Our Navigation Team wanted to provide you with an update on the current options available to our Church as we, as a Church family, determine whether or not to affiliate with another expression of Methodism following our departure from the United Methodist Church in September 2024.
We completed the initial vetting of a total of 10 potential options for our Church. To these 10 options, we applied two “make-or-break” criteria:
1. Does the denomination ordain women?
2. Does the denomination require the local church, under a “trust clause,” to relinquish ownership of its property to the denomination?
Based upon these 2 criteria, and at the recommendation of the Navigation Team, the Church Administrative Board voted to remove the following 6 options from further Church consideration due to the following reasons:
The Southern Methodist Church (does not ordain women)
The Evangelical Methodist Church (does not ordain women)
The Anglican Church of North America (Southeast Diocese does not ordain women)
The Nazarene Church (carries a trust clause)
The Wesleyan Church (carries a trust clause)
The Free Methodist Church (carries a trust clause)
The Church Administrative Board further approved the continued discernment of the following 4 options for our Church (all are aligned with our Wesleyan doctrines and traditions):
The Association of Independent Methodists (AIM)
The Global Methodist Church
The Congregational Methodist Church
Remaining an Independent Church
In the coming weeks, we will schedule information sessions for our congregation with representatives from each of these 4 remaining options. Our first information session is scheduled for Monday February 24th, 2025 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Church with
Rev David Donnan who will talk with us about the Global Methodist Church. Please plan to attend.
Once these information sessions are complete, we will conduct a Church survey (in April) and use the survey results to narrow our options to the Church’s “Top 2” preferred choices. We will pause over the Summer, then resume our discernment activities in the Fall with the goal of making a final decision (between the 2 preferred choices) by a Church vote no later than October 31st, 2025.
Letter From Admin Board 3/12/2024
