The Côte d’Ivoire Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) announced last week that they are leaving the denomination over its approval in early May of same-sex marriages and of clergy in same-sex relationships. The conference, with more than 1 million members, was one of the largest in the denomination.
“The new United Methodist Church is now based on socio-cultural and contextual values which have consumed its doctrinal and disciplinary integrity,” the conference said in a statement, adding that the UMC has distanced itself from Scripture. Its decision to leave the UMC, it said, is based on “reasons of conscience, before God and before His Word, supreme authority in matters of faith and life.”
The conference was granted provisional membership in the UMC in 2004 and became a full member in 2008.
Other African Methodists are also facing the question of how to respond to the progressive stance of the UMC. During the denomination’s General Conference in May, a group of delegates from Liberia, Congo, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe issued a press release expressing dismay at both the rule changes and the way that the General Conference has seemed to devalue African Methodists, most of whom have a Biblical view of marriage and sexuality.
“At a past General Conference, we Africans were told that we spoke too loudly and that we should close our mouths,” the statement reads. “After another General Conference a bishop said we Africans need to grow up and think for ourselves. At this conference many of us were not even provided with the documents we needed to be present. One mainstream UMC leader wrote that The United Methodist Church should be willing to lose Africa to fulfill its progressive agenda. It is hard for us to believe we are valued as true brothers and sisters within The United Methodist Church.”
The delegates added: “In Africa we do not believe we know better than Jesus. We do not believe we know better than God. We do not believe we know better than the Bible.”
Above: Leaders of Côte d’Ivoire Conference of the United Methodist Church are shown at a gathering in 2021.
Photo: Village of Abobo-Baoulé Facebook