by Joseph F. DiPaolo
Though not a delegate this time, I decided to travel to Charlotte for the second week of the United Methodist General Conference. I wanted to witness in person what I expected to be an historic moment in the life of this denomination in which I have served as a pastor and leader for nearly 40 years. I also wanted to get a feel for the atmosphere in the room – the tone and tenor of the proceedings – something not easily grasped from afar on a screen.
I anticipated something I have experienced many times locally, regionally and globally: another instance of what Methodists call “holy conferencing.” This is the “method” by which Methodists make decisions and seek to discern the will of God – one that is supposed to be characterized by a prayerful deliberation and thoughtful debate.
But that is not what I saw. Instead, I experienced a tightly controlled, highly scripted event, which more resembled government proceedings than those of a church. There was precious little in the way of serious theological or biblical reflection, or sensitive listening to concerns about the effects of the body’s decisions upon the global church.
Particularly conspicuous in this regard was the abuse of the “consent calendar.” The consent calendar is like an omnibus bill in Congress: many different matters are wrapped up together in a large package and voted on as a whole. Many of the biggest changes to church law and discipline which have been highlighted in the press were passed by use of the consent calendar.
Why does this matter? Because there is no debate on any of the individual pieces which have been lumped together in the omnibus.
Many decisions, including much of the legislation restructuring the church, or the lifting of restrictions on gay ordination – passed on the consent calendar without debate or discussion as to their significance for the church’s witness, or the impact such decisions might have on parts of the body in Africa, Asia or elsewhere. This use of the consent calendar contributed to the high vote percentages (because people had to vote for either everything or nothing). It severely curtailed opportunities for African delegates to amend or oppose the regionalization plan. I suspect another reason for this method was to avoid the possibility of embarrassing video clips being circulated later, as delegates defended some of these things in intemperate ways.
Even personal statements were controlled. A longstanding feature of Methodist conferencing has been moments of “personal privilege” – when a delegate can get up to a mic to make an announcement or express a heartfelt concern. A rule was adopted requiring delegates to submit in writing such requests to a committee for approval in advance. Even if approved, the delegate was not permitted to make the statement, but was read by someone on the dais.
Deeply disturbing to me was the unwillingness of the conference to hear the concerns of African delegates. Africans now comprise more than half the membership of the UMC globally, yet were allotted less than a third of the delegates to the conference. Of these about a quarter were unable to attend because of the failure of the American staff to get proper paperwork to delegates in time to obtain visas to enter the US. The conference ignored pleas by African delegates to delay restructuring the church in ways that will profoundly impact their future, until a future conference where there might be greater and fairer representation.
I also saw Africans treated rudely and dismissively. I was astounded when, as an African delegate spoke at the mic on Wednesday, an American delegate stepped up and interrupted him, demanding to be heard on a point of order. The point? That the session had gone past Noon, when the order of the day was the lunch break. She declared that she thought better when not hungry. The presiding bishop then broke for lunch, not permitting the African delegate to complete the last 30 seconds of his allotted two-minute speech. When the session reconvened after mealtime, the delegate was allowed back at the mic – but only given the remaining 30 seconds of his allotment, and not permitted the courtesy of starting over again!
One African delegate said to me that in his view, there had been a general conference before General Conference, which predetermined how it would go. He also said that the Africans had experienced nothing but marginalization and disrespect. And this from a church hierarchy which purports to be against racism and colonialism!
What I saw at General Conference was a denomination in which its American branch, though increasingly a minority of its global membership, used its power and privilege to control the outcomes, and remake the denomination in its own North American image.
I saw a triumphalist spirit among progressive delegates who finally had a majority to implement their vision legislatively. And I felt their disdain – even contempt – for traditionally-minded persons like myself, who still hold to the convictions of the Church universal for the last 2,000 years regarding marriage and sexuality.
I saw a denomination which has now fully embraced the progressive political vision of contemporary American society. As a result, it has sacrificed its identity as a colony of the kingdom of God which transcends the politics of any individual nation and undermined its ability to speak prophetically to all sides and factions in American society – or in any other. The UMC has become part of the partisan political divide in the US, no longer able to serve, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., as the “conscience of the state.”
What I saw was a stepping on the accelerator along the road to decline by a once-great institution, which in the past has given us great missionary movements, a myriad of social service institutions, and a vibrant global witness to the God-given dignity and rights of all people. I believe we will witness in coming months a steady bleeding out of membership around the world, as many more congregations, both in the US and overseas, depart from the UMC – with or without their properties. Whole conferences likely will secede, new lawsuits will be filed, and local congregations will divide and cease to be sustainable.
What I saw in Charlotte made me weep.
Rev. Joseph F. DiPaolo is a clergy member of the Eastern PA Conference of the UMC and a past member of the Commission on the General Conference.
People Need Jesus 
This is a stunning eyewitness account and indictment of the proceedings. ”What Joe saw” should be widely shared among fellow United Methodists. Many of us know the template only too well. The snuffing of dissent from traditionalists has been operative for a long time. But the disrespect shown the Africans is beneath contempt.
THE NEW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH:
2 Timothy 4:3
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Romans 1:24-27
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.27 In the same way **the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Why are you still in the UMC?
Thank you brother Joe,
Your courage and sacrifice to actually go to GC 2000/2024 was wonderful and your words were said with conviction and truth.
In Christ,
Dale Shunk
Very well expressed. The one thing that I saw while watching the proceedings was the control the Bishops had in allowing who was giving the opportunity to speak. Because the queue gave the full name of those who wanted to speak to — speak against — and raise a question or point of order, the presiding bishop had full control of how an item was being debated on the floor. What I also found detestable was that those who rose to address the body were to give their name, ethnicity, gender, and in a lot of cases their sexual preference. Obviously, there is now a disregard for Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
wow they got there play book right from the Biden administration
God will win no matter what they decide on there own good will not be mocked!!!
I feel like a trust, that has lasted since my great grandfather was an itenerate methodist minister, has been spit on.
Respectfully, Joe, why have you not exited the UMC and joined the GMC by now?
Why should he leave. I thought the UMC was the “Big Tent” and the GMC was the small minded “Little Tent.” Are you saying traditional conservatives are not welcome in the UMC and should continue to leave and take their churches and apportionments with them?
In the field of mental health, there is a condition known as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). It is characterized by utter disdain for authority and the inability to accept No for an answer. The subject resorts to vengeful, vindictive behavior when challenged.
Now, I’m not a professional therapist, just someone who has been watching gay “rights” for the past fifty years.
From DAY ONE, they were angry at the psychiatric profession for classifying homosexuality as a relational disorder at best- mental illness at worst. So, they infiltrated and changed policy. Today, human sexuality is a fluid spectrum of orientations and gender identities with one no better or worse than another. Sex ed curricula in schools is being conspicuously re-worked as a result. And look at what has happened to the Boy Scouts…
Next was the legal profession. They were angry at statutory laws which criminalized sodomy. That was dispensed with by the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision. Since sodomy is no longer a crime, that paved the way for the Obergefell decision imposing same-sex “marriage” on the country.
So, lastly, they are now perfectly poised to decimate orthodox Christianity. They always hated the church for saying homosexuality is a sin. So, they infiltrate, study and manipulate church policy. The UMC is now added to their victory collection alongside the United Church of Christ (UCC). the Evangelical Lutheran Church America (ELCA) the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) and the Episcopalian Church.