Liberal Megachurch Set to Leave UMC

After a two-years-long legal battle, the United Methodist Church (UMC) and Glide Memorial Church have come to a $6 million settlement that will see the famous San Francisco institution leave the denomination but keep its building.

A joint statement by the California-Nevada Annual Conference and Glide says the settlement allows the two organizations to move forward and “to pursue different aspects of Lizzie Glide’s Trust as wholly separate and autonomous organizations.”

Lizzie Glide was a San Francisco philanthropist and Methodist laywoman, who in 1929 established a trust in memory of her late husband, J.H. Glide, in order to establish a center to care for the local community and to share the gospel according to the doctrine of the Methodist Church.

Glide is one of the largest churches in the UMC, claiming around 13,000 members. This amounts to almost 19 percent of the California-Nevada Annual Conference’s total membership count. It is also one of the most prominent progressive United Methodist churches, holding the distinction of being the only “Reconciling” congregation among the UMC’s largest 100 American churches by membership. The distinction declares a formal affiliation with Reconciling Ministries Network, a pro-LGBTQ advocacy organization active across the UMC.

Glide came under fire in recent years for questionable leadership, financial management, and theology. As IRD has previously reported, in 2018 Bishop Minerva Caracaño of the California-Nevada Conference was concerned by a lack of governmental structure and financial transparency. In particular, she found that Rev. Cecil Williams was still acting as if senior pastor, holding decision-making power over active pastors appointed there, even though he retired from the church in 2000.

Watering down the proclamation of the Christian faith has been a long-standing practice at Glide, a tradition that has continued steadily until today. Under Williams the cross was removed from the sanctuary in 1967, and Williams conducted many same-sex marriages over the years, long before heated debates over marriage in General Conferences. Caracaño, herself a more liberal bishop, in 2018 described Glide’s “Sunday Celebrations” as “uplifting concerts,” which “lack the fundamentals of Christian worship.” Instead of a true church, Glide was rebranded (under Williams’ direction) and is self-described as “a center for social justice, dedicated to fighting systemic injustices, creating pathways out of poverty and crisis, and transforming lives.”

Among Glide’s recent senior pastors was Karen Oliveto, who served there from 2008 until 2016, until her controversial and contested election as bishop of the Mountain Sky Area of the Western Jurisdiction. While her leadership of the large congregation was widely cited by her supporters as evidence of her qualifications for the episcopacy, the weekly attendance of Glide’s services dropped 3,000 to 1,899 under Oliveto’s leadership.

The prolonged legal battle between the UMC and Glide along with the hefty settlement show clearly the value of . While $4.5 million of the transfer is restricted funds from the Lizzie Glide Trust designated for the mission of the United Methodist Church, the other $1.5 million of the funds Glide is agreeing to hand over is described as being “In recognition of the long-term and unique relationship between GLIDE and The United Methodist Church.” These are kind words for an exit fee, but is likely a prudent decision since further litigation would be costly and puts the fate of their building in the hands of the courts.

While Glide’s case is unique in many ways, United Methodists would be wise to take note of the public nature of the dispute, which spilled into local media and invited attacks on all those involved, hurting the witness of both the denomination and local church. The clear exit path provided by the Protocol for traditional United Methodist congregations offers a more peaceful way forward for Christians of different convictions to move forward into separate ministries.