Gig Harbor congregation ponders Methodist split; ‘incredibly sad,’ but increasingly likely

The growing prospect of a split in the United Methodist Church over acceptance of gay people is “incredibly sad,” a Gig Harbor pastor said Sunday, but is looking more and more inevitable.

“We have become a denomination that can only move forward by deciding we have irreconcilable differences,” said the Rev. Molly Fraser, pastor of Gig Harbor United Methodist Church.

A group of leaders of the UMC, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States, announced on Friday a plan that would formally split the church, citing “fundamental differences” over same-sex marriage after years of division.

The plan is at yet only a proposal, Pastor Fraser assured her congregation Sunday.

“We have not split,” she told about 100 people at the second service, departing briefly from the liturgy for the 11th Day of Christmas.

“We have a proposal that must be accepted, voted upon and ratified at the next General Conference, when that happens in May.

“However,” she added “I believe it is the most viable of all the proposals we have heard before. It is about the best that can be achieved, and it is one in which our church would fit well.”

The plan would split apart a denomination with 13 million members globally — roughly half of them in the United States — and create at least one new “traditionalist Methodist” denomination that would continue to ban same-sex marriage as well as the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy.

It seems likely, The New York Times reported, that the majority of the denomination’s churches in the United States would remain in the existing United Methodist Church, which would become a more liberal-leaning institution as conservative congregations worldwide depart.

Representatives from the Methodists’ wide-ranging factions, including church leaders from Europe, Africa, the Philippines and the United States, hammered out the separation plan during three two-day mediation sessions held at law offices in Washington. The negotiations largely centered on how to allocate the church’s significant financial assets and how to craft a separation process.

The crisis in the UMC came after a contentious general conference in St. Louis last February, when 53 percent of church leaders and lay members voted to tighten the ban on same-sex marriage, declaring that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

The vote came as a surprise to most church members, and reaction was swift.

“We used to count at least 250 people a Sunday,” said Pastor Fraser. “After that general conference adopted a traditional view, we lost 50 people almost immediately.”

“For the most part, these were individuals who wanted to see a church welcoming to all people, and who felt they could no longer be a part a denomination that didn’t,” she said.

Gig Harbor UMC counts at least 20 members who identify as LBTQ, and many have taken an active role in the church. Pastor Fraser has celebrated half a dozen same-sex marriages.

Still, the 11 a.m. service Sunday was one in which traditionalists could still feel comfortable.

There were hymns celebrating the Epiphany — including the venerable “We Three Kings” — a children’s time, during which a half-dozen kids gathered around the altar to learn about the magi, and an uplifting sermon by Pastor Fraser — a cheerful, animated woman with an infectious laugh — on the theme of “The Light of Christ.”

The worshipers — mostly middle-aged, with a sprinkling of younger folk — advanced to communion under a screen that read, “Communion is the United Methodist Church is open to all people. There is no one turned away from God’s table of grace.”

Paster Fraser, 44, is in her third year with Gig Harbor UMC. She is the 130-year-old church’s first female pastor, and she lost “a bunch of people” in the first year, she recalls.

But many traditionalists stayed, she said, and they have warmed to one another.

“These are good people, who are staying here because they believe there is still room for them,” she said.

Losing them, she said, growing emotional, “will be a real loss.”

“We have people from everywhere on the theological and political spectrum, liberal and conservative. But we have still prayed together, taught our children together, fed the homeless together —” She paused, choking up. “Losing them will just be very, very sad.”

There is little chance of a “conservative Methodist” congregation forming in Gig Harbor, Pastor Fraser said. Instead, those who depart will probably find another denomination.

“There are probably 36 other churches in Gig Harbor who would welcome them,” she said with a sigh.

Methodism, which grew out of a working-class movement in 17-century England, has a long history in America, dating back to the circuit-riding preachers of the “Great Awakening” of the 1830s.

While a plurality of American Methodists consider themselves conservative, according to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study in 2014, six in 10 believe that homosexuality should be accepted and nearly half favor same-sex marriage, the New York Times reported.

At many of the church’s regional conferences this past summer — in states like Florida, Georgia and Texas — members responded to last year’s vote by electing delegates for the upcoming global conference who largely supported including gays and lesbians in the full life of the church.

Local churches will choose whether to join any new traditionalist denomination or remain in the United Methodist Church. Several people interviewed by The New York Times on Friday believed that most American churches would stay, though there has not been any formal survey.

Conservatives, who seemed to have the upper hand after the vote tightening a ban on same-sex marriage, would get $25 million once their new denomination is formed and incorporated. All current clergy and lay employees of the denomination, even if they affiliate with the traditionalists, will get to keep their pension plans.

“It is not everything that we would have hoped for, but we think it is a good agreement that gets us out of the decades-long conflict that we have experienced and enables us to focus on ministry in a positive way,” said Tom Lambrecht, vice president of Good News, one of the conservative groups.

Despite the deep doctrinal disputes that led to the split, the negotiations were “largely secular: process, governance, finances,” said Kenneth R. Feinberg, the lawyer who helped craft the plan.

Local churches will choose whether to join any new traditionalist denomination or remain in the United Methodist Church. The New York Times said Friday that is believed most congregations will stay, although in some parts of the country as many as one-third may associated with the new traditional denomination.

This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 12:00 AM.