approved for disaffiliation stood at 7,660. This figure represented approximately one-quarter of the UMC churches in the United States.[25][26]
Church origins
The movement which would become the United Methodist Church began in the mid-18th century within the Church of England. A small group of students, including John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield, met at Oxford University. They focused on Bible study, methodical study of scripture, and living a holy life. Other students mocked them, saying they were the "Holy Club" and "the Methodists", being methodical and exceptionally detailed in their Bible study, opinions, and disciplined lifestyle. Eventually, the so-called Methodists started individual societies or classes for members of the Church of England who wanted to live a more religious life.
In 1735, John and Charles Wesley went to America, hoping to teach the gospel to the Native Americans in the colony of Georgia. Instead, John became vicar of Christ Church in Savannah. His preaching was legalistic and full of harsh rules, and the congregation rejected him. After two years in America, he returned to England dejected and confused. While sailing on his original journey to America, he had been impressed with the faith of the German Moravians on board, and when he returned to England he spent time with Peter Böhler, a German Moravian who was passing through England and who believed that a person is saved solely through the grace of God and not by works. John had many conversations with Böhler about this topic. On May 25, 1738, after listening to a reading of Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, John came to the understanding that his good works could not save him and he could rest in God's grace for salvation. For the first time in his life, he felt peace and the assurance of salvation.
In less than two years, the "Holy Club" disbanded. John Wesley met with a group of clergy, and afterwards said "they appeared to be of one heart, as well as of one judgment, resolved to be Bible-Christians at all events; and, wherever they were, to preach with all their might plain, old, Bible Christianity." The ministers nonetheless retained their membership in the Church of England. Though not always emphasized or appreciated in the Anglican churches of their day, their teaching emphasized salvation by God's grace, acquired through faith in Christ. Three teachings they saw as the foundation of Christian faith were:
- People are all by nature dead in sin and, consequently, children of wrath.
- They are justified by faith alone.
- Faith produces inward and outward holiness.
These clergymen quickly became popular, attracting large congregations. The nickname students had used against the Wesleys was revived; they and their followers subsequently became known as Methodists.[27]
Predecessors
The English preacher Francis Asbury arrived in America in 1771. He became a "circuit rider", taking the gospel to the furthest reaches of the new frontier as he had done as a preacher in England .[28] The first official organization in the United States occurred in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1784, with the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the Christmas Conference with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the leaders.[29][30]
Though John Wesley originally wanted the Methodists to stay within the Church of England, the American Revolution decisively separated the Methodists in the American colonies from the life and sacraments of the English Church. In 1784, after unsuccessful attempts to have the Church of England send a bishop to start a new church in the colonies, Wesley decisively appointed fellow priest Thomas Coke as Superintendent (the equivalent of a bishop) to organize a separate Methodist Society. Together with Coke, Wesley sent The Sunday Service of the Methodists, Methodism's first liturgical text and the Articles of Religion, which were received and adopted by the Baltimore Christmas Conference of 1784, officially establishing the Methodist Episcopal Church. The conference was held at the Lovely Lane Methodist Church, considered the mother church of American Methodism.[31]
The new church grew rapidly in the young country as it employed circuit riders, many of whom were laymen, to travel the mostly rural nation by horseback to preach the Gospel and to establish churches until there was scarcely any village in the United States without a Methodist presence. With 4,000 circuit riders by 1844, the Methodist Episcopal Church rapidly became the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
St. George's United Methodist Church, located at the corner of 4th and New Streets, in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest Methodist church in continuous use in the United States, beginning in 1769. The congregation was founded in 1767, meeting initially in a sail loft on Dock Street, and in 1769 it purchased the shell of a building which had been erected in 1763 by a German Reformed congregation. At this time, Methodists had not yet broken away from the Anglican Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church was not founded until 1784.
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones became the first African Americans ordained by the Methodist Church. They were licensed by Saint George's Church in 1784. Three years later, protesting racial segregation in worship services, Allen led most of the black members out of St. George's; eventually they founded the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Absalom Jones became an Episcopal priest. In 1836, the church's basement was excavated to make room for a Sunday school. In the 1920s, a court case saved the church from being demolished to make way for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The case resulted in the bridge being relocated. Historic Saint George's welcomes visitors and is home to archives and a museum on Methodism.
In the more than 220 years since 1784, Methodism in the United States, like many other Protestant denominations, has seen a number of divisions and mergers. In 1830, the Methodist Protestant Church split from the Methodist Episcopal Church over the issue of laity having a voice and vote in the administration of the church, insisting that clergy should not be the only ones to have any determination in how the church was to be operated. In 1844, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church split into two conferences because of tensions over slavery and the power of bishops in the denomination.
