admin
H-Metro Reporter
IN the week that some members of the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe formed a splinter group, a leading Bishop in Nigeria and his cabinet have also left the church in protest.
Bishop John Wesley Yohanna and his cabinet announced their departure from the United Methodist Church of Nigeria on Monday. The bishop said in his letter that any person in Nigeria, who remained in the UMC, was part of a church which legalises homosexuality, contrary to what the Nigerian government stands for.
The announcement came just a day after a group of members met in Harare and agreed to divorce themselves from the UMC. The ugly splits, which are now worldwide, are being caused by serious differences over homosexuality. The splinter group in Zimbabwe is led by Simon Mafunda and James Kawadza.
The UMC has been against the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy for over a century. However, this changed at the church’s highest decision-making body (the General Conference — GC) in Charlotte, North Carolina, in May this year.
It is now permissible for gays and lesbians to be ordained as bishops or pastors and it is also now allowed to solemnise same-sex marriages in the UMC in the United States. There has been a mass exodus of conservatives worldwide who deem this as abhorrent.
Bishop Yohanna of Nigeria announced in a press briefing on Monday that he was leaving UMC and joining the Global Methodist Church. It is a breakaway denomination launched in 2022 by former UMC members who want a more conservative church.
According to the official UM News website, Bishop Yohana submitted his resignation to the UMC Council of Bishops on Monday. The report said Bishop Tracy S. Malone, Council president, and other Council leaders were working with the West Africa College of Bishops and Episcopacy Committee to identify interim leadership for the church in Nigeria.
In a letter to fellow bishops, according to the website, Malone requested prayer for Yohanna and the church in Nigeria.
“We are saddened by his decision to no longer continue ministry with The United Methodist Church. I invite us to pray for our former colleague and the church in Nigeria, especially those who choose to remain in The United Methodist Church. This is a very difficult and confusing time for them.”
Bishop Yohanna was scheduled to retire as bishop at the end of this year. Bishop Yohanna said:
“The cabinet of the Southern Nigeria annual conference in conjunction with the North East therefore reject (developments in the UMC) and we adhere to the biblical teachings and we are going to follow the body of Jesus Christ. I stand by the decision of the cabinet and that is what I will abide by.”
There was an expectation that the bishop would leave.
“Yohanna’s departure ends months of speculation and is the culmination of at least three years of bitter infighting over leadership in The United Methodist Church in Nigeria, which included complaints filed with the Council regarding the bishop’s leadership,” reads the report on the website.
“It also thwarts years of reconciliation talks and pacts involving the West Africa Central Conference College of Bishops and the denomination’s Council of Bishops to restore peace to the church in Nigeria, where conflicts had escalated to unhealthy levels, resulting in the arrest of pastors and a lay member on instructions from the bishop’s office.
“A group of United Methodists from the North East and Southern Nigeria conferences, meeting July 24 at McBride United Methodist Church in Jalingo, decided to leave the church. They cited the recent decision by The United Methodist Church’s top law-making assembly, General Conference, to change the definition of marriage in the Social Principles, remove anti-LGBTQ language from the Book of Discipline and allow the ordination of ‘self-avowed practicing gay clergy. Those members said the General Conference action was incompatible with biblical teachings.” (H Metro)
Online Reporter