What change in governance did they make? Just curious as we noticed (several years ago) that the Methodist's had, unfortunately, become very tolerant on many social issues. Thanks for any info.
The UMC is a world-wide denomination which holds its "General Conference" once every 4 years. Delegates from every area (annual conference) are elected to attend; half are clergy and half are laity. During General Conference, church polity and policy are debated and established for the coming 4 years.
We just held the 2012 General Conference in Tampa this past spring. As always since 1972, there were efforts to change the stance on homosexuality - and especially the most pressing sentence which states, "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching."
To make a long story short, that language was maintained by 55-45 percent. A second attempt - to change the language to the THIRD WAY wording that "we agree to disagree on this issue" [my words, not exact wording] - failed by a larger margin, 40-60%.
The UMC maintained its biblical stance on homosexuality primarily with the help of the African delegates who spoke boldly and clearly for the current language and biblical sexuality.