...
Who was "they" and "them" here? Sounds like again, that the leadership council made a decision and as so often is the case, a large portion didn't participate.
If it was a bloc schism, that's unfortunate but things like that do, unfortunately, happen. It isn't however, a fault of the UM Church as an organization but of an individual congregation is the point.
Where was the Church Council and the congregation annual Charge Conference during all this? Again, methinks "there's more to the story" here...
¶ 252. 1. Purpose?The church council shall provide for planning and implementing a program of nurture, outreach, witness, and resources in the local church. It shall also provide for the administration of its organization and temporal life. It shall envision, plan, implement, and annually evaluate the mission and ministry of the church. The church council shall be amenable to and function as the administrative agency of the charge conference (¶ 244). ...I would certainly have expected any major shift in programs or missions of the congregation to have been brought to the annual charge conference for authorization.
As I feared, this has gotten too far afield and too involved into the particulars of one particular congregation to be possible to sort out anything at all.
I will contend, however, that it isn't an indictment of the UM organization as a whole but within a single congregation.
If there, I'm sure I'd been on the phone w/ the District Superintendent and the Bishop on more than one occasion... :)
That also doesn't really sound right...part of the UM way is that Conference (the Bishop, primarily altho w/ advice) assigns pastors for everybody w/ a modicum of acceptance/rejection by the congregation. I would not expect for the senior pastor to be more than a single or perhaps a choice of a couple under a suggestion from the bishop.
Unlike some others who hire independently. That's just part of "the Methodist way"--has been; will always be. If it's not a fit; rarely will such an appointment last more than a couple of years, however in my observation of some 60 years or so. Sometimes there's lessons to be learned from some of these that aren't "comfortable" initially, too, though... :)
Anyway, sounds like it's all water under the bridge at this point so I'll really sign off now...
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