PITTSBURGH--United Methodist Church conservatives called for "An Amicable and Just Separation" during the church's General Conference, according to the New York Times.
Their proposal, at the Methodist national policy meeting, reflected widespread frustration that years of debate over gay issues have diverted the 8.3 million-member church from its broader mission, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
"It is time for us to end this cycle of pain we are inflicting on each other," the Rev. Dr. William Hinson told the Times. Hinson is retired pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Houston and president of the Confessing Movement, a conservative Methodist network, who presented the proposal for separation at a breakfast meeting of conservative supporters. The request came despite a conservative victory earlier in the conference as a close vote called for the church to maintain a firm stand against homosexuality, as "incompatible with Christian teaching."
But the Journal reported that evangelicals said they expected that those who want a broader role for gays and lesbians in the church will continue to defy church law and appoint sexually active homosexual clergy.
"There is a great gulf fixed between those of us who are centered on Scripture and our friends who are of another persuasion," Hinson told the Times. "Repeatedly they have spoken of the need to get our church in step with our culture. We on the other hand have no desire to be the chaplain to an increasingly godless society."
According to reports, no schism is imminent for the third largest denomination in the U.S. Conservatives asked the General Conference to form a task force to study a separation.
"Both sides are so terribly divided in our denomination," the Rev. James Heidinger told the Journal. "We might find a way to be in ministry according to our own convictions and consciences without the continued internecine battling that goes on."
The Methodist Church divided over slavery in 1844, but reunited in 1939. In the more than 60 years since, the bishops said, although the church weathered passionate battles over racial segregation and the ordination of women, there had never been another proposal to split until now.
