Fair for Some, Fair for All - Not Just for the WCA

 You may have seen the Wesleyan Covenant Association's new campaign for extending a version of paragraph 2553 to Central Conferences. They have titled the campaign, "Fair for Some Fair for All." 

I don't say it often, but I will here. The WCA is right. What is fair for some is fair for all.

Opportunity to Disaffiliate

It is true that 2553 did not apply to Central Conferences. My perception is that this has to do with a technicality and, unlike the rest of the paragraph, was not the intention of the traditionalists who passed the disaffiliation plan. I haven't seen the legislation that the WCA has proposed. This is important because traditionalist leaders are politically savy and, just like politicians in D.C., they can craft legislation to do more than the stated purpose. For example, they are not calling in this plan to reopen 2553 to the U.S. That would a disaster. Additionally, I've been told the legislation would also let whole annual conferences leave, which was not allowed in the U.S. So I can't promise to support their legislation. 

In fact, I likely won't. You might say, "Isn't that talking out of both sides of your mouth?" The answer is no. Churches in Central Conferences should be able to leave the denomination - and they already can. As I showed here, the Global Methodist Church and WCA have celebrated the fact that churches in Europe and Africa have left. Talking out of both sides of your mouth is saying something cannot happen while simultaneously celebrating that it has happened. 

Opportunity to Govern

One reason churches outside of the U.S. have disaffiliated without the benefit of 2553 is that our denomination is structured in a way that allows for different governance outside of the U.S. Paragraph 101 allows central conferences, which by definition are outside of the U.S., to "make changes and adaptations to the General Book of Discipline to more fruitfully accomplish our mission in various contexts." Effectively, the denomination has said that the way we do things in the U.S. is "normal" and if you are in an "abnormal" context you can make adjustments. A more charitable reading of our history would be that U.S. delegates, which represented a large majority of General Conference votes, recognized that they shouldn't dictate governance to smaller groups in different cultures.

Supporters of regionalization, like me, recognize that in a global denomination there is no such thing as "normal." Most likely, there will be no "majority" continent or country at the first regular General Conference after 2024. There is a good possibility that the General Conference after that will have an African majority. This means that without some form of regionalization United Methodists from outside the U.S. will be able to set rules that the U.S. has to follow but that the people making the rules can adapt. There is no universe in which this is fair. 

What is fair for some is fair for all. It should be possible for churches outside the U.S. to leave, and it is. It should be possible for every region of the globe to adapt to their region, and it is not.