Disobedience, Forced Unity Disrupt UMC Florida Conference

Methodist Voices on June 14, 2022

The recently concluded 2022 session of the United Methodist Church’s (UMC’s) Florida Annual Conference has attracted much attention, anger, and misunderstanding. Much what you may have read misleadingly omits or downplays key details, notably the unforced choices of both liberal UMC Florida Conference clergy and Bishop Ken Carter to heavy-handedly prevent clergy candidates from being voted on individually. In the guest post below, the Rev. Dr. David DeSilva sets the record straight about what really happened, and how much of the heartache and pain could have been avoided if the UMC Florida Conference leadership had shown a little more fairness and integrity. 

Some context:

We at IRD/UMAction have been warning that pushing disobedience to our denomination’s biblical morality standards and/or heavy-handedly trying to force denominational unity at all costs will necessarily result in painful collateral damage. But these warnings have often fallen on deaf ears in the liberal echo chambers of many United Methodist bishops and bureaucrats. 

The UMC Florida Conference board of ordained ministry (BOOM), appointed by Carter, is apparently a rather liberal-stacked body. This website has previously reported on this board’s leaders heavy-handed bullying a faithful evangelical pastor, and fostering a climate of tomato-throwing hate against United Methodists who affirm their denomination’s official doctrinal and moral standards.

In addition to (not infallible) screening by each BOOM, Paragraph 324 of the United Methodist Church’s governing Book of Discipline requires that individuals can only be commissioned as “provisional” clergy (a step below full ordination) if their candidacy for ministry is approved “by a three-fourths majority vote of the clergy session” in the annual conference. The required super-majority approval of candidates by their conference’s ordained clergy is a vital matter of the denomination’s connectional system, in the UMC’s Florida Conference and elsewhere, ensuring sufficient vetting of clergy candidates at multiple occasions.

Since the group of candidates was presented for commissioning reportedly included at least two who violated the denomination’s ban on “self-avowed practicing homosexual” clergy, Paragraph 304.5 of the UMC Book of Discipline required Carter to take action in the clergy session to “rule any such unqualified candidate out of order and not eligible to be acted upon.” When Carter chose to not follow this mandate of church law, and he and others prevented the clergy session from voting separately on each candidate, this left faithful UMC Florida Conference clergy with only one way to uphold their church’s standards.

Rev. Dr.David deSilva is an elder in the Florida Conference of the UMC and serves as Trustees’ Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary as well as in the capacity of director of traditional music and organist at Port Charlotte UMC. He is the author of over thirty books on Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, and Spiritual Formation.

His statement below was originally posted on Facebook. Reposted with permission.

UM Voices is a forum for different voices within the United Methodist Church on pressing issues of denominational and/or social concern. UM Voices contributors represent only themselves and not IRD/UMAction.

Many have been posting about the actions of the clergy session of the Florida Annual Conference of the UMC. As an active participant, I want to offer my perspective on what I witnessed.

I found out in the half hour before the session that the Board of Ordained Ministry had approved and was bringing forward two self-avowed, practicing homosexual candidates for commissioning. The Board was doing this knowingly, putting the clergy of the annual conference in a position to act in defiance of the covenant that we, as clergy, have sworn to uphold, which includes abiding by the decisions of General Conferences as detailed in the Book of Discipline. At the outset, Rev. David Dodge presented a motion that the candidates all be considered as a block and not individually. After much spirited discussion and the defeat of a counter-motion, David Dodge’s motion passed. (I will say here that I found it a symptom of our dysfunction that one of the speakers in favor of the motion, Rev. Debbie MacLeod told us that we should simply trust the Board of Ordained Ministry to have done their job and merely act to ratify the decision of our representatives there rather than engage in any scrutiny ourselves. A call to trust a Board that had flagrantly violated our trust in bringing these two candidates forward and putting us in this position is disingenuous at best.)

When the time came for the vote on the group of sixteen being commissioned, the group failed to attain the 75 percent majority that was necessary to approve them, and so the whole block was not approved to move forward in the process. Shortly after the vote’s results were announced, there were calls for a motion to reconsider. I sought to put forward a motion to allow for a new vote to be taken, considering each candidate individually so that those fourteen against whose ordination there was no disciplinary objection (really, prohibition) could move forward. The bishop would not entertain that motion as “contrary to the spirit of the session.” A motion to reconsider a block vote was passed and the results were, not surprisingly, the same.

