United Methodist Split Just Got a Bit More Real
Apparently no public announcement was made, no press release issued when Wesley United Methodist Church in Quarryville PA recently split off the Eastern PA Conference of the United Methodist Church (EPA). Almost overnight, Wesley UMC in Quarryville PA dropped the U.M. and became “Wesley Church” over the issue of LGBTQ equality and gay marriage rights. Moreover, Wesley Church is still doing ministry in their same old church building. You heard right: the EPA sent the Wesley Church off with a 50+ acre property that includes the church structure, all this in return for a $100,000 payment.
Negotiations were apparently done behind closed doors for fear that this kind of arrangement could encourage other congregations with concerns to do likewise. A web news search did not reveal anything, no statement to be found on the Wesley Church’s website, nor on the EPA site, I found out about it from an email distributed by the Good News Magazine
We can’t be sure of the exact date this legal deal went into effect, I was amazed to see that there is no mention of the their United Methodist heritage on the website; instead, independent by-laws and statements of faith are offered, which, by the way, clearly prohibit same-gender marriage rights.
The only indication of it’s former affiliation with the UMC is Wesley Church’s domain name: wesleyumchurch.com.
Granted, the EPA may have agreed to forgo the land and structure because of Wesley Church’s million-dollar mortgage. However, this opens the door for speculations about the feasibility of a denominational split as we go into General Conference 2016.
Addendum: I was just made aware of the fact that there is a website cached by Google originally authored by the EPA regarding the Wesley Church. Click here (and scroll about half way down the page). I’m not sure how long this page will be kept on the server.
ellievsbear
kianamaiart
vaporwave
prguitarman
kaledo-art
gummygunk
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
