The largest overseas jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church has voted to leave the denomination because of its stances on human sexuality issues. The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast has more than 1.2 million members, so its departure means more than one- tenth of United Methodism in one day left the denomination.
The Ivory Coast church said United Methodism “deviates from the Holy Scriptures” and prefers “to sacrifice its honor and integrity to honor the LGBTQ community”. Bishop Benjamin Boni added that “the United Methodist Church now rests on socio-cultural values that have consumed its doctrinal and disciplinary integrity.”
At the denomination’s General Conference in early May, delegates removed the church’s longtime stance that sex is only for marriage between husband and wife. Adultery and extramarital sex were removed as chargeable offenses for clergy, along with homosexual behavior.
The speed of the Ivory Coast exit may inspire other United Methodist regions in Africa to also leave. United Methodism in Africa is overwhelmingly conservative and displeased with the denomination’s new direction African delegates at the General Conference were widely ignored and underrepresented because of an unfair representation formula.
Some African delegates unsuccessfully urged the General Conference to establish a process for their exit, as there had been for U.S. churches. But unlike in the United States, most African nations don’t have laws giving the denomination clear ownership of church buildings. If an entire overseas conference votes to exit, there’s little to nothing that U.S.-based church officials can do. Ivorian Methodism is different from United Methodism elsewhere in Africa, because it originated with British Methodism. It gained independence in the 1980s and joined United Methodism in 2004. Now it returns to its previous independence.
United Methodism now reports 5.4 million members in the United States based on 2022 figures. This does not include the full impact of 7,700 exiting churches, which combined with closed churches, included 1.5 million church members. U.S. membership is now likely close to four million, with Africans outnumbering Americans.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice