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The Methodist Church of the United Kingdom has passed two resolutions, one officially approving the blessing of same-sex unions and the other recognizing cohabiting couples. According to The Christian Post, in a statement on Wednesday, the Methodist Conference announced that it had passed the resolutions at this gathering in Birmingham, England. "A report on marriage and relationships, 'God in Love Unites Us,' was received by the Conference in 2019, and the local District Synods were asked to consider the provisional resolutions and report back to this year's Conference," the statement reads. "The Conference received a report on the results of...

One of the largest churches in Boise, Idaho, apologized for participating in "white supremacy" and announced it is removing the likeness of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a stained-glass window. In a statement, the pastors and staff at the Cathedral of the Rockies began by "acknowledging our own sin with a stained glass window," which also features presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. "The recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor brought long-overdue urgency to our discernment process," the church board wrote in a statement to members. "We are reminded of our privilege. We have waited...

Most leaders in Judaeo-Christian faiths believe scripture teaches that all human lives are valuable and deserving of protection. But there are some who stray from the teaching and promote abortion. A group of New York state clergy members recently advocated for abortion at the state capital, Christian News Network reports. Together, abortion activists who identify as Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist, Unitarian and Jewish urged New York state lawmakers to support abortion and Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in the United States, according to the report. “As pastors, we believe in New Yorkers’ ability to get the health care...

United Methodism is increasingly likely to divide into separate traditional and liberal denominations. But even absent this division, the church was already heading towards sharp drops in funding for denominational structures, reflecting United Methodism’s ongoing drop in membership and resources. A recent memo from the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) outlined this reality. GCFA is submitting to General Conference 2020 a quadrennial budget for United Methodism’s structures of $494 million, an 18% reduction from the 2017-2020 budget. These cuts include 35% for United Methodist Communications (UMCOM), 20% for General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) and General Board of...

An increasing number of individuals who identify as “gender non-binary” have emerged among the clerical ranks in mainline Protestant denominations. Following the ordination of transgender clergy in the United States, non-binary clergy appear to be the next wave of sex and gender revisionism. While clergy already ministering within Christian communities have come out to their churches as non-binary, a number of non-binary identifying individuals have made headlines as the first to be ordained openly within their denomination. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, non-binary is relating to or being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that is...

Rev. Anna Blaedel, an openly gay United Methodist chaplain at the University of Iowa and “theologian-in-residence” with Enfleshed, gave the invocation in the Iowa Senate chambers on Thursday morning. She was invited to give the opening prayer by Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, and to call her prayer controversial would be an understatement. Caffeinated Thoughts readers may remember that Blaedel was required to take unpaid leave over a settlement with the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church after being accused of violating church doctrine by being a “self-avowed, practicing homosexual.”

If the reports are true, then “a tentative plan” has been put in place “to split the [Methodist] church over differences on same-sex marriage and the inclusion of gay clergy.” In 2019, “The division, which has been brewing for years, came to an impasse last May when delegates in St. Louis voted 438-384 to ban gay marriage and the inclusion of gay clergy.“A majority of U.S.-based churches opposed the ‘Traditional Plan’ but were outvoted by conservatives in the U.S., Africa and the Philippines.”Assuming that this split actually takes place, what will happen to these two branches, one conservative and the...

If the reports are true, then “a tentative plan” has been put in place “to split the [Methodist] church over differences on same-sex marriage and the inclusion of gay clergy.” In 2019, “The division, which has been brewing for years, came to an impasse last May when delegates in St. Louis voted 438-384 to ban gay marriage and the inclusion of gay clergy. “A majority of U.S.-based churches opposed the ‘Traditional Plan’ but were outvoted by conservatives in the U.S., Africa and the Philippines,” Fox News reported. Assuming that this split actually takes place, what will happen to these two...

January 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The United Methodist Church (UMC) announced Friday it will be dealing with ongoing divisions over homosexuality by formally splitting, with the formation of a new denomination for Methodists who hold to a Biblical understanding of sex and marriage. The church has been divided over the issues of same-sex “marriage” and homosexual clergy, with its General Conference voting in February against compromising its opposition. Tensions have continued since, however, and on Friday the church announced the formation of a new “traditional Methodist” denomination for more conservative Methodists, the New York Times reports. The Washington Post adds...

A United Methodist Church congregation in Texas with approximately 2,800 members has voted to leave the mainline denomination because of its debate over homosexuality. Grace Fellowship UMC of Katy voted Dec. 15 to leave the UMC due to the divisive debate on whether to amend the Book of Discipline to remove language calling homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Jim Leggett, the founding pastor of Grace Fellowship, told The Christian Post in an interview Monday that his congregation wanted “to remove ourselves from the dysfunctional fighting going on in the United Methodist Church so that we can fully devote our energies...