The two general conferences, Methodist Episcopal Church (the northern faction) and Methodist Episcopal Church, South remained separate until 1939. That year, the northern and southern Methodist Episcopal Churches and the Methodist Protestant Church merged to create The Methodist Church. The uniting conference took place at First Methodist Church (now First United Methodist Church) of Marion, Indiana.
1968 merger
On April 23, 1968, the United Methodist Church was created when the Evangelical United Brethren Church (represented by Bishop Reuben H. Mueller) and The Methodist Church (represented by Bishop Lloyd Christ Wicke) joined hands at the constituting General Conference in Dallas, Texas. With the words, "Lord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church and now in The United Methodist Church"[32] the new denomination was given birth by both churches which had distinguished histories and influential ministries in various parts of the world.
2020–2023 schisms
The UMC has rules, found in the Book of Disciplines, that prohibit same-sex unions and the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals. Many progressive UMC leaders and churches, especially in the United States, are supportive of gay marriage and ignore the rules. Many conservative members of the UMC do not like the trend of the UMC trending towards endorsing gay marriage and, hence, have initiated movements to split-off from the UMC.[33][34]
On January 3, 2020, the denomination's leadership released a proposal to split the Church over what it described as "fundamental differences" over homosexuality, particularly same-sex marriage (see § Homosexuality below).[20][35] The proposal would need to be approved by the General Conference in order to take effect. The 2020 General Conference, originally scheduled to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[36]
In November 2020, a small group of the progressive wing announced their intention to create a new denomination, the Liberation Methodist Connexion.[37][38] It was launched on the First Sunday in Advent through an online service.[39] However, organizers of the Liberation Methodist Connexion announced on 18 December 2021 that no progress has been made to set up a separate denomination.[40]
In March 2021, conservative leaders of the UMC unveiled the name Global Methodist Church for the new traditionalist denomination, along with a new website and logo. The next General Conference is set for 2024.[41] At that time, delegates are expected to vote on the Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation.[42] The conservative Transitional Leadership Council said the Global Methodist Church would be officially started, with individual churches or conferences able to join, when the General Conference adopts legislation implementing the Protocol, although the Council "will consider bringing the new church into existence without delay" "if it becomes apparent" that leaders "who covenanted to support the Protocol no longer do so."[43] Not wanting to wait for the General Conference to occur, some conservative United Methodist congregations left the United Methodist Church to become a part of the Free Methodist Church, a traditionalist Methodist denomination aligned with the holiness movement.[23][24] After the launch of the Global Methodist Church on May 1, 2022, a number of traditionalist United Methodist churches entered into the Global Methodist Church.[22]
On May 10, 2022, the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church ruled that annual UMC conferences in the United States cannot leave the church for the Global Methodist Church; only individual churches may do so. The Romania-Bulgaria Conference has left the UMC. As of May 2022, the South Georgia and Northwest Texas conferences were making preparations to leave the UMC; however, these proposed transitions would require UMC General conference legislation.[44]
Early in 2022, according to the United Methodist News Service, the United Methodist Church approved 300 requests by individual churches to leave the denomination. The Wesleyan Covenant Association, which was helping congregations join the Global Methodist Church, said that 1,000 more churches were expected to hold votes on proposed departures from the UMC later in the year and that 300 of 800 Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference churches were considering leaving. Methodist churches and congregations in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia or Romania also expressed dissent and intentions to disaffiliate from the UMC due to progressive tendencies in the American leadership of the UMC.[45] Over 100 churches in Florida and North Carolina had filed or were considering lawsuits. Some of the largest churches in Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas were planning to leave. As of 2022, any church that disaffiliated would be responsible for paying two years of apportionments and unfunded pension liabilities.[46] Fifty-eight churches belonging to the Louisiana Annual Conference left the United Methodist Church, with seven congregations being from Baton Rouge and six from New Orleans.[47] The disaffiliations from the conference were scheduled to take effect after December 31, 2022.[47] St. Timothy, one of the largest Methodist churches in Louisiana, voted for disaffiliation on November 1, 2022.[47] To prevent certain congregations from disaffiliating, the UMC ordered that certain churches be closed before disaffiliation votes could occur.[48][49] Several annual conferences designated certain remaining congregations as "lighthouse congregations", which offer support to UMC parishioners who objected to their former congregations' disaffiliation.[50]
As of December 30, 2023, the number of UMC churches in the United States that were approved for disaffiliation stood at 7,660. This figure represented approximately one-quarter of the UMC churches in the United States.[25][26]