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African delegates denounce UMC votes to allow LGBT marriage, ordination: ‘We are devastated’
Christian Post ^ | May 3, 2024 | Michael Gryboski

Posted on 05/04/2024 10:48:24 AM PDT by Morgana

A group of African delegates to the United Methodist Church General Conference have denounced the recent votes to allow for same-sex marriage and noncelibate LGBT clergy.

This week, delegates at the UMC General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, passed a series of measures removing from the Book of Discipline rules preventing the officiating of same-sex weddings and the funding of LGBT advocacy groups.

On Thursday, the churchwide legislative gathering voted 523 to 161 to remove from the Book of Discipline the statement that the "practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," which had been originally added to the rule book in 1972.

Rob Renfroe, publisher of the theologically conservative Good News Magazine and attendee of the General Conference, forwarded The Christian Post a copy of Thursday's statement from several African delegates.

"We have loved The United Methodist Church. We have been grateful for The United Methodist Church. We have joyfully served The United Methodist Church. But now our hearts are troubled," read the statement.

"The United Methodist Church has changed the definition of marriage. It now defines marriage differently from what God created it to be in the beginning. It has changed the definition of marriage from how Jesus described it in Matthew 19 as one man and one woman."

The delegates assert: "We do not believe we know better than Jesus. We do not believe we know better than God. We do not believe we know better than the Bible."

"We are devastated now to be part of a denomination that officially contradicts the Bible's teaching on marriage and sexual morality. We return to Africa with important decisions to make regarding the future," they continued.

"Still, we go home full of hope, confident in Jesus, standing on the word of God, and determined to contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. We return to Africa where the church is growing, nonbelievers are coming to faith and disciples are being made for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The African delegates blamed the UMC establishment for failing to properly invite 70 African delegates in time for them to travel to the General Conference, further biasing the proceedings.

"That is roughly 25% of our delegates. Ten months ago we began sending letters and emails and making phone calls, alerting the Commission on General Conference and some of our bishops that there was a problem. Many of these communications never received a single response," the statement alleged.

The statement was signed by the Rev. Jerry P. Kulah, head of the Liberia Annual Conference delegation; Prosperous Tunda, delegate of the East Congo Annual Conference; the Rev. Danjuma Judi, delegate of the Nigeria Annual Conference; Dr. Yeabu Kamara, delegate of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference; and Ginford Dzimati, delegate of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference.

CP reached out to the UMC for comment on the claims. A spokesperson emailed a statement from Bishop Tracy S. Malone, president of the UMC Council of Bishops and resident bishop of the East Ohio Conference.

Malone, the first African American woman to be president of the UMC Council of Bishops, said the delegates who signed the protest statement "do not speak for all the African delegates who are here at General Conference."

"The staff of the Commission on the General Conference made every effort to get each delegate from the African region to the General Conference who had a right to be seated," she explained.

"The Committee on Credentials reported to the General Conference and confirmed such efforts. The delegates from the African region who are here are fully engaged in all decisions being made. The delegates who are not here were not able to travel due to not receiving visas and other circumstances that prevented them from being here."

Malone said the UMC is "a worldwide church" that embraces "our diversity and respect our cultural, contextual, and theological differences."

Malone cited the regionalization measure that passed during the General Conference. This measure will allow different regions of the global denomination to determine their stance on LGBT issues. It must still be ratified by a majority of annual conferences before it can be added to the UMC constitution.

"The regionalization legislation that overwhelming passed confirms this visible unity and witness," she added. "The Social Principles legislation that expands the definition of marriage that overwhelming passed also confirms this unity and diversity and respects our cultural and contextual realities."

A UMC spokesperson also forwarded CP a brief statement from Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa of the Africa Central Conference, Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, who expressed support for Malone.

"We want to go on record to say that the majority of the African bishops who are here at General Conference, support this statement from Bishop Malone," stated Nhiwatiwa.

For the past several years, the UMC has been dealing with divisive debate over the Book of Discipline's stance on LGBT issues. While efforts to change the language at past General Conferences had always failed, many liberals refused to enforce or follow the rules.

