wfn.org | Breakaway members want to form new United Methodist church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 18, 1998  Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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By United Methodist News Service

About 450 members of First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb.,
who've been worshipping apart from the rest of the congregation since
March, want to establish a new church.

In a June 17 statement, the group, known as the United Methodist Laity
Fellowship, said it plans to meet with conference and district leaders
about the possibility of starting a new congregation.

The group left the 1,900-member First United Methodist Church and began
worshipping at a high school after the Rev. Jimmy Creech was acquitted
in a March 13 clergy trial on the charge of disobeying the
denomination's order and discipline. Creech had been suspended for
performing a covenant ceremony for two women in the church last
September but was reinstated after his acquittal. However, he was not
reappointed as senior pastor for the coming year, and he has taken a
leave of absence. 

The statement expresses the group's commitment to the denomination, its
foundations and beliefs, and its desire for a new local church in the
Nebraska Annual (regional) Conference, said fellowship spokesman Mel
Semrad. He said it also supports Wesleyan heritage, treasures tradition
and experience and "accentuates" a desire for dynamic preaching and
worship and evangelistic outreach.
  
The group's members say they continue to affirm church tradition, the
teachings of Scripture and the United Methodist Church's lawbook, the
Book of Discipline. They also affirm the church's Social Principles,
which are contained in the book. In 1996, the church's top legislative
body, the General Conference, adopted a statement in its Social
Principles barring the performance of homosexual unions by United
Methodist ministers and in the denomination's churches. At issue in the
denomination is whether the Social Principles carry the weight of law or
are advisory.

The fellowship expressed disappointment with Nebraska Bishop Joel
Martinez's choice of a successor to Creech. The Rev. Don Bredthauer, a
Creech supporter and associate pastor of First Church for 10 years, was
appointed as senior pastor, effective July 1. He said last month that he
would work to bring about healing and reconciliation to the entire
congregation.

After a June 14 meeting with First Church leaders, the breakaway group
said "as much as we would like to return to First United Methodist
Church, we cannot." The church's direction has already been established
and the "present leadership will maintain that course,"
the group said.

When Bredthauer was contacted by United Methodist News Service about the
fellowship's statement and plans, he said, "I have no comment."

Disappointed that some Nebraska church officials and pastors view them
as "dissenters,"  Semrad said the group should not have to return to
First Church and support a "narrowly focused vision of inclusiveness
that ignores the spiritual needs and concerns of a majority of First
Church members."

"We are not the ones trying to make changes in the doctrine and
discipline of the church," he said. "We are typical of and
representative of 70 percent of United Methodists across the world and
country."

According to the 1996 Book of Discipline, a new local church shall be
established only with the consent of the bishop and the cabinet. The
bishop shall designate the district where the church will be located.
The district superintendent will be in charge of the project and make a
site recommendation to the district board of church location and
building, or recommend to the board of trustees of an established church
that they share facilities.

The district superintendent then calls a meeting of the people
interested in the proposed new church, and they present themselves for
membership by certificates of transfers. Then they form a constituting
church conference and elect members of a church council. After forming a
church council, a charge conference is called among the members to pick
officers.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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