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CV NEWS FEED // Progressive theological shifts may be contributing to the steep declines in both membership and finances that mainline Protestant denominations in the United States continue to face, according to a recent report from the Associated Press (AP). While circumstances vary, the March 14 AP News report highlighted a shared pattern among several groups: internal divisions and declining participation often follow moves toward more progressive positions on doctrine and culture. The United Methodist Church, for example, lost a quarter of its U.S. congregations amid debates over the ordination and marriage of LGBT individuals. Its denominational workforce has shrunk...

The Warren Willis Camp is a United Methodist Camp and Conference Center on Lake Griffin’s picturesque shores in Fruitland Park. They are “dedicated to providing a sacred space where people of all ages and backgrounds come together to experience growth, connection, and transformation.” A ministry of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and proud partner of the United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries (UMCRM,) they offer overnight camps for everyone from 4th-grade students to recently graduated seniors. Here, students enjoy a week of chapel services, worship times, nature hikes, swimming, canoeing, crafts and ceramics, archery, wall-climbing, and making...

Months after the United Methodist Church’s largest overseas jurisdiction voted to cut ties with the denomination over their support of same-sex marriage, resulting in a loss of over a million members in a single day, UMC leadership has revealed their plans to retaliate against them: cut off all funding and take their property. Earlier this year, The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast (EMUCI), which has been vocal about the denomination’s drift, held an extraordinary session on May 28th and pulled the trigger, casting their votes to disaffiliate “For reasons of conscience before God and His word, the supreme...

A PASTORAL LETTER FROM THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH “Now faith, hope, and love remain…and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 CEB Thursday, November 7, 2024 Greetings, May the grace of God and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. Amid the change and uncertainty that have resulted from the recent U.S. elections, and the ways in which these matters will impact the whole world, we remember that we are held by the enduring power of God’s love and the call to be agents of that love in the...

The United Methodist Church continues to be a simmering cauldron of every vile and aberrant theology conceived in hell, which is why it is almost exclusively populated by weak men and women who are led around by their feelings and fleshly desires rather than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Enter Reconciling Ministries, an organization “committed to intersectional justice across and beyond the United Methodist connection, working for the full participation of all LGBTQ+ people throughout the life and leadership of the Church.” In their role, they have over 1100 UMC congregations affiliated with them. In light of President Trump’s...

The CRCNA (Christian Reformed Church in North America) is a historically conservative denomination in the process of being eaten alive by famished and bad-faith progressives, and they are barely fighting back. Like a wildebeest that quietly lets lions tear chunks out of its hindquarters with half-hearted resistance, so too has the CRCNA been being attacked and put upon by LGBTQ-loving liberals, slowly being drained of the lifeblood of Christ. We saw this defeatism most evidently in 2022, when their flagship school, Calvin University, made a devil’s deal with gay-affirming staff and professors. The school’s board of trustees voted to allow...

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The United Methodist Church in Liberia has been roiled in recent days over its position on marriage for same-sex couples after the global denomination, based in the United States, voted to strike a 40-year-old condemnation of homosexuality from its governing document. Clergy and lay members of the 150,000-member Liberian church have been calling for a special session of the annual conference to take a vote on the U.S. church’s decision, but Bishop Samuel Jerome Quire, the resident bishop of the Liberia Area, has refused, citing the importance of maintaining unity in the Liberian church. Last week,...

The United Methodist Church’s highest court will soon determine whether congregations can continue to leave the denomination in response to its progressive stance on LGBT issues. From 2019 to 2023, around 7,500 congregations used a temporary provision in the UMC Book of Discipline to disaffiliate from the denomination in response to its debate over sexual ethics. The United Methodist Judicial Council has been asked by the Kentucky and Alabama-West Florida conferences about whether another provision in the Book of Discipline can be used to exit the denomination. According to the UMC Kentucky Conference, the Judicial Council will consider the matter...

Allendale United Methodist Church is one the most progressive we’ve ever seen. Led by Rev. Andy Oliver, his congregation is “committed to anti-racism and radical solidarity with folx on the margin,” while he himself is “grounded in liberation theology and following Jesus” while being “a community organizer who always located himself with the oppressed.” When they’re not having drag-queen-led worship services, Easter services, monthly drag-led bingo, or selling merch featuring Jesus as a drag queen, they’re preaching cringe sermons that give trigger warnings for “violent” bible verses, reassuring congregants that if the scripture is too triggering, people can leave, all...

A regional body of The United Methodist Church has its third openly gay bishop, the first since the mainline Protestant denomination changed its rules to allow noncelibate homosexuals to be ordained. The Rev. Kristin Stoneking, a United Methodist studies professor at the Pacific School of Religion, was elected a bishop by the UMC Western Jurisdiction at their meeting held last week in Spokane, Washington.Stoneking was elected on the 11th ballot, receiving 65 votes out of 94 valid ballots cast. For that ballot, she needed to receive at least 63 votes, according to UM News. Her term of service begins on...

