Methodism is divided into regions and over each region is a bishop. We call the regions “conferences”. Ohio has 2 regions, east and west. East Ohio has a bishop and West Ohio has a bishop. There is no over-bishop to control them if they get out of line, and once assigned, they are there a minimum of 4 years unless there is a trial that removes them. They mention in this article a committee that found the ruling to remove Frank Schaeffer out of order. Each of our conferences is banded together into groups of about half a dozen, and this is called a jurisdiction. There is, however, no one over it. They can form committees to rule on questions put to them. Since the US northeast is one of our most liberal regions, the committee members selected by their liberal bishops were all liberals. IOW, fox overseeing the hen house.
My conference, West Ohio, has had a mighty struggle between liberals and conservatives for decades with the bishops and their bureaucracies and favored pastors being liberal and the people in the pews being conservative...for the most part. For years our delegation every 4 years to the denominational rules writing and oversight body, the “General Conference” have been more evangelical conservative than not. We have contributed to the denominations rules remaining conservative.
The southern US conferences have also been, for the most part, conservative. Gravitating against the liberals is the rule that gives delegates to a region based on their numbers of members in their churches. The liberal churches have declined and the conservative churches have grown. The churches in Africa are conservative and they have exploded and not just grown. So, the VOTERS elected to the general conferences have tended to be conservative by slim but growing margins. Therefore, the rules we have tend to be conservative.
Bishops, however, are not just virtually untouchable, but they also are not chosen by this General Conference. They are chosen by these “jurisdictions”, and for whatever reason America is geographically liberal in the northeast the west and the great lakes. It gets more conservative as you go south. Remember, though, that the Africans do not influence these votes. What results is the election of liberal bishops because the ministers only who select them also tend toward moderate to liberal.
I know this is all very involved, but any denomination has an involved church governance. Ours is especially so. On top of that at any trial, the Methodist Church has rules of evidence and rights of the accused that are almost mirror images of the American judicial system. In other words, it’s pretty much impossible to convict anyone of anything without witnesses or confessions on the part of the accused.
Did I thoroughly confuse you? I hope not. :>)
The bottom line is that Africa is causing United Methodism to trend conservative.