A Lay Delegate’s Guide to Understanding What Happened at the 2020/24 UMC General Conference [Firebrand Big Read]
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
As a first time United Methodist Church (UMC) General Conference (GC) delegate, I wanted to share with you what I journaled, supplemented by links to the real-time video plenary floor debates, so that you can fact-check the statements that I am making in this essay. I wanted to also share with you the actual wording of the petitions that passed at the GC, by linking the Advanced Daily Christian Advocate (ACDA) volume and page numbers. Additionally, I wanted to show the role that the Consent Calendar played in passing legislation without a debate on the substance of the petitions, and other parliamentary tricks that were used during the GC. This essay will also show how the “divide and conquer” tactics of certain leaders in the UMC effectively marginalized the African delegates’ vote. This essay will also cover the missing African delegates to the GC; the petitions and the process by which same-sex marriage passed; the difference between paragraphs 572 & 2553, and its effect on African churches; the response by African delegates to the decisions made at the GC; the role that caucus groups played at GC; and finally, the Judicial Council actions that were taken.
United Methodist News Service (UMNS) did a great job in covering the GC, as well as other media outlets. However, what I have noticed is the absence of black voices who attended the GC sharing their perspectives on the details, not just the outcomes, of the GC. In writing this essay, I will not tell the “glory story,” instead I will tell what really happened at GC, how it happened, and who did what. I will speak and think as a member of a black church. I am not writing for assimilation or separation. I am writing to reveal what I noticed at GC that others may have overlooked, and am doing so from a black perspective.
Representation
David Livingston (Great Plains Conference) inquired multiple times as to why many African delegates did not receive visas to enter the United States (U.S.). Only 7 of the 22 Nigerian delegates to the GC received visas in order to enter the U.S.
The Credential Committee gave several reports throughout the GC concerning the invitations and visa denials of Central Conference delegates. UMNS raised the question of denied visas prior to the start of the General Conference. Ultimately, 288 out of 370 Central Conference delegates were credentialed to attend the GC, and most of the no-shows came from Africa. Yet, the list of Central Conference delegates published in ADCA Volume 1 (January 2020), and Volume 3 (January 2024) are almost identical, particularly for the Nigerian delegation. Some placed blame on the election processes that Central Conferences used, as well as a letter sent to delegates from unauthorized representatives. Additionally, the Credential Committee inferred that the correct contact information for some delegates was not submitted. Fortunately, this should all be cleared up as the 2028 GC is scheduled for Harare, Zimbabwe. Getting visas to enter Zimbabwe should be easier for African Central Conference delegates.
Many American delegates were elected to this GC in response to the adoption of the Traditional Plan at the 2019 Special Session of the GC. The stated goal of the American centrist, liberal, and progressive delegates that were elected to the 2020/24 GC was to Remove, Revise, Regionalize. Mainstream UMC admitted that their strategy might have cost them votes of African and Filipino delegates, who “are more traditional than even the US traditionalists.” American centrists, liberals, and progressives seem to be oblivious to the fact that traditional religious beliefs in Africa did not start with Good News, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, or with 18th century Methodist missionaries. Ultimately, the origin of traditional African beliefs did not matter. GC representation was about protecting American money, inferring that Americans will vote with their feet and their checkbooks.
The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCF&A) released a report which shows that Central Conferences (Africa, Asia, Europe) membership stands at 4.5 million people in 2022, which is down from 6.4 million people in 2017. There has not been any explanation by GCF&A as to the reason for the decline in overseas membership in the UMC, particularly since the African churches were not allowed to disaffiliate, and they make up the overwhelming majority of Central Conference members.