This is being spun throughout United Methodism and beyond as another instance of how “hateful” traditionalists are, with no fault at all being found with a Board that acted contrary to the Discipline or with a clergy session that insisted on assigning one, common fate to all sixteen. It is convenient to spin it thus, but it is not honest. Harm was being done to the consciences of every traditionalist in the room. Harm was being done to whatever thin threads remain of the trust we have with one another within the conference. Harm was of course done to the two gay/lesbian candidates (but not just by the clergy who votes against their ordination — harm was done by the Board that put them, and us, in this position). Harm was done to the fourteen candidates whose fate was decreed to be inseparable from the rest.

A large part of the blame must lie with a Commission on General Conference that did not move heaven and earth to make GC 2022 possible, and there is very good reason to believe that they could have done so. A GC could have ratified the “Protocol of Grace and Reconciliation Through Separation,” made it possible for traditionalist clergy and congregations to get out of the way of the progressive juggernaut without the onerous burdens being placed on many (and the outright refusal with which some congregations are meeting in other conferences) while also amending the Book of Discipline to allow those who remain, and who are certain of the rightness of their own cause, to move forward freely. The Florida Conference missed a genuine opportunity in its failure to move forward together in the spirit, and even under the terms, of that Protocol, even without GC ratification. We could have been under the spotlight for our gracious separation and blessing of one another on our diverging trajectories of ministry. I’ll never know why our leadership did not seize these opportunities (I did plead along these lines on several occasions), but we are here in this place as a result of these many factors.

I add this important note: what happened Thursday morning was not a “win” for anybody at all. It was a grievous, lamentable situation. I left with a heart as heavy if not heavier than I carried home from AC 2019. All this to say — no replies here of celebration or triumph, please. The morning was a complete defeat for all.

  1. Comment by Reynolds on June 14, 2022 at 6:47 am

    Liberals do not care about the future of the UMC. You need to understand they believe the problem with America are Christians so anything they destroys Christianity is a good thing. They are trying to destroy UMC and will go after GMC too. Look at the issues of PCA now.

  2. Comment by Steve on June 14, 2022 at 7:20 am

    Reynolds,
    Agreed. The GMC will be fighting this fight eventually. The UMC clergy who will follow their traditional churches to the GMC harbor the same “do no harm” rationalizations toward LGBT+ clergy that are destroying the UMC now and the PCA before. The answer is for traditionalists to take back their denomination.

  3. Comment by Rev. Dr. Lee D Cary (ret. UM clergy) on June 14, 2022 at 10:27 am

    Steve, you write: “The answer is for traditionalists to take back their denomination.”

    While I appreciate your thinking, it is unrealistic.

    “Progressive,” as they label themselves, do not regress, compromise, collaborate or evolve. They demand, resist, and destruct until they prevail.

    A Great Hollowing Out is underway in the UMC. The laity are evaporating. Many are going elsewhere to worship where theological biblical constructs and not rainbow ideology prevails.

    Every congregation where I was a pastor for 25 years included persons with non-traditional sexual proclivities. Others knew. No one cared.

    If you think I’m wrong about the Hollowing Out, go to YouTube and pull up the videos of recent worship services in larger UMCs with which you’re familiar. Many don’t show the worshipers, but some offer a glimpse of the seating.

    It’s thinning out. Often dramatically so.

    If you’re familiar with attendance patterns before the Great Hollowing Out went full throttle, you will note the increase in empty seats. Many of those that remain are from the 65-and-up generation. Congregations are not only thinning; they’re also aging.

    This will not reverse, Steve. Nor should it.

  4. Comment by David S. on June 14, 2022 at 10:54 am

    From the article: “…with no fault at all being found with a Board that acted contrary to the Discipline or with a clergy session that insisted…”

    This seems to be a common thread throughout the mainline denominations. As a former member of the PC(USA), that denomination has a provision for “diversity of thought”, essentially a modernized, though in practice, bastardized version of the historic doctrine of freedom of Christian liberty.

