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To: The People Called United Methodists in Liberia in particular, and to the Christian Community in General, Good morning, my brothers and sisters, and the people called United Methodists, organized and structured into twenty (20) districts and two (2) circuits, situated in the fifteen (15) political sub-divisions throughout the length and breadth of the Republic of Liberia.
I come to you today out of a deep concern about the current state of our beloved Church, the Liberia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, to share with you very troubling unfolding events that have the propensity to derail and disintegrate our church and reduce us to public ridicule. I do so in the hope that you, our leaders and members, as well as the general public and Christian community will be fully informed about what is going on, and encourage all of us to come together quickly and to take the needed actions to remedy the situation.
The current state of our church has to do with the actions and decisions that our Resident Bishop, Bishop Samuel Jerome Quire, Jr. has taken against the spiritual, socio-economic, political and cultural interest of our Annual Conference since the end of the recent General Conference of the worldwide United Methodist Church, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
Background of the UMC
Let me first provide you with some background and context before revealing to you the recent actions and decisions of our Resident Bishop, Bishop Samuel Jerome Quire, Jr. that have the propensity to cause great division and eventual split of the United Methodist Church in Liberia.
The Liberia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is a member of the worldwide United Methodist Denomination that is located on four continents-Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. This worldwide denomination comes together after every four (4) years to review its ministries. It has one constitution that govern the life and ministries of the denomination, called that Book of Discipline, even though different annual conferences have always carried out their ministries consistent with their context without contradicting the Holy Bible or the Book of Discipline.
Prior to bearing the name, The United Methodist Church, our church has officially existed in Liberia since 1833 as the Methodist Episcopal Church. However, in May 1968, two denominations came together, the Evangelical United Brethren Church and The Methodist Church, to become one denomination called The United Methodist Church. However, following the birth of this new denomination, at its very first General Conference in 1972, some American United Methodist proffered a petition requesting the new denomination to legalize homosexuality as an official practice within the denomination.
The delegation at that first General Conference vehemently resisted the petition and voted it down.
In fact, they enshrined in the UMC Constitution that, “Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teachings.” However, since then, at every succeeding General Conference, some United Methodists, 2 especially from America and Europe, would proffer petitions about human sexuality. That has continued over the past five decades until the United States made same-sex marriage a legal relationship.
Meanwhile the United States and Europe parts of the UMC have continued to become more liberal and progressive, making serious demands upon the rest of the denomination to legalize same-sex unions, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) practices legal in the United Methodist Church without success. African delegation along with other evangelical delegation from the USA, Europe and Asia, making up the majority at past General Conferences always voted these to be unbiblical and unchristian petitions down.
Realizing that they would never get their petitions to pass, the economically powerful and politically influential liberal and progressive United Methodist went on to violate the decision of the General Conference regarding human sexuality. Since after the 2012 General Conference in Tampa Florida, to present, the American United Methodist has licensed and ordained hundreds of LGBTQ people as pastors within the United Methodist Church. They have elected and consecrated two lesbians who are officially married to persons of the same sex as Bishops, and one Gay who is also officially married to another man as Bishop within the United Methodist Church.
Meanwhile, none of our African bishops has ever condemned these actions. Over the years, our African Bishops have continued to wine and dine with these gay and lesbian bishops as their partners in ministry to the anger and frustration of members of the United Methodist Church in Liberia and Africa.
During past General Conferences, progressive and liberal delegates carried out series of demonstrations, demanding the official inclusion of LGBTQ people in the pastoral ministry and leadership of the church with impunity.
Consequently, many Christian individuals and families of local United Methodist churches in America left the denomination to join other churches; thus, reducing its seven million (7m) to now about 4.5 million over the decades. Meanwhile, before the recent departure of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire, the African membership had grown to about 6.8 million members (GCFA Report, 2022). The gross disobedience of the American liberals and progressives also caused the majority members of evangelicals and conservatives amongst them to move out in 2022 to birth a new denomination called the Global Methodist Church.
