February 22, Gathered this week in Northern Ireland, senior bishops of the Anglican Communion are seeking to maintain unity in the global body amid the most difficult circumstances in the denomination's history. They are meeting for the first time since the release of a major report which called for the Episcopal Church, the US branch of Anglicanism, to repent for consecrating a gay bishop and allowing same-sex ceremonies, and to agree to a moratorium on such actions. Anglican leaders in developing nations have threatened schism if appropriate action is not taken. The deep split in one of the world's largest Protestant groups 77 million represents only the most urgent of the debates over Christian teaching on homosexuality.

Splinter groups turn into churches



Gay Affirming Christian Churches; Homosexuality & the Bible
Americans are becoming less religious , but what are we to make of the fact that so many still believe in God? The bare percentage of people who profess belief in a god has never been a good way of defining religious commitment. Some people believe in a personal, intervening god as defined by a religious creed. Others believe in a deist god, a cosmic watchmaker who wound up the universe and then stepped back. The debate and dissension within conventional religions, as well as the ongoing rise in the numbers of the unaffiliated, show that traditional models of faith are crumbling before our eyes. The time where a religious authority could issue a decree and expect it to be obeyed without question is passing. Instead, more people are making up their own minds apart from tradition and authority.


Gay issues may splinter churches
Tanzina Vega: Back with you now on The Takeaway. The more conservative branch of the church opposes same-sex marriage and ordaining LGBTQ clergy members, while a coalition of centrists and progressives wants to welcome LGBTQ people in. This week, the conservative branch of the church publicly announced more plans for their new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, and expressed a desire for the split to be voted on this May at an online conference, but church leaders say their plan is to hold the vote at the church's next in-person general conference, in August of




An Oklahoman is part of a Methodist movement made up of people poised to formally split from the United Methodist denomination. Q: What is the best way to describe the new Global Methodist Church? Is it currently a movement that will become a formal denomination later? The discipline or governance may contain some significant changes in the area of more local church flexibility but will stay true to Methodist connectional roots. I am humbled and honored to have been asked to serve on the leadership council alongside some incredible leaders in our denomination, including retired Bishop Robert E.