By Bill W. Cooper
Unity within the United Methodist Church (UMC) continues to crumble further following the decision at the Church’s annual conference to allegedly endorse regionalization and LGBTQ within the church board of discipline.
With the unfolding situation, the Refuge United Methodist Church (UMC) took a bold step on Sunday when its members affixed their signatures to a resolution disaffiliating with the United Methodist Church Liberia Annual Conference (UMC-LAC), underscoring the accelerated divide within the denomination.
The United Methodist Church was officially established in 1968, and its history dates back to 1730 when John and Charles Wesley, two students at Oxford University in England, gathered a small group of students who sought to spread the Methodist movement.
But these ongoing feuds, affected several other churches of the UMC all started with the alleged acceptance of same-sex marriage by the General Conference in the US, which Bishop Samuel Quire of the UMC-LAC has come under intense criticism from church members over his refusal to call for a special session and allow members of the church to determine the way forward for the church in Liberia.
The saga followed since the return of the resident Bishop of the Liberia-UMC from the General Conference of the Church in the US, where a new resolution by the global church allows same-sex marriage and derives a new meaning for the term marriage in all UMC.
The delegates from the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, from April 23 to May 3, 2024, voted 692-51 to repeal the church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy, marking a significant shift in church’s policy.
The resolution signed Sunday, February 23, 2025, in Matadi, the church said, “Our decision to disassociate from the LAC/UMC is because we cannot in good conscience be a part of a denomination that has legally become a “Gay Denomination”, based on its official decision to ordain lesbians and gays as pastors and consecrate some as bishops.”
According to the church resolution, there are already two avowed lesbian pastors (two women openly married to other women) who are serving as Bishop of the UMC in America, and one avowed gay pastor (a man openly married to another man) also serving as Bishop.
This, the Church narrated, “Because of the connectional nature of the UMC, any Methodist pastor ordained in any part of the world, and any clergy consecrated as bishop in any part of the world becomes pastor and bishop of the whole church, including the LAC/UMC.”
“To remain a part of the UMC is to have these lesbians and gays as our pastors and bishops. They have the right, under the laws of the worldwide UMC, to do ministry in any part of the world where a UMC church or denomination exists.”
“There is, therefore, no way leaders and members of the UMC in Liberia can stop a gay or lesbian pastor or bishop from coming to Liberia and doing ministry with its people here. So, we cannot in good conscience be a part of a denomination that prioritizes culture above the Scripture,” the resolution noted.
The church, in its resolution, further intoned, “This is what the Regionalization Plan is about. In the practice of Regionalization, the UMC in Liberia may not practice same-sex marriage or ordain pastors who are lesbians and gays.”
“However, the remaining part of the UMC means that we agree with other UMC annual conferences that are practicing them. We agree to be a one denomination that practices Christianity differently and not according to the ONE holy Bible.
So, to remain in the UMC means that we will be a part of them by association and by agreement. This is a sin! Genesis 19: Leviticus 18:22: Romans 1:24-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Therefore, we are stepping out in faith to serve God and make disciples of Jesus Christ, and spread scriptural holiness across Liberia, Africa and the world,” the Refuge UMC now Global Methodist Church resolution added.