Consent Calendar
Liam Adams of the USA Today network, noted that twelve of the seventeen petitions for LGBT inclusion passed on consent calendars, and received more than 90% of the General Conference delegate votes. LGBT inclusion was anchored by a series of petitions authored by Joseph Lopez of Seattle, Washington, U.S. Eighteen of the 33 petitions that Joseph submitted were passed by the General Conference, and most were titled “A Fully Inclusive Church.” Many of these petitions passed on the Consent Calendar on the plenary floor, even though there was great opposition to them in the various legislative committees. Several of Joseph’s petitions on “Building a Fully Inclusive Church” passed by less than five votes in legislative committee (Calendar Item #s 445, 446, 447, 448, 449, & 450; pgs. 78-79). Several petitions added sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class on UMC boards and agencies, jurisdictional conference representation, and annual conference representation. The petitions of most significance that Joseph authored were:
Petition #20180 (p. 233), Calendar Item #5 – Remove Traditional Plan Language passed on Consent Calendar A01, which was celebrated by some;
Petition #20315 (p. 398), Calendar Item #549 – Building a Fully Inclusive Church on Consent Calendar R05 (which instructs annual conferences to train staff-parish relations committees to receive appointed clergy without regard to sexual orientation).
Liam Adams (USA Today) also noted that five of the six Revised Social Principles petitions passed on consent calendars, and received more than 90% of General Conference delegate votes. The Social Principles originated from the 1908 Social Creed. It was a landmark statement on human rights which would set up The United Methodist Church to become a major player in politics, particularly during the Prohibition Movement. The Revised Social Principles are without controversy, except for the revision to paragraph #161 on marriage and human sexuality. The debate on same-sex marriage was contentious, yet all of the petitions passed that were brought to the plenary floor.
Adams also noted that five of the eight regionalization petitions passed on consent calendars and received more than 85% of the General Conference delegate votes. I spoke against regionalization because it destroys the connectional nature of the church, which is the principle basic to The United Methodist Church. It binds leaders and congregations in a network of loyalties and commitments that supersede local concerns, and regionalization will set up a “separate but equal” system of church governance.
Contextual Marriage
On May 2, 2024, the UMC General Conference voted to eliminate the incompatibility language in the Book of Discipline (BOD) concerning homosexuality, and redefined “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another.” This change in marriage and sexuality sparked immediate backlash from some African delegates to the GC. A protest was held outside of the Charlotte Convention Center. Nigerian bishop, John Wesley Yohanna joined in the protest. The Africa Initiative published a statement expressing their disapproval of the vote. Korean Americans were also concerned about the vote to remove LGBTQ bans, as well as some delegates from the Philippines.
Consent Calendar A05 (which passed 692-51) contained several petitions that prohibited same-sex marriages from being a required action for all churches in the UMC. This is similar to the local option that was a part of the One Church Plan, which failed at the Special Session of the GC in 2019. Petition #20717 (p. 396), Calendar Item #476, which passed on Consent Calendar A05, prohibits a superintendent from penalizing “any clergy for performing, or refraining from performing, a same-sex marriage service.” Additionally, “a superintendent shall neither require any local church to hold or prohibit a local church from holding a same-sex marriage on property owned by a local church.” Petition #20716 (p. 394), Calendar Item #548, which was on Consent Calendar R05 and passed on a bundling motion 606-91, prohibits a bishop from penalizing “any clergy for performing, or refraining from performing, a same-sex marriage service.” Additionally, “a bishop shall neither require any local church to hold or prohibit a local church from holding a same-sex marriage on property owned by a local church.”
Finally, Judicial Council Decision #1503 said nothing in the BOD’s Paragraph 2533 “prevents the Board of Trustees of a local church from adopting policies prohibiting . . . same-sex marriage ceremonies.”
Parliamentary Tricks
Bundling legislation together was a device used to save time after the GC spent time debating land acknowledgements and other non-essential legislation, that was perceived by some as a tactic for avoiding divisive petitions, such as the aforementioned “Building a Fully Inclusive Church.” Thomas Lank (Greater New Jersey Conference) requested bundling 35 petitions that received 20 or less votes in the legislative committee into one vote. This motion, which was made during the early morning plenary on May 1st, was delayed to the late morning plenary that same day with more questions than answers. It wasn’t until the early afternoon plenary on May 1st that the delegates got the full list of the bundled petitions, which gave the delegates a little less than two hours to remove petitions from the bundle. Normally, the delegates receive the Daily Christian Advocate during the first plenary session of the day (before 9:00 am) and would have until 3:00 pm to gather 20 signatures to remove petitions from the Consent Calendar. That’s six hours. A delegate would have to do extensive research in the early morning plenary on May 1st to identify the petitions that received twenty votes or fewer, which is why receiving the list of bundled legislation was so important. However, the Commission on General Conference staff was working with a tight deadline in order to collate this information and get it printed for the delegates to make an informed decision. Conversely, very few petitions were removed from the Consent Calendar of bundled petitions.
