Majority-Korean churches looking for a way out of the United Methodist Church (UMC) fear they’re at risk of losing not only their land but also their leadership; a handful of Korean pastors say they were removed from their conservative congregations after the churches began the process to disaffiliate.
Of the 244 Korean-language UMC churches, more than 100 have begun the disaffiliation process, according to Keihwan Kevin Ryoo, former executive director of the Association of Korean Churches in the United Methodist Church.
That’s more than double the number of churches the denomination expected to leave. At a meeting of Korean American leaders earlier this month, Paul Chang, executive director of the Korean Ministry Plan, had said he expected 40 congregations and 60 pastors to leave. The departures would represent 15–17 percent of all Korean American UMC churches.
Already, 40 churches have successfully left the UMC and joined the new conservative offshoot, the Global Methodist Church (GMC). Ryoo said more are waiting for their annual conferences to approve their disaffiliation vote or are still moving through the process.
Others gave up when they realized their congregation could not afford to pay the property value requested by the annual conference as terms to leave. Multiple say they’ve had their pastors removed by annual conference leadership during the disaffiliation process.
In the Chicago area, pastor Hogun Kim and members of South Suburban Korean United Methodist Church (SSKUMC) were concerned that the leaders of their annual conference—the regional UMC body—had disregarded the denomination’s Book of Discipline by appointing gay clergy in the area.
Northern Illinois Annual Conference leaders assured them they would not appoint a gay pastor to SSKUMC, but that didn’t ease the church’s concerns. For Kim, it came down to trust. He trusted Scripture to be the guide, he said, but he did not trust UMC leadership to honor its word.
Bishop Daniel…
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