Q & A with Pastor Ernie
UMC DISCERNMENT
Hello Wesley,
We have been hearing in church that our district superintendent, Emily Hotho, will be here June 4 at 11:15 (one service this day) to share with us from the pulpit and afterward have a dialogue concerning the state of the United Methodist Church and the process for a church to disaffiliate should it desire to do so. I thought I would give a brief explanation of what is happening. In 2019 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church met and there was a motion passed that allowed churches to leave the denomination. The issue that pushed this to happen was the decades long debate about human sexuality and in particular whether homosexual weddings should be allowed to take place in the church and whether or not homosexuals should be ordained as pastors. There was a great divide. Some churches have already left the denomination, some 2,000 of the 32,000 United Methodist Churches in America. The paragraph that allows for disaffiliation has a sunset clause that expires December 31 of this year. Leadership has been looking at whether or not Wesley wants to disaffiliate. Emily is coming to help us all understand why we should stay with the United Methodist Church and will field questions we may have.
The following Wednesday, June 7, I will be available for further Q and A. We can meet at 7 pm in the fellowship hall. There will be a second Q and A on July 9 after church, again in the fellowship hall. I will also be available to groups already meeting to come and help us navigate this journey. Should leadership discern that it is best to have the church vote on this, we will have the DS set a date for the vote and there would need to be a majority of 66.67% (two thirds) to leave the denomination. If this comes to a vote, only members will be allowed to vote. It is important we help folks by giving them every opportunity to join so we will have two new member classes in June after church, June 11 and June 25. There will be a number of ways to check on your membership. Someone will be in the back of the church with a list after church services and we will make the list available digitally so you can check.
Be in prayer for the church,
Ernie