Lonnie Chafin (Northern Illinois Conference) also made a motion to refer petitions to the various boards and agencies of the UMC. He further made a motion not to support petitions that were not supported by legislative committees. So many petitions were involved in this motion that Bishop Tracy Smith Malone (East Ohio Conference) asked Susan Brumbaugh, the Coordinator of the Calendar, to come and read the petition numbers and their related information to the delegates. These two motions were controversial. Even Jay Williams (New England Conference), a leading LGBT activist, needed clarification on what the GC was doing by bundling petitions together in an attempt to squash debate. Beth LaRocca Pitts (North Georgia Conference) came to the microphone to remove several petitions dealing with the voting rights of local pastors from the bundled motion. I spoke against this bundling motion. However, the motion to refer petitions passed. For this motion to pass, the delegates had to suspend the rules, which occurred by a voice vote. Marshall Bailey (Virginia Conference) made a motion to suspend the rules and vote on all remaining petitions that were before the GC without debate. This motion also passed. Suspending the rules was used as a time saving technique, but many of the delegates felt that they sat through too many UMC organizational reports, which took away from the time to debate petitions on the plenary floor.
Disaffiliation
“The season of disaffiliation ends today,” said Lonnie Chafin, chair of the Conference’s legislative committee, on May 1st. By a vote of 516 to 203, GC delegates voted to end the disaffiliation process that only applied to American churches in practice. African churches were denied the right to disaffiliate under paragraph 2553, the same paragraph that more than 7,500 American churches used to leave the UMC. Instead, African Annual Conferences will have to use paragraph 572, which is what the Eurasia Episcopal Area did at the postponed 2020 GC. However, I do not want you to miss the change in language concerning disaffiliation. Paragraph 2553 was used for individual churches seeking to disaffiliate from the UMC, while paragraph 572 is for annual conferences seeking to disaffiliate, which is a much harder task. Additionally, paragraph 572 is a more arduous process as laid out in the BOD.
African Delegates
Some of the African delegates addressed the GC to express difficulty in following the proceedings.
Jethro Muyombi (South Congo Conference) observed that there was self-exclusion by some of the French speaking delegates, who only had the ADCA in English.
Manuel Rodrigues (Western Angola Conference) sought clarification on what was happening with the voting process at the GC, particularly with Consent Calendar R01, which was of interest, and days behind schedule. Manuel returned to the microphone the next day to seek clarification on a petition that affects paragraph 40 of the BOD.
Kenneth Kalichi (Zambia Conference) sought clarification on what was happening at the 2020 GC, as not all of the French speaking delegates understood what they were voting on, and they voted wrongly. The delegates went to the internet and saw people celebrating for something that they are against.
Additionally, African delegates spoke against progressive initiatives:
Forbes Matonga (West Zimbabwe Conference) spoke on the "Divide and Rule" tactics of the UMC Regionalization petitions for Africa. What was most notable to me was the division between the Africa Initiative and the United Methodist Africa Forum. This division allowed White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and their allies, to control which petitions passed and which petitions failed.
Sylvestre Muthoma (East Congo Conference) also spoke against Regionalization because of a lack of detailed information on the advantages and disadvantages of the petition.
Jerry Kulah (Liberia Conference) spoke against the double-barreled amendment to redefine marriage, that was introduced by Molly Myawera (East Zimbabwe Conference).
One of the delegates from Zimbabwe stated that the decisions were made before we arrived.
Caucus Groups
It was the desire of Mainstream UMC to remove the harmful language and bring the BOD back to neutral. However, executive director Mark Holland acknowledged the concern that “adding affirmative language for our LGBTQ siblings to the global Book of Discipline could harm the vote on regionalization, which in a worst-case scenario, could mean that all the language is re-inserted in four years when the voting percentages flip.” Jan Lawrence, of Reconciling Ministries Network, stated: “So when somebody says, ‘getting to neutral,’ that to me is coming back to a place where we have taken out all of the language that identifies a group of people and discriminates against them. That to me is neutral language.”