    The leftists running the PC(USA) much like the leftists in the UMC will only acknowledge inconvenient polity when they have no other choice. I recall pressing a matter (and I probably was not the only one) regarding a public facing figure in the national organization with his Presbytery, the Mission Agency, and the Stated Clerk. The Presbytery simply dismissed my concern over a flagrant rejection of orthodoxy on the nature, deity, and work of Christ. Executive Director of the Mission Agency and Stated Clerk acknowledged that the PC(USA) permits diversity of thought and determined to establish an input committee to ensure more balanced review of Unbound. However, the two top officers of the church blatantly lied when sending that email. Unbound has doubled down on its far leftist ideology. Following pushback over the BLM organization, where it was acknowledged that people have the right to a differing opinion, in 2020, official statements from the Stated Clerk and the various offices and committees no longer acknowledge dissenting views or even areas, such as crisis pregnancy work, where Christians of all stripes should find common cause. Once the 2014 amendments to the Book of Order were ratified and the mass exodus started to subside, the leftists were fully in control of the PC(USA) and are now bent on driving out any remaining members, whom they consider name your -ist/-phobic/anti- epithet, merely for sometimes even exercising partial, reasonable dissent, in direct contravention of official polity. The great irony is while these people blast oppression by the powerful, they demonstrate that they have become that which they so quickly criticize.

  5. Comment by Some advice on June 14, 2022 at 11:30 am

    To the author and others,

    Here are a few things to keep in mind IMO:

    1. God is still sovereign, even in the church, “so be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world”, as Jesus said in John before His crucifixion.
    2. When fights erupt, remember that over the history of the church wars have even started over issues like this. There is a time we have to fight, don’t shy away from it, conduct yourself as a believer should, and let the chips fall where they may. If we lose a battle, believe we will win the next one.
    3. Be at peace no matter what happens. There are always alternatives, even in the Florida Annual Conference. They may only show themselves in the future, but if traditional Christians wait and look, good things will happen.
    4. The church of Jesus Christ still exists, in many different forms and places. If it comes down to it, churches can meet anywhere and survive even if their building is not theirs anymore. There are lots of churches that are just buildings or ruins now, but the church itself continues to exit and be faithful
    5. Make sure you are faithful, whether others are or not.

  6. Comment by Reynolds on June 14, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    I attend a UMC church but consider myself still Presbyterian. Every year the PCUSA lose over 50k and they don’t even mention it anymore. They will lose 50% of the church in ten years. It is just remarkable.

  7. Comment by theenemyhatesclarity on June 14, 2022 at 1:36 pm

    Stop paying apportionments!

  8. Comment by Edward Woods on June 14, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    The fight is over property more than polity. ‘We want out and we want our buildings’. Traditionals, and I am one, could just walk away from the property and discover new places to worship. When they leave they take their money and service to continue God’s work. Many buildings may fail, but the Church is not a building…it is in the heart of the Believer.

  9. Comment by David Mu on June 14, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    Like sands passing through the glass – the days of these structures (whether ‘right’ or ‘left’) are passing, and yet more people will see how truly vile the modern church has become, and do the only thing proper – and walk out the doors leaving an mob to keep on being a black-hole of disgust. The last one standing can turn the lights off – or just drop dead being ‘the winner’.

  10. Comment by td on June 14, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    Sounds like the UMC that i have known my whole life. There’s nothing surprising to this story. Our clergy have never followed the rules or taught the faith. They have always only done what they personally wanted to do. So it’s no surprise that when they serve on boards they do exactly the same thing.

    No protocol will solve this problem. No matter what gets passed, our bishops, superintendents, and ministers will do whatever they want no matter what the rules say. The UMC represents the worst sort of clericalism.

  11. Comment by Mark Smith on June 14, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    For our area the best fit for us has become the new Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians denomination (ECO). While I remain Wesleyan at heart, my wife grew up Presbyterian and left the PC USA years ago when it continued its crazy liberal turn.

    We both were members of our local UMC until a few years ago when we got a liberal pastor, who questioned original sin, and her gay-marriage affirming sidekick who taught children’s Sunday School. It was quite a sight.