Thomas Callaway, a 43-year-old youth minister (Pittman Park United Methodist Church) from Statesboro, GA was charged Friday with sexual battery, a misdemeanor, in Chatham County, records show. “The conduct displayed toward Alex Bozarjian during her live coverage of Saturday’s Savannah Bridge Run was reprehensible and completely unacceptable,” the Savannah television station the employs Bozarjian said after the arrest. Bozarjian told police the man had slapped and then grabbed her buttocks, the Associated Press reported.

A Progressive United Methodist congregation in Southern California is marking the Advent season with an outdoor nativity display featuring the holy family in cages. According to the Los Angeles Times, the depiction of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees in cages likens one of the most well-known images of the Christmas season to photos that have become synonymous with criticism of the Trump administration’s border separation policies. “We don’t see it as political; we see it as theological,” Claremont United Methodist Church lead pastor the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine told the Times. “Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border...

Talk about overkill! The ultra-liberal UMC Next caucus has released its “Next Generation UMC” proposal for the 2020 General Conference, consisting of 23 petitions across 33 pages. UMC Next’s Convening Team includes celebrity pastor Adam Hamilton, Tom Berlin (lead submitter of the misleadingly named “One Church Plan” to the 2019 General Conference), Jasmine Smothers (another Commission on a Way Forward member and “One Church Plan” sponsor), Jan Lawrence (CEO of the LGBTQ liberationist Reconciling Ministries Network), Randall Miller (former head of RMN), Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson of North Georgia, Bishop Mike McKee of North Texas, Junius Dotson (CEO of our denomination’s...

In a letter dated July 2, 1756, Benjamin Franklin presented a proposal to George Whitefield, the most famous preacher of the Great Awakening, that they partner together to establish a Christian colony "in the Ohio," which was frontier at the time. In the letter, Franklin expressed confidence that God would give them success in such a project, "If we undertook it with a sincere regard to his honor." For the next 30 years, they carried on a lively and open correspondence. Whitefield often spoke about faith in Christ and admonished Franklin to make sure he was prepared for the next...

There is no debate that Joe Biden does not follow the Catholic Church’s teachings about the sanctity of human life. A pro-abortion Democrat, Biden has embraced an increasingly radical pro-abortion position that supports abortions up to birth and taxpayer-funded abortions. Though Biden claims to be a faithful Catholic, his actions openly defy his faith when it comes to protecting babies in the womb. That is why, about two weeks ago, a South Carolina priest refused to serve communion to Biden during Mass. The decision sparked national media attention and renewed a debate among Christians about whether it is right to...

Recently at least eleven liberal United Methodist congregations in five different states, from the Deep South to the far North, have publicly announced that they are taking at least initial steps towards leaving the United Methodist Church. These moves are all being made directly in protest over our denomination’s continued official traditionalist policies on marriage and sexual morality. Eight of these eleven congregations are formally affiliated with the LGBTQ-liberationist Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN). On September 8, members of Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church in Savannah, Georgia, voted by a whopping 309-7 to disaffiliate from the UMC. Then on September 17,...

Contested United Methodist Church (UMC) Bishop Karen Oliveto recently spoke on transformational leadership at Yale Divinity School. The primary thrust of this talk was the need for a community focus in the UMC. She also took questions about the current state of the denomination. Oliveto attempted to avoid controversy in her comments, though her personal views were visible. When asked about the decline of the UMC in recent years, she obliquely blamed, “All the infighting we’ve been doing” as well as, “an erosion of the grace that’s foundational to who we are.” This idea of an “erosion” of what Methodism...

In an open letter to the faculty, administrators, students, and alumni at Asbury Theological Seminary, a group of 70 current and former students attacked the seminary for its support of the United Methodist Church’s Traditional Plan at General Conference 2019. Asbury is an independent evangelical seminary outside Lexington, Kentucky with 1800 current students that teaches Wesleyan beliefs. It graduates more United Methodist clergy than does any official United Methodist seminary and is one of America’s largest seminaries. Among the letter signers, and possibly its organizer, is Bill Mefford, who left the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society after...

300,000 miles on horseback -Francis Asbury, Circuit Riding Preacher "one of the builders of our nation" The King of England was the head of the Anglican Church from the time of Henry VIII. Beginning in 1535, all English subjects, including those in English colonies, were required to the Oath of Supremacy: "I (state your name) do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience, that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm ... in all Spiritual or Eclesiastical things ... So help me God." For most of England's history from 1535 to 1829, not to take the...

Dr. Dorothee Benz, a prominent LGBTQ activist in the United Methodist Church (UMC), is leaving the denomination after many years of leading resistance efforts. Dr. Benz publicly announced her decision to resign her membership from the UMC by publishing a letter she handed to Bishop Bickerton of the New York Annual Conference. In the letter, Benz, who is lesbian, describes her identity as a lifelong United Methodist and her years of both personal and public struggle with a church that does not support the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” She currently works as Chief Communications Officer for Lambda Legal, a...