WJ Leaders Respond to 'This Moment in the Life of Our Church'

The leadership team of the Western Jurisdiction, meeting last week in Portland, Oregon, unanimously adopted a statement to "reaffirm our commitment to a radically hospitable church in two converging ways": to "resist injustice and insist that the Church repent of the exclusionary principles of the Traditional Plan," and to "foster a new movement to gather the energy of inclusive United Methodists throughout our global connection." Calling this "a God-inspired kairos moment," the jurisdiction's mission cabinet acknowledged, "there may come a time when opposing sides determine in the Spirit of Christ, that they cannot remain together. God may call us, in God’s own time, to create a new form of Methodism for the 21st Century and beyond." The statement was in part a response to inquiries from United Methodists from across the connection, asking how they might find both a symbolic and a literal home in the West.