If traditionalists were still unsure of their place within the United Methodist Church’s (UMC) West Ohio Conference, it was recently answered when all in attendance at the annual gathering were required to participate in a liturgy compelling them to repent for the UMC’s former stance on marriage and sexuality.
“We failed indigenous people. We failed people of color. We failed women. We failed Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. We failed to hear the cry of those on the margins. We are still failing,” conference delegates were required to liturgically confess at their May 28–31 meeting on the campus of Capital University in Bexley, Ohio.
The conference’s message was clear. There is room for traditionalists only if they repent for their beliefs and moral convictions. This is a far cry from the inclusion that the UMC promised its members following the 2024 General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After the UMC General Conference changed the church’s historic teaching to allow for self-avowed gay and lesbian clergy in same-sex marriages, traditionalists within the church were assured that they still had a place within the denomination. The church they were told had adopted both traditional and progressive definitions of marriage to be as inclusive as possible.
Almost immediately following the General Conference, it was clear that this would not be the case.
This should not have been a surprise. There is no way to uphold mutually exclusive definitions of marriage. Either it is a unique union between one man and one woman for life, or something else entirely. But there is no way to simultaneously uphold the two. The UMC has demonstrated this by its rush to self-flagellate for ever having held a traditional view on marriage.
West Ohio United Methodists had already taken a significant blow during disaffiliations, losing more than 348 of 961 churches. Normally, this would be a cause for course correction or at least some introspection. Instead, the conference decided to double down on the tenets of social progressivism during its governing meeting.
Most conference actions were the standard liberal activities that have been the hallmark of UMC annual conferences for some time. Its theme, taken from Mark chapter 5, was “rise up beloved.” The conference even added a new song to the Wesleyan music tradition:
“Rise up, Beloved, love grows strong when we all belong. Rise up, Beloved, rise up. Rise up, Beloved, God isn’t finished with us yet. Rise up, Beloved, rise up,” delegates sang.
Not quite, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” but they tried.
Bible study sessions “emphasized the value of courageous honesty when facing grief and challenges while also making space for healing.”
The Rev. Fred Shaw offered a dramatic reading of his poem, “A Missing or Murdered Indian Woman,” and presented a broken child’s drum to Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, stating that it was his prayer that “next year the drum would be healed.”
While these liberal aspects of the conferences are standard at many UMC gatherings (so standard in fact that they have become dull) they are far from the provocative counter-cultural act that the UMC thinks it is engaging in. They are performative. No one is helped, but these acts give those in attendance the ability to feel good about themselves. In so doing, the conference and everything that takes place becomes about them rather than serving God.
This was best on display during the “Litany of Confession.” It began invoking a favorite Wesley quote of liberal Methodists, “do no harm.” The logical inverse of this is that we should seek to do good for human beings made in the image of God. This, however, requires more than poetry readings and performative modern liturgies. It requires incarnational service to others. However, the litany is a slap in the face to those who have been harmed by recent changes in the UMC, particularly traditionalists, who are being squeezed out of the churches they have served in for decades.
The liturgy went on, “Forgive us that we have loved power more than we have loved people…Forgive us that we have loved processes more than we have embraced people. Forgive us that we have loved rules more than we have listened to people… Forgive us for mistaking the silencing of dissenting voices as peace.”
Many traditionalists within the UMC feel isolated and alone, and the UMC continues to use its bureaucracies to promote agendas that many in its denomination object to while punishing people who disagree with them. Just ask the people of the West Virginia Annual conference, unable to disaffiliate, whether they think the church has repented of its concern for rules rather than people.
Church services and liturgies should serve the purpose of helping people to repent of sins they have actually committed, not collective repentance for the real or imagined sins of others.
Ultimately, it should direct the person to God. But liturgies like this, which have gained recent popularity in the UMC, don’t do that. Instead, they give a false sense of righteousness while engaging in collective repentance to groups of people the UMC has no intention of actually interacting with, while at the same time harming actual members of their churches. Worst of all, it moves the focus from God.
The UMC would do well to remember the words of C.S. Lewis when embracing their constant additions to the liturgy, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.“
More from IRD:
Methodist Court: Appointed Pastors Determine Same-Sex Rites in Local Churches
United Methodist Lobby Promotes Queer Theology Course
United Methodist ‘Safe Sanctuaries’ Excludes Traditionalists
Comment by Tim Mc on August 11, 2025 at 8:35 am
Quote: “The UMC would do well to remember the words of C.S. Lewis when embracing their constant additions to the liturgy, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.'”
