The United Methodist Church, which was formed in 1968 by a merger of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church, and is also the second-largest Protestant church in the U.S. after the Southern Baptist Convention, is splitting over same-sex marriage and homosexual clergy. They’re going to break up and form two denominations.
I suppose the progressives see this issue as analogous to the history of slavery. There was a time when churches split over slavery, but eventually, everyone agreed slavery was wrong, and the churches came back together (to some extent). I’m sure they feel they’re on the right side of history, and things will bend in their direction.
I’m probably too old to see which way history bends on this one.
What will the new denominations be called?
For the liberal wing, how about …
* The Progressive Methodist Church of America
* Awake in the Spirit Methodist Church of America
And for the conservative wing …
* The Remnant Methodist Church of America
* We finally did something John Wesley would approve Methodist Church of America
Colloquially they’ll be called do-me Methodists and zip-it Methodists.
They’ve been debating this for YEARS…I thought the split had already occurred.
If I’m recalling right, the inability to hold large scale meetings due to Covid stalled the process.