Rejecting Misguided Assistance: A European Perspective on Disaffiliation Rights in the UMC
A response from Christine Schneider-Oesch to Rev. Rob Refroe's UMNS commentary.
Christine is a member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters and the Christmas Covenant team.
NO, THANK YOU
- A response to Rob Renfroe from a European perspective
Rob, you say that you are attending General Conference in order to help Central Conferences obtain their rights. These “poor people and people of color” must also be able to leave the church if they want to, you write. Let me answer from a European perspective.
Your entire explanation is based on an error about disaffiliation rights. The right and the possibility to leave the UMC has existed in the Central Conferences for a long time. If that were not the case, how come Estonia could leave the UMC using a process defined by its Central Conference? How would it be possible that Annual Conferences in Eurasia and the Czech Republic are currently going through a disaffiliation process under ¶ 572? I appreciate your concern, but we already have the right to separate from the UMC and some of us are using it.
Not only Annual Conferences, but also local churches in the Central Conferences have left the UMC and some might do so in the future. Annual Conferences do have the possibility to determine the modalities for local churches wanting to leave and they do so. Need an example? The Annual Conference of Switzerland-France-North Africa has defined a procedure allowing 14 local churches in France to leave the UMC and to do so peacefully and in a mutually respectful way.
It makes sense to regulate such separation modalities at Annual Conference level. This allows us to comply with the legal context in the respective country and with our own rules regarding finances and church property. It may come as a surprise to you but in these matters churches outside the U.S. operate quite differently from those in the U.S., generally in order to comply with the laws of the country.
In the Central Conferences we do have functioning procedures for handling the disaffiliation of Annual Conferences and local churches. The disaffiliation ¶ 2553 is therefore simply not needed here.
Thank you, Rob, for worrying about us and our rights, but you may stop doing so. And please also stop speaking on our behalf. In the Central Conferences, we are quite capable of thinking and speaking for ourselves. And we are able to take care of matters in our regions without the perhaps well-intentioned but often harmful help of outsiders.
Thank you for your “help”, Rob, but NO, THANK YOU.
Christine Schneider, lay, Switzerland-France-North Africa
Delegate to General Conference 2012, 2016, and 2019
Member of Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters
