Council of Bishops and the One Church Model

There will be a special General Conference of the UMC in February of 2019. The General Conference is the only body of the UMC that can set rules and standards and doctrine for the whole church. Only the GC can amend the church canon law, the Book of Discipline. The GC is not a standing body, it exists only when convened. That happens every four years by rule. Special General Conferences are rare and time limited. February's Conference is scheduled (and funded) for only three days.

The topic for the special Conference is to set a way forward for the church in grappling with the issue of homosexuality. Presently, there are two restrictions on this issue:

1. "Self avowed, practicing homosexuals" may not be ordained in the UMC,
    
2. Same-sex weddings or unions may not be conducted on any United Methodist property, nor may UM ministers officiate such ceremonies anywhere. 

That's it. And those are the two issues that the GC will address. At the last ordinary GC in 2016, a Commission on A Way Forward was founded to study and draft proposals to go before 2019's called GC. The proposals, usually referred to a models, were to be presented first to the Council of Bishops, who were empowered in 2016 to choose one to recommend to the 2019 GC. (Or the Council could reject them all and make its own recommendation, but no one expected that to happen, and it has not.) 

The Commission came up with three models, each of which were presented to the Council earlier this year. They are:

1. Traditionalist - which would make no changes to the Discipline and would therefore maintain the status quo.
    
2. One Church Model - in which decisions about whether to ordain LGBTQ clergy or to officiate at same-gender unions would be made closer to the congregational level. The plan would remove the restrictive language against the practice of homosexuality in the Discipline. The plan also adds assurances to pastors and conferences who in good conscience cannot perform same-sex weddings or ordain “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy that they don’t have to do so. Central conferences — church regions in Africa, Asia and Europe — could maintain current restrictions.
    
3. The Connectional-Conference plan, which would allow conferences to choose among three connectional conferences for affiliation. The connectional conferences would align based on theology or perspective on LGBTQ ministry — be it traditionalist, progressive or allowing for a variety of approaches. This plan would require multiple amendments to the denomination’s constitution.

Last month, the Council of Bishops voted to recommend the One Church model to the 2019 Conference. However, it also voted that the other two models should remain on the table for consideration. By the way, bishops have voice but no vote at General Conferences.

For more information, read this piece from the UM News Service and see this video.