In one fell swoop last week, the United Methodist Church lost more than 1 million members.
Weeks after the United Methodist Church voted to allow LGBT-practicing clergy and reverse prohibitions on same-sex marriage, the United Methodist Church of Ivory Coast (Eglise Méthodiste Unie Côte d’Ivoire) voted on May 28 to leave the UMC.
‘This is not an emotional issue but a matter of unchangeable truth. Homosexuality is clearly a sin.’
The West African Methodists made the decision to leave the UMC “for reasons of conscience, before God and His word, the supreme authority in matters of faith and life.” The decision of the UMC to embrace LGBT culture and same-sex marriages “deviates from the Holy Scriptures,” according to the EMUCI. The UMC church is, therefore, “sacrific[ing] its honor and integrity to honor the LGBTQ community.”
In a statement, Bishop Benjamin Boni said the UMC “is now based on socio-cultural and contextual values which have consumed its doctrinal and disciplinary integrity.”
This is a significant development because it means the UMC is losing more than 1 million members.
Even more important is the fact that Methodism of the conservative/traditional variety is growing in the Ivory Coast. The UMC in the U.S., on the other hand, has seen years of decline — especially as the denomination began embracing liberalism.
Ministry Watch explained:
With 900 churches and 100 preaching points, the church has experienced 7-8% annual growth. Its demographic reflects the country’s, with 60% under 35 and women as the majority. Alongside its spiritual mission, the church runs schools and a hospital while engaging in community development.
The Côte d’Ivoire Conference was granted provisional membership in the denomination during the 2004 General Conference and fully admitted in 2008. It quickly became one of the denomination’s largest conferences, with over 1 million professing members as of the most recent report.
The EMUCI is not the first group of Methodists to walk away from the UMC.
Over the last several years, thousands of UMC congregations in the U.S. have disaffiliated from the UMC, joining the Global Methodist Church or remaining independent. They left over the denomination’s liberal drift.
The Korean Methodist Church — which boasts approximately 1.5 million members — could soon also be on its way out of the UMC.
“Homosexuality cannot be accepted until the Lord returns. This is not an emotional issue but a matter of unchangeable truth. Homosexuality is clearly a sin,” a coalition of conservative Korean Methodists said last month. “This is an issue concerning the sanctity of life that the church must teach correctly, without compromise.”
