As you may be aware, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church will be convening April 23rd to May 3rd, of 2024, in Charlotte, NC. As always, many issues will be brought to the attention of the body, but one issue in particular has ignited passionate discussion about the future of our denomination. The issue deals with a submitted resolution asking for the removal of statements on human sexuality as published in The United Methodist Book of Discipline, specifically on the ordination of practicing homosexuals and on the performance of same sex unions conducted by ordained ministers. The official statements can be found in The Book of Discipline for both of these issues in paragraphs 304.3 and 341.6, respectively.

In reaction to this upcoming conference decision, many United Methodist churches across the country decided to disaffiliate from the United Methodist denomination. As each of the 54 Annual Conferences in the United States handled the issue of disaffiliation differently, the South Carolina Conference developed its own process for discernment regarding disaffiliation by local churches in December 2022. This protocol references paragraph 2549 in The Book of Discipline. At the 2023 SC Annual Conference, using this discernment process, 113 churches officially disaffiliated.

In January 2023, as a response to what is happening within our denomination, Ashland UMC’s Church Council decided to, first of all, pray for God’s guidance during this time, to wait and see what decisions are made by the General Conference, and then to respond as the church sees fit. Ashland’s plan in the meantime is to distribute information about the issues facing General Conference for prayer and understanding. Although the announcement of the plan of Church Council was put out during worship services, a reminder of where Ashland stands currently may be helpful.

A few information sources that are currently available are: 1. A video from umcsc.org, which is the Annual Conference’s website, of our Bishop, Rev. Jonathan Holston, explaining the SC Annual Conference’s position and the process of discernment available to SC churches, 2. A 6-set video series of point/counterpoint arguments from Rev. Rob Renfroe and Rev. Adam Hamilton on the issues concerning the upcoming General Conference, and 3. Documents from umc.org (the denomination’s website) and umcsc.org highlighting paragraphs from The Book of Discipline on human sexuality and the protocol used for churches in the discernment process. All of the aforementioned media will be posted on Ashland’s website for your consideration. We may also post additional information that becomes available through UMNEWS.com and UMCSC.com or other sources.