Amen
Comment by Td on August 11, 2025 at 8:49 am
Methodists seem to in general lost any idea of what a sin actually is.
Comment by Skipper on August 11, 2025 at 11:38 am
TD, you might want to make that United Methodists have “lost any idea of what sin is.” They are the only Methodists that have redefined a marriage as “two people.” I think it’s fair to say they are no longer Methodists (UMC).
Comment by Wilson R. on August 11, 2025 at 1:56 pm
Coming so soon after the denominational split, I don’t like the idea of asking all the “remainers” to repent of their views on LGBTQ issues. This also conflicts with the stated desires of the leadership of recent General Conferences to find solutions that would allow most congregations to feel comfortable in remaining UMC even amid their disagreements on these issues.
Having said that, this column appears to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of what corporate repentance is. Worse, the writer completely disavows the idea that liturgies of repentance should be about anything other than individual sins. Reciting collective liturgies of repentance does not mean that the sins being named were committed by you personally. But there is a place for acknowledgment and repentance for acts committed by institutions or countries to which we belong, even if those acts were committed in the past. Should acknowledgment and repentance for the Holocaust not be part of the modern German identity even though virtually no Germans alive today were responsible for what the Nazis did?
That brings us to the other dishonest part of this column. By the writer’s own admission, the liturgy of repentance encompassed the church’s treatment of indigenous people, of persons of color, and of women. Yet she focuses entirely on LGBTQ people, who were only 1/4 of the equation. And that’s dishonest.
While I have already stated my opposition to imposing this liturgy on those who disagree on LGBTQ issues, it’s not wrong to acknowledge and call for repentance on other fronts. Of all people, Christians—particularly those from the Wesleyan tradition, which was staunchly antislavery–should recognize how our denomination was complicit in the growth and maintenance of the fundamentally anti-Christian institution of slavery, and in the segregation of fellow believers based on race.
Finally, there’s this bizarre statement: Instead, [liturgies] give a false sense of righteousness while engaging in collective repentance to groups of people the UMC has no intention of actually interacting with, while at the same time harming actual members of their churches.” The UMC doesn’t interact with indigenous people, people of color, women, and LGBTQ people? News to me.
If I were grading this as a college paper, I’d have to give it a D+ (maybe, generously, a C-) because the reasoning is poor, and the arguments are poorly supported and sometimes contradictory. It’s a hot mess. Does anyone supervise or edit this stuff before it goes out?
Comment by Jim Tormey on August 11, 2025 at 5:17 pm
If you look at the definition of a cult. They a checking every box!
Comment by Gary Bebop on August 12, 2025 at 3:48 pm
Thank you, Sarah, for reporting on the West Ohio melodrama. It’s disconcerting to read of these lugubrious rituals, but the reporting is essential to insight. We are such a befuddled UMC. The poles of morality have been reversed. Sensible people shake their heads in wonder at such an empty show of inanity.
Comment by Qohelet on August 12, 2025 at 6:41 pm
I don’t know why conservatives want the ten commandments on the wall of classrooms. It might teach their kids that lying is wrong.
The prayer doesn’t ask anyone to abandon their beliefs. It lists groups of marginalized people that have been treated badly by the church and asks forgiveness. Then it reminds us that because of original sin we are still imperfect and in need of grace. It’s pretty standard Christianity.
You don’t have to abandon your strong personal belief to acknowledge that LGBTQ people could have been treated better by the church.
Comment by Marilyn Harris on August 12, 2025 at 7:27 pm
It will be a cold day in hell before I repent of my traditionalist beliefs. I’m a preacher’s kid who recognized the Methodist Church going down the wrong track in the 50’s and 60’s. So sad!
Comment by April User on August 12, 2025 at 8:39 pm
Let’s also repent for bombing Japan 80 years ago. . . Was that also part of the litany at the Conference? And what about sending American troops to Vietnam for a worthless war. Was that also repented of?
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 12, 2025 at 10:08 pm
Good point, April! Let’s also not forget the estimated 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians killed by American bombs, plus the Atghans driving their ox carts blown to smitherines by American bombs. Funny how these people can be so selective about what they repent of.
They only “repent” of what is politically correct at the moment. It is an exercise to make them feel superior to everyone else, nothing more.