In 2019, at a special session of the General Conference, delegates passed a temporary measure that created a process for congregations to disaffiliate from the UMC over the debate. More than 7,500 mostly conservative churches left the denomination from 2019 to 2023.


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: african; methodist

1 posted on 05/04/2024 10:48:24 AM PDT by Morgana
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To: Morgana

The Bee does it again!

Missionaries Travel From Africa To Bring The Gospel To United Methodist Church

https://babylonbee.com/news/missionaries-travel-from-africa-to-reach-the-united-methodist-church


2 posted on 05/04/2024 11:00:47 AM PDT by dayglored (Strange Women Lying In Ponds Distributing Swords! Arthur Pendragon in 2024)
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To: Morgana

UMC is just a liberal social club.


3 posted on 05/04/2024 11:01:39 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: Morgana

“I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.”


4 posted on 05/04/2024 11:03:16 AM PDT by dayglored (Strange Women Lying In Ponds Distributing Swords! Arthur Pendragon in 2024)
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To: Morgana

Goes a long way to explain why ‘Mom’ was such an apologist for the Ukrainian government.


5 posted on 05/04/2024 11:18:02 AM PDT by BobL
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To: BobL; Allegra; kiryandil

Ha! Great point.


6 posted on 05/04/2024 11:21:02 AM PDT by Jane Long (The role of the GOP: to write sharply-worded certailetters as America becomes a communist hell-hole.)
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To: BobL

If Fake UMC Mom was a real person “she” would respond to this article


7 posted on 05/04/2024 11:24:55 AM PDT by EC Washington
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To: dayglored

Quick somebody show them the Wesleyan Quadrilateral so they can use it to subordinate Scripture to Feeings and popular culture.


8 posted on 05/04/2024 12:03:58 PM PDT by MattMusson (Sometimes the wind bweek.lows too much)
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To: Morgana

They deliberately left out the African delegates because they knew they would vote against it. A bit underhanded for a church, I think.


9 posted on 05/04/2024 12:10:16 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing)
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To: bigbob

Poor Methodists. It’s the Great Chastisement for all Christians and Jews for offending God with birth control/abortion. He is letting sin devour us.


10 posted on 05/04/2024 12:11:10 PM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: Morgana
The African delegates blamed the UMC establishment for failing to properly invite 70 African delegates in time for them to travel to the General Conference, further biasing the proceedings.

"That is roughly 25% of our delegates. Ten months ago we began sending letters and emails and making phone calls, alerting the Commission on General Conference and some of our bishops that there was a problem. Many of these communications never received a single response," the statement alleged.

So the homosexual junta procedurally disenfranchised the African Methodists to rig the vote in favor of the homosexual takeover? That should become a landmark in the evolution of Intersectional Theology. Homosexuality trumps race.

As a practical matter, we can probably be more specific: WHITE homosexuality trumps basic procedural fairness to black people.

The woke dragon will devour its own. It's always good to know who is on top at any given moment.

11 posted on 05/04/2024 12:15:24 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: Morgana

This is emotionally difficult for people. They need to remember that God hasn’t changed, only misled people have. Just stay with God and leave the misled.


12 posted on 05/04/2024 12:28:37 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Are you ready for Black Lives MAGA? It's coming.)
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To: Morgana

It’s a fag church Jim


13 posted on 05/04/2024 12:36:34 PM PDT by NWFree (Sigma male 🤪)
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To: Morgana

methodist is no longer even a Christian denomination, it is now simply:

The Church of Latter-Day Sodomites.


14 posted on 05/04/2024 2:23:22 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Have you noticed how many Christian people continue to insist on being “United Methodists”? One recent poll even said that 38 percent of nominal Christians are voting Biden.


15 posted on 05/04/2024 2:24:55 PM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: Theodore R.

The Bishop’s Council rejected its own survery for years that claimed lack of Biblical conviction was causiing membership to decline. they have now embraced cultural diversity as their theology. By bringing Satan into their pulpit they have gained the world and lost their soul. Jesus turned down this deal.


16 posted on 05/04/2024 3:29:07 PM PDT by Lou Foxwell (The bleak winter of catastrophe is upon us.)
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