Yet, once the Regionalization petitions passed, all bets were off. Most of the petitions passed on various Consent Calendars, which meant that debates on Regionalization were limited to the legislative committee to which the petitions were assigned.
Mainstream UMC also promoted regionalizing the church, which failed to gain the requisite number of annual conference affirmations in 2010 after passing at the 2008 GC. Proponents are optimistic of the ratification of all the constitutional amendments this time around. However, as previously acknowledged, there is a correlation between the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ persons and the regionalization petitions. While this has been a stumbling block in the past, the formation of the Global Methodist Church has removed at least one obstacle from Mainstream UMC’s path.
Revising the Social Principles was another priority for Mainstream UMC. The purpose of the revision was to make the Social Principles “more globally relevant, theologically grounded, and succinct.” The revision took eight years, and more than 4,000 people reviewed and commented on the first draft, of which I was one of the people who showed up to Peachtree Road UMC in Atlanta, Georgia on August 18, 2018, to give input. The revision petition passed with overwhelming support.
Good News was promoting disaffiliation for Central Conferences that did not have the opportunity to enact Paragraph 2553 before it expired on December 31, 2023. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, none of the legislation that was passed at the 2019 Special Session of the GC was implemented outside of the United States, as the legislation would not be effective until 12 months after the close of the 2020 GC, which was postponed until 2024. So, Central Conferences were not afforded the opportunity to utilize the disaffiliation process. “Fair for Some, Fair for All” became the mantra of Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association. Unfortunately, the disaffiliation petitions were all defeated, and the UMC in Africa was not afforded the same opportunity as the church in America.
Judicial Council
Following my request for a declaratory decision on regionalization, the Judicial Council in Decision #1500, stated that it “lacks jurisdiction to review the constitutionality of proposed amendments to the denomination’s constitution and changes to the Book of Discipline that require ratification of those amendments.” The ruling, however, does not prevent this question from coming before the Judicial Council in the future, after the ratification process is complete.
David Livingston requested a declaratory decision on whether “jurisdictions have the authority to adapt the Book of Discipline in the same manner as Central Conferences, and is such authority constitutional?” The bundling motion that was passed earlier by the General Conference by a vote of 552-92 (Calendar Item #283, Petition #20956 [(p. 435)]) gave jurisdictions that authority. In Memorandum #1506, the Judicial Council stated that “this matter is deferred to the Judicial Council’s Fall 2024 docket.” David read my mind! I was prepared to address the constitutionality of this petition after the ratification process was completed.
Final Thoughts
I heard from many people that this GC was much less contentious than in the past. Yet from my perspective, it looked like White Anglo-Saxon Protestants got their way, and re-centered whiteness in the process. Despite news coverage from the Associated Press, CNN, USA Today, and other major American news outlets, I couldn’t help but notice that outside of the Charlotte Convention Center it was business as usual. The only people celebrating or protesting were those who attended the GC. I don’t want to say that people outside of the UMC were ambivalent, but even GLAAD’s (Gay and Lesbian Alliance and Anti-Defamation League) response to full inclusion of the LGBT in the UMC was underwhelming. Additionally, the Human Rights Campaign has not updated its website to reflect the changes in the UMC, and has made no official response to date.
Meanwhile, the majority of the African delegates were not pleased with the outcome of the GC. One Central Conference delegate asked me, “where are the African Americans?” In further conversation, he wanted to know if African Americans stood with the Bible, or with American culture? I told him where I stood on the issues, but that I also realize there was no caucus group that contested Mainstream UMC, and that was a mistake. As a member of the black church, I can testify that some of the decisions that were made at GC will not go over well with black folk in the pews, and regionalization cannot fix that.
Odell Horne, Jr. was a lay delegate from the North Georgia Conference. He attends a black church in East Point, Georgia, U.S.; and has a degree in African and African American Studies.