I would recommend the writings of the late Native American author Vine Deloria. He wrote about how mainline Christians regularly stroked their egos and made themselves feel good by regularly “apologizing” to the various groups they continue to take advantage of, all done simply for the purpose of being able to congratulate themselves.
Comment by John Tomky on August 12, 2025 at 11:50 pm
My wife and I made the right decision when we moved to an ECO Presbyterian church and stopped going to the UMC. We didn’t leave the church the denomination left God
Comment by David Gingrich on August 13, 2025 at 7:10 am
Faithful followers of Jesus should not be surprised. The UMC has been corrupt for decades.
Comment by Qohelet on August 13, 2025 at 10:32 am
@ Marylin
No one is asking you to repent of your traditional beliefs. But you really ought to consider whether to repent of how you’ve treated other people. There’s nothing in the Gospels that justifies being cruel to those you disagree with.
@Glenn @April
Despite what you might have read on this blog, the UMC didn’t start the Vietnam or Iraq wars. But I wholeheartedly agree with you that since they were based on lies and killed hundreds of thousands of innocents that yes, Americans should repent of them and be involved in healing the wounds we caused.
Comment by Michael Lee on August 13, 2025 at 11:38 am
The previous Bishop of the West Ohio Conference was very generous to the many departing former UMC congregations and for that we are thankful. The reasons for their departure were valid. It was long overdue. Everyone should be happy now.
Comment by Chris Shoemaker on August 13, 2025 at 2:54 pm
Guess our traditional Prayer of Confession is right our then. /s
Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved You with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done Your will,
we have broken Your law,
we have rebelled against Your love,
we have not loved our neighbors, and
we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord:
AMEN!
Comment by Cal on August 13, 2025 at 5:03 pm
“[the UMC] moves the focus from God.”
On the contrary, I think they are laser-focused on their God, which is the projected and deified cultural & political opinions that they hold.
Comment by Qohelet on August 13, 2025 at 9:51 pm
In a world where Christian Nationalists seem to regard the corporeal works of mercy in Matt 25 as a checklist on what to do the opposite of, saying the UMC has deified their politics is pretty rich, Cal.
Comment by Thomas on August 15, 2025 at 5:16 pm
The unborn have lost any status as human beings, despite their sacred nature and bearing the face of Jesus according to the new UMC official stance. There is no call to reduce or find alternatives to abortion anymore. So, its full apostasy. They could merge with TEC, because their degree of apostasy is basically the same.
Comment by Diane on August 18, 2025 at 1:39 am
Let them become Global Methodists and repent GMC sexual sin…in the news within the past couple days, Shelton Burkart, Liberty U graduate and pastor of Zion Global Methodist Church in Norlina, NC, was arrested and charged for possession of video recordings of child sex crimes.. Traditional churches are the favorite places for these kind of criminals to hang out because every body assumes every one in them shares the same values. They don’t.. Time to stop the finger pointing at UMC and other denominations and call your disgusting sin out. Where’s the Juicy Ecumenism’s article on these heinous crimes? And btw, no one in the Zion church has bothered to remove any of its worship and adult bible study YouTube videos with Burkart presiding from their website. In one adult study group, there’s an entire debate about exactly how long it took for God to create the earth. The responses: in an instant, in a second, in a minute, in a day, and in God’s idea of a day’s timespan. Unbelievably trite! Wonder how long it took for Psdtor Burkart to compile all the child sex videos. Sad!
Comment by Different Steve on August 18, 2025 at 7:35 am
It’s tragic whenever a pastor or church leader betrays their calling, whether in the GMC, UMC, Catholic Church, or any other tradition. No denomination is immune from sin or scandal, and pointing to one pastor’s crime does not prove anything uniquely “wrong” about the Global Methodist Church as a whole—just as the failings of individuals don’t define the entire United Methodist Church or any other faith community.
What does matter is how churches respond when sin is exposed. In this case, the authorities are handling the criminal charges, and the congregation will have to decide how to address the situation moving forward. That accountability is essential, and it should be expected in every church body, no matter the label.
As for “Juicy Ecumenism” or other outlets, no publication can cover every local news story, but the bigger issue is that every church, GMC, UMC, or otherwise, must be vigilant against abuse, create transparent systems of oversight, and resist the temptation to weaponize scandal as a talking point against others.
It’s right to grieve and condemn what happened in Norlina. It’s wrong to use one man’s evil as a blanket condemnation of an entire denomination—or as a way to dodge responsibility for addressing similar problems closer to home.