  12. Comment by Paul on June 14, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    Reynolds said, in an earlier comment, “I attend a UMC church but consider myself still Presbyterian.” Wow, just wow. While out of town visiting friends, they invited us to their EPC service. It happened to be the celebration of John Calvin’s birthday. I sat and listened to a sermon that blasted every Arminian/Wesleyan lesson I’d been taught as an MEC, then TMC, then UMC PK. No love for others that day. Just affirmation to members that they’re right and we’re wrong.

  13. Comment by Stop painting clergy with a broad brush on June 14, 2022 at 6:32 pm

    Look people, I understand that many of you may have been a UM church under both conservative/traditional clergy, and leftist/liberal clergy. In the annual conference I serve in the large majority of full member clergy clergy people are leftist.

    However, I am a conservative/traditional pastor, and there are others like me in the conference you live in! Yes, we won’t get choice assignments, or some place in the hierarchy. But doggone it, stop saying all UM clergy are leftist. The new GMC will be filled with young and old pastors that are faithful to the Lord and hold to the vows they take when ordained/accepted into the denomination. It won’t be perfect, but then what church is perfect? Anyone read the New Testament recently; was there a perfect church discussed in it?

    I’ve been discouraged for years about the state of my annual conference, it seems more like an adjunct organization to the Democratic Party and the hard left than a faith organization. But that does not mean that conservatives aren’t able to live out their faith and work in that structure until a new/better one is available (and hopefully soon).

  14. Comment by MJ on June 14, 2022 at 9:08 pm

    David S. commented regarding the PCUSA, “…where it was acknowledged that people have the right to a differing opinion, in 2020, official statements from the Stated Clerk and the various offices and committees no longer acknowledge dissenting views or even areas…”

    Same thing in the ELCA in 2009. Guarantees of respecting “bound consciences” was merely a ruse to go full throttle toward 2SLGBTQIA+ acceptance.

  15. Comment by Anthony on June 15, 2022 at 11:13 am

    QUESTION:

    Would (or does) the Florida Board of Ordained Ministry have approved heterosexual married candidates who were in committed, consensual open marriages, or single heterosexual candidates who were in committed, consensual sexual relationships, or living together unmarried?

  16. Comment by Pastor Mike on June 16, 2022 at 7:42 am

    Shame on the Florida Conference Board of Ordained Ministry for knowingly and blatantly violating the standards of ordination, commissioning, licensing, and certification required by church law.

    Where is the accountability?

  17. Comment by Pat on June 16, 2022 at 6:59 pm

    My heart is broken for the UMC. This Florida Bishop has simply abandoned any pretense to follow the approved policies within the UMC. Holy Scripture is no longer the focus of the liberal UMC leadership, but instead focuses on a continued abuse of UMC policy, traditional pastors and members of each local UMC who have faithfully supported the mission of the United Methodist Church, many for generations, not just years. Members will continue to leave, monies needed for ministry will continue to decline. When local church members ask the local church pastor, who may be a traditional pastor, to explain what is happening with the UMC, many local church members do not understand why they are expected to be faithful to the UMC when the liberal UMC leadership simply does as it pleases. The good news is our Lord knows and sees all and this destruction of the UMC in the United States will not stop the growth of the international UMC/Global Methodist Church. Unfortunately, many of the traditional UMC church members will not wait for the Global Methodist Church or the 2024 General Conference with any hope for the passing of the Protocol.

  18. Comment by Anthony on June 17, 2022 at 8:31 am

    Another Question:

    Along with the Florida Board of Ordained Ministry, the two LGBT candidates obviously knew they were in direct violation of the Book of Discipline. After the failed first vote to confirm the entire group of 16 and failed attempts to conduct individual votes — why didn’t the LGBT candidates ask to be removed from the group, placed on hold until the BOD could be revised, thus allowing the second group vote be for the purpose of confirming the other 14 other candidates??? Liberals scream love from the rooftops 24/7. Did they practice what they preach with relation to the 14 candidates who were not in violation of the BOD??

  19. Comment by John Lomperis on June 17, 2022 at 4:34 pm

    Great question, Anthony! Jesus taught that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13. In contrast, the refusal of the unqualified candidates to step aside for the second vote was an extraordinary act of selfishness.

  20. Comment by Gary S. on June 22, 2022 at 6:35 am

    It’s a shame that the other 14 candidates were made into pawns in the Bishop’s game.

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