Storming Lambeth: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed

Feb 27, 2019 by

by Stephen Noll, Contending Anglican:

BREAKING NEWS (26 February 2019). The United Methodist General Conference voted by a 55% to 45% margin to maintain its stance that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” It adopted the “Traditional Plan,” which included a number of specific church laws that will enforce this position on sexuality at the local level. It also adopted a resolution that will allow dissenting, i.e., revisionist churches, to leave the denomination with their property.

When the revisionist “One Church Plan,” which would have removed the teaching on homosexuality was defeated, they turned to the “Zero Plan,” which involved running out the clock on the meeting so that the current practice of ignoring and working around that teaching in practice might continue. That effort was also foiled.

Follow especially discussion at “Juicy Ecumenism,” the blog for the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD). As an historical footnote, the IRD was active at Lambeth 1998 in helping support African bishops to see the issues at stake and to foil the Communion Establishment plan to revise the biblical norm.

In the light of this conservative victory among the Methodists, one might argue, “why can’t the conservatives, along with the Global South churches, do the same thing at Lambeth 2020?” There are important differences in Methodist church polity that made this turnaround unachievable in the Anglican context. However, there are lessons to be learnt from the Methodist situation which I shall seek to address in future posts.  See my preliminary discussion on “MEXIT: Methodists and Anglicans and the Limits of Disagreement.”

Read here

Read also: “MEXIT”: Methodists, Anglicans and the Limits of Disagreement (UPDATED)

United Methodist Church upholds position against homosexuality, same-sex marriage by Michael Gryboski, Christian Post

 

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