Many Months After UMC General Conference In USA Embraced Same Sex Marriage
By Our Staff Writer
Monrovia- The split in the United Methodist Church (UMC) of Liberia is probably becoming a reality, with the emerging Global Methodist Church-Liberia announcing that it now has at least 50,000 members, after holding a major conference in the northeastern Nimba County over the weekend.
The division in the UMC came to a head last year over the decision reached by the General Conference in the United States to redefine marriage as contained in the holy Bible to accommodate homosexuals.
At the meeting in the US early in May 2004 year, United Methodist General Conference, the church’s global legislative body, voted to overturn every ban on LGBTQ people. The historic changes include a new definition of marriage as a lifelong covenant between “two people of faith,” rather than solely between a man and a woman, and a repeal of its ban on LGBTQ clergy, although Reverend Jerry Kulah, a delegate from Liberia, was quoted as saying: “We do not believe we know better than the Bible.”
The General Conference also struck down a 52-year-old stance on homosexuality being “incompatible with Christian teaching.” At A Meeting In The US: United Methodist Church Holds Historic Vote in Favour Of LGBTQ Inclusion – News Public Trust
Although the leadership of the UMC in Liberia headed by Bishop Samuel Quire has insisted that “the Church is not a gay church”, UMC members forming the Global Methodist Church say they wanted a clear break from the UMC and demanded that Bishop Quire held an emergency conference to decisively act on the decision reached in the US.
Recently, writing on the Facebook page of the Global Methodist Church- Liberia, one of its leaders, Rev. Dr. Jerry Kulah said:
“The current membership of the Global Methodist Church – Liberia is about 28,000 persons comprising Men, women Youth and Young Adults and Children.
The Membership of the pastors of the GMC-Liberia are currently at 212.
This is just in four months!”
Rev. Dr. Jerry Kulah
Chairperson, TCAT
But just weeks later, the membership strength of the Global Methodist Church here is said to have climbed to 50,000
According to the Lay Leader of the newly formed church, Mr. L. Olando Boyce, there is a large inflow of members to the Global Methodist Church as well as Pastors from the UMC.
Recently, at the global conference, the majority voted to lift the ban on the same sex marriage in the United Methodist Church; meaning that ‘man can marry man, woman can marry woman, man can marry his daughter and woman can marry her son.’
“But, for us in the United Methodist Church in Liberia, we are still in opposition to this because it is unbiblical from Genesis to Revelation.”
“From Genesis to Revelation, there is no trace of man marrying man, man marrying his son or his daughter, two men or two women getting marry, it is wrong, unbiblical and totally unacceptable.”
According to them, each person is responsible his or her body, but we say no because your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Liberia United Methodist Church: Tussling With Breakaway Or Taking Definitive Position On The Gay Issue – News Public Trust
With the split now clearly becoming visible, some United Methodist Church watchers say the stage is being set for a bigger fight over the huge assets of the UMC in Monrovia and across Liberia.