Seth Udinski, FISM News
The impending split in the United Methodist Church has dominated Christian news headlines for the last several years, ever since the denomination surprised many and voted to uphold the biblical doctrine of marriage.
Last week, the UMC Commission on the General Conference affirmed that they are moving forward with a 2022 General Conference, even though this meeting will likely cause the denomination to formally split. In an online meeting last Wednesday, the Commission set an unknown date in the first quarter of 2022 as the target time period to determine if the meeting will commence later in the year or not.
The UMC is facing a dramatic split over whether to uphold the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman, or to affirm LGBTQ members and clergy. Though the denomination voted to uphold biblical marriage in 2019, the vote passed with an extremely slim majority, and many American United Methodist congregations have already accepted these ideals of theological liberalism.
If the denomination decides to meet, the meeting will happen sometime in late summer of 2022, near the end of August and beginning of September. As FISM News previously reported, the meeting was originally scheduled for 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns delayed it twice.
The denomination said in a statement released on Friday,
A determination is slated to be made during the first quarter of 2022 about whether to hold the postponed 2020 General Conference as currently scheduled or to consider further postponement.
Some Christians are wondering if the denomination intentionally dragged its feet in setting a date for the 2022 conference, knowing that there is no other likely outcome other than a denominational split. Furthermore, the Commission made sure to include a caveat in the meeting that another pandemic-related delay is still possible.