Arron Nyamayaro
SERIOUS differences over homosexuality, which are tearing the United Methodist Church into factions, have led to a sensational split in this country after scores of the church’s members met in Harare on Sunday and formed a splinter group.
The splinter group 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.
Reports say there was massive resistance at the General Conference by conservative African delegates leading to the meeting advocating for “regionalisation” where each continent can determine its set of rules of worship and choose whatever suits the region culturally.
This has been vehemently resisted by the parties who have since broken away citing that the UMC is a “connectional church.”
And, whether they stand as a region, they are still connected to the Americans, who have embraced the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.
These are the issues which led some members of the UMC in Zimbabwe to break away from the main church at the weekend.
However, Reverend Gurupira has dismissed the group saying the UMC in Zimbabwe was not moved by the establishment of the faction.
“We are aware of the faction trying to divide UMC,” said Rev Gurupira.
“We learnt about their mission from the media but we are not moved. UMC is celebrating 109 years in Zimbabwe.”
The move, though, is a replica of what happened in South Africa in May.
Differences over gay issues triggered a sensational fallout which led to the Shona United Methodist Church splitting into two factions.
There are now two groups in South Africa — the long-standing Johannesburg United Methodist Church (JNUMC) and the newly-formed Johannesburg North Methodist Church (JNMC).
The Johannesburg Shona UMC was launched around 2008 by some Zimbabwean professionals who emigrated to work and live in South Africa. It has since grown over the years and has over 1 000 members in the Gauteng province only. The Shona assembly had made significant progress and has acquired properties that are valued at over R10 million.
There has also been a similar split in Nigeria.
A significant number of UMC members in Nigeria have joined the splinter group opposed to homosexuality.
A letter, signed by Rev Ande Emmanuel, Conference Secretary, Southern Nigeria Annual Conference United Methodist Church in Nigeria, confirms the split.
“We are saddened and disappointed that John Wesley Yohanna has chosen to leave The United Methodist Church and join The Global Methodist Church in the manner he did.
“Despite the presence of a structured process and opportunities to work together with the United Methodist delegates in Nigeria, he chose to bypass these avenues.
“This has created a situation that could have been handled with greater unity and consideration for our collective future.
“It is true that John Wesley Yohanna, has left the United Methodist Church to join the new breakaway Global Methodist Church with his cabinet, and only 10 percent of the United Methodists in Nigeria took this decision to join him.”
He added:
“Even though we are saddened by their exit, we hold them in our prayers and wish them God’s guidance in their new found faith community.
“We also wish to make it categorically clear hear that our denomination does not permit them to leave with any of the United Methodist property in the way and manner they left.
“Therefore, we call on him and the few who left with him to treat their exit with integrity and not tamper with any of the United Methodist Church properties.”
