wfn.org | California congregation leaves denomination

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

July 7, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.  10-21-28-71B{396}

By Charley Lerrigo*

SAN FRANCISCO (UMNS) -- About 200 members of the Kingsburg (Calif.)
United Methodist Church declared July 28 that "in Christian conscience"
they could no longer remain members of the denomination. 

Acting on a recommendation made earlier in the month by their
administrative council, members voted together and then separately
signed a statement withdrawing from the United Methodist Church. They
transferred  their membership to a newly created Kingsburg Community
Church, effective July 1.

Expressing regret that the congregation came to the point of leaving the
denomination, Bishop Melvin G. Talbert  said,  "My prayers go with
them."

The church's trustees retained their membership to manage the property
until its disposition is finished. The new church's leadership has said
it wants to buy the property.

Other conservatives have threatened to leave over recent events in the
denomination, and some have done so. However, the number of people
leaving the Kingsburg church represents the highest percentage of loss
ever for a United Methodist congregation.

Fresno District Superintendent Richard Plain said he would begin the
process, spelled out in the denomination's  Book of  Discipline, to
explore the possible discontinuance of the church and  the "potential
for mission and ministry" in Kingsburg. The disciplinary process is an
involved consultation that could take months.

This is not the first time United Methodists in the conference have
broken with the denomination. Nearly the entire membership of Placer
Hills Community United Methodist Church in Meadow Vista walked out in
1981, but the church continues. Last year, a number of members left
Salem United Methodist Church in Lodi, Calif. A partial walk-out is also
occurring in Oakdale. Conference leadership has dealt with such
departures on a case-by-case basis, which Plain said the cabinet (bishop
and superintendents) is doing in the Kingsburg situation.

Plain said he is in conversation with the Rev. Ed  Ezaki, who had been
appointed pastor of the Kingsburg church a week earlier at the annual
conference. As of this writing, Ezaki has not turned in his United
Methodist clergy orders. The only California-Nevada clergyman to do so
has been Kevin Clancey, who has led some members of his Oakdale United
Methodist Church into a new congregation there. 

Both Ezaki and Clancey have been leaders in the California-Nevada
Evangelical Renewal Fellowship, which in April asked church leaders to
create a separate conference for evangelicals.  Conference leadership
refused the fellowship's request for a negotiated exit with property --
a fact that the Kingsburg congregation noted in its resolution.

In a comment to The Fresno Bee newspaper, Ezaki said "100 percent" of
Kingsburg's 371 members are planning to leave. "The only way it's not
going to happen," he told the paper on the eve of the vote, "is if
there's some kind of divine intervention. And it's divine intervention
that's brought us this far."

In his June 28 sermon, Ezaki declared, "We have two separate faiths in
this denomination that cannot be held together." He complained that
"anyone who breathes" is now allowed to become a United Methodist.
"There are some things in life that require absolute purity," he told
the congregation. "And following God is one of them."

 In its resolution, the Kingsburg congregation said it has
"insurmountable differences" with conference leadership "on issues of
faith and revelation." 
 
The resolution specifically alleged that the annual conference
leadership "has broken trust with Scripture, the Book of Discipline and
our heritage in John Wesley by supporting clergy who perform same-sex
ceremonies, promoting sexual permissiveness and excluding biblical
United Methodists from leadership."

In a theological assertion, the Kingsburg resolution declared: "We have
always affirmed the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture and have
proclaimed the divinity of Jesus Christ and salvation by grace through
faith in Jesus Christ's atoning death.

"Scripture teaches us," the resolution says, "to stand apart from
unholiness and evil."

The congregation had been moving toward the breach with the denomination
since the trial in May of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, Plain said. The
Nebraska pastor was narrowly acquitted by a church court of disobeying
the denomination's order and discipline by performing a covenant service
between two women. He retains his ministerial credentials but is
currently on leave of absence. The not-guilty verdict set off a new wave
of protest among conservative United Methodists. 

Clergy are held accountable for church order and discipline by the board
of ministry of each annual conference. Regardless of the outcome of an
individual church trial, only the General Conference, which meets every
four years, sets official policy for the denomination. The next
conference is scheduled for Cleveland in the year 2000. 

# # #

*Lerrigo is editor of the California-Nevada United Methodist Review.