Will Methodism Tilt Right? The African evangelicals arrive.

by Mark Tooley
04/24/2008

THE GOVERNING CONVENTION of America's third largest religious body meets this week. And the results might be a pleasant surprise for conservatives.

Like the elites of other Mainline Protestant denominations, officials of the United Methodist Church have served as an amen corner for the secular left in America for more than 50 years. Episcopalians have imploded in schism since the 2003 election of their first openly homosexual bishop. Presbyterians and Lutherans are locked in gridlock over sex issues. And the more liberal-than-thou United Church of Christ has fully embraced the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a suitable spokesman.

United Methodism, whose quadrennial General Conference convenes April 23 to May 2 in Fort Worth, is heading in a different direction. Like the other Mainline Protestants, its U.S. membership has plummeted continuously for 44 years, falling from 11 million to 7.9 million. But unlike the other Mainline Protestants, United Methodism has become an international denomination. Over 3 million United Methodists now live outside the United States, mostly in Africa, brining the church total global membership to over 11 million. Over 1 million live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And the formerly British affiliated Methodist Church of the Ivory Coast, with over 600,000 members, has switched to U.S.-based United Methodism.

Nearly 300 of the 990 delegates who meet in Fort Worth next week will be from outside the United States, up from just 20 percent only 4 years ago. At the current rate of membership decline in the United States, and membership increase in Africa, a majority of United Methodists might soon be outside the United States. This contrasts with the U.S. Episcopal Church, which belongs to the global Anglican Communion, but whose membership is almost entirely American, and whose governing General Convention is not directly accountable to overseas Anglicans. the rest image