United Methodism’s largest overseas jurisdiction has voted to quit the denomination in response to the church’s divorcing sex from marriage at its governing General Conference earlier this month. The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast voted on May 28 to exit the denomination. In 2022, this conference reportedly had over 1.2 million members. So, its departure means over one tenth of United Methodism has in one day left the denomination. Oddly, United Methodist News Service reported the vote very briefly in an emailed news digest but as of today has no article on its website. Perhaps it will post...

The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast voted on May 28 to exit the denomination in response to the church’s decision to approve gay pastors and same-sex marriage at its governing General Conference earlier this month. In 2022, this conference reportedly had over 1.2 million members. So, its departure means over one tenth of United Methodism has—in one day—left the denomination. “For reasons of conscience before God and His word, the supreme authority in matters of faith and life,” the annual conference of the United Methodist Church of Ivory Coast (EMUCI, Eglise Méthodiste Unie Côte d’Ivoire), gathered for an...

In a continued blistering indictment against the destructive and damned United Methodist Church denomination, their largest overseas jurisdiction has voted to cut ties with them over their support of same-sex marriage and all things gay at their General Conference earlier this month, resulting in a loss of over a million members in a single day. The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast (EMUCI), which has been vocal about the denomination’s drift, held an extraordinary session on May 28th and pulled the trigger, casting their votes to disaffiliate “For reasons of conscience before God and His word, the supreme authority...

A former United Methodist Church pastor who was defrocked about 20 years ago for being in a same-sex romantic relationship has been reinstated by the mainline Protestant denomination. The UMC Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference voted overwhelmingly during a closed session of around 200 clergy on Tuesday evening to readmit Beth Stroud. Bishop John Schol, head of both the Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey annual conferences, said he was “deeply grateful for the discernment of the clergy” and “grateful that the church has opened up to LGBTQ persons.” “I couldn’t be prouder as your bishop, and you couldn’t have given...

The United Methodist Church General Conference voted to drop a ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and removed a required punishment for pastors who officiate gay weddings after thousands of theologically conservative congregations left the mainline Protestant denomination in the last two years. On Tuesday, delegates approved a petition that struck from the UMC Book of Discipline Paragraph 806.9 language that prohibits the General Council on Finance and Administration from "ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of...

A United Methodist Church bishop, whose election was declared invalid in 2017 for being in a same-sex marriage but who remains in office, has denounced the denomination’s ban on “queer clergy” in a General Conference sermon. Bishop Karen Oliveto of the UMC Mountain Sky Area gave a message on Monday morning before the churchwide UMC General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. During her remarks, Oliveto asked those gathered if they were “willing to make God’s love visible in all you do” and if they would “meet and serve Jesus in the outcast, the downcast, and the cast aside.” Oliveto gave...

The United Methodist Church General Conference has advanced a measure meant to allow different regions of the global denomination to determine their own standards on LGBT issues.At the Thursday plenary session of the General Conference, delegates voted 586-164 in favor of a petition for an amendment to the UMC’s constitution allowing for regionalization. The petition will now be sent to the annual conferences for possible ratification.The amendment will need to gain at least two-thirds support from the annual conference clergy and lay voters to be added to the UMC constitution, reports UM News.>At present, the UMC Book of Discipline, the...

The United Methodist Church lost one-fourth of its U.S. churches in a recent schism, with conservatives departing over disputes on sexuality and theology. Now, with the approach of its first major legislative gathering in several years, the question is whether the church can avert a similar outcome elsewhere in the world, where about half its members live. The question is particularly acute in Africa, home to the vast majority of United Methodists outside the U.S. Most of its bishops favor staying, but other voices are calling for regional conferences to disaffiliate. At the upcoming General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina,...

Allendale United Methodist “Church” is already under fire for allowing minors to attend a drag queen show during its worship service, blatantly disregarding Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s legislation that prohibits exposing children to sexualized performances. One particularly egregious instance in 2022 involved Isaac Simmons, also known as drag queen “Ms. Pennycost,” who is now an ordained “pastor” or “priestess” or whatever in the UMC. Simmons openly challenges the authority of Scripture and adopts a heretical view of God, evident through his sacrilegious writings. Simmons was notably featured at this “church” delivering a “children’s sermon” that grossly misrepresented Romans 12:2, twisting...

The number of congregations that have left the United Methodist Church amid the schism over the denomination's stance on homosexuality has passed the 7,000 mark.Over the weekend, the number of churches that have disaffiliated from the UMC since 2019 reached 7,286, according to UM News, with over 5,200 leaving this year alone.This total includes 366 churches leaving the Kentucky Conference, 349 churches leaving the North Alabama Conference, 334 churches leaving the North Georgia Conference, 326 churches leaving the North Carolina Conference and 317 churches leaving the Indiana Annual Conference.Of the 334 congregations that have disaffiliated from the North Georgia Conference...