As a result, the African delegates at the recent General Conference who remained committed to biblical Christianity were in the minority, resulting to the majority liberal and progressive delegates to make sweeping unbiblical and unchristian changes to the constitution (Book of Discipline) that governs the worldwide denomination. Some of the major changes that delegates to the recent General Conference made include the following:
They voted to legalize homosexuality in the worldwide UMC;
They voted to approve same-sex marriage in local churches;
They voted to ordain LGBTQ people as pastors and leaders in the UMC;
They voted to elect and consecrate lesbians and gays as bishops in the UMC;
They voted to legalize elicit abortion;
They voted to legalize immorality, including adultery and fornication;
They voted to change the Holy Bible’s definition of marriage in the BOD;
They voted to revise the Social Principles of the UMC and change the Bible’s definition of marriage;
Voted to open membership into the UMC from any social grouping, apart from the normal conformation classes through the local churches;
Voted to pressurize Annual Conference to present policy on Human Sexuality before getting financial support from Global Church;
3. Voted to established a center/headquarter for LGBTQAI+ persons for financial, medical and other support services; Voted for General and Annual Conferences to Offer Apology for Sexual Misconducts to LGBTQAI+ persons at all Annual Conference; amongst many others. Being cognizant of the fact that these unbiblical changes are unacceptable to the majority members of
the worldwide denomination, the recent General Conference voted to pass a “Regionalization Plan”. This “Regionalization Plan”, if ratified by each annual conference by a 2/3 majority vote, would regionalize the jurisdictions and central conferences into regional conferences. Each regional conference would develop its own constitution to govern its worship, ministry, determine its ordination
standards, and determine how one becomes a member of a local church, according to its culture and context. Each regional conference operating by this its own constitution would make the choice, based on its individual context, whether or not to practice all of these new legal expressions of the denomination.
What matters most is that all annual conference must remained a part of the worldwide denomination, and practicing Christianity according to their individual constitution and culture, not necessarily the Holy Bible. On the contrary, regionalization does not allow any region to alter the Constitution, Social Principles, Doctrinal Standards, and Theological Task, etc in writing their own Book of Discipline. In addition, no regional conference is answerable to anyone about how it chooses people to become pastors, and how people become members of a local UMC congregation.
The Crisis within the United Methodist Church in Liberia , Prior to the Liberian Delegation going to the recent General Conference, the Liberia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church held its 191st annual session in Lower Buchanan, Grand Bassa County,
from 13-18 February 2024. At that annual conference session, one of the many decisions made by the delegation was that upon the return of our delegation from the General Conference, the Liberia Annual Conference would hold a special annual conference session for two purposes:
1. To receive a report from the delegation to the General Conference, and to consider the Way
Forward Commission report; and
2. To take a decision regarding the future of the UMC in Liberia in the wake of the General
Conference passage to legalize homosexuality and other unchristian acts.
Following the end of our 191st annual session, the bishop and his superintendents met on 22 February
and decided that the special called session of our annual conference would take place on 16-17 July
2024 in Gbarnga, Bong County.
However, since our return from the General Conference in early May of this year, Bishop Samuel Quire
has refused to call the special session. Instead, on May 9, 2024, barely 5 days after the end of GC, he
sent out a video message to all United Methodists in Liberia to support the “Regionalization Plan” of the
worldwide denomination without providing a forum where members of the church would discuss the
concept behind the “Regionalization Plan” before calling upon them to support it; and worst of all call off
the special session as agreed by the annual conference in February.
Secondly, Bishop Quire claims that he does not support same-sex marriage, but insist that the UMC in Liberia MUST ENDORSE THE
DECISION OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, THE ORDINATION OF LGBTQ people as pastors and leaders within the worldwide denomination, and the new definition of marriage as a union between two consenting adults and two person of faith, in addition to marriage being between a man and a woman.
On June 7, Bishop Quire and Layleader Tolbert G. Nyenswah returned to the country and had a press
conference deciding for United Methodists in Liberia that we will regionalize homosexuality as a practice
and way of life in our denomination and that the Liberia Annual Conference will be part of such
4. arrangements, but paradoxically, say our country laws do not support homosexuality for which reason
the Liberia Annual Conference will not practice same-sex marriage. Okay, apart from homosexuality,
what about the other vises that the church has legalizes such as illicit abortion, marital unfaithfulness
and so on? What are we going to do with those ones?
Leaders of the UMC who disagrees with Bishop Quire argues that the UMC in Liberia rejects these new
laws of the worldwide denomination as unbiblical and unchristian, and we therefore cannot endorse
them. For to endorse them would mean we accept them and are part of the practices by acquiescence
and by association.
Furthermore, they have called on the Bishop and his Cabinet to call the special
session so that the church can decide its own future, and not the bishop deciding for them, but the
bishop has refused. The bishop claims that it is at his discretion to call the special session, so he will not
call the special session.
The leaders in opposition to the bishop’s decision not to call the special session have reminded the bishop that, while calling for a special session is at he and his cabinet’s discretion, but that is not the case in this instance. The Conference made a decision at its 191st session to hold a special session upon its delegation’s return from the General Conference. Therefore, the holding of the
special session, which, the Bishop and his Cabinet ratified for 16-17 July cannot anymore be
discretionary.
The Liberia Council of Churches (LCC), where Bishop Quire serves as First Vice President, based on
request from the majority clergy and lay leadership of the UMC, has intervened and encouraged the
bishop to listen to the church and call the special session, but Bishop Quire has refused. Other national
stakeholders within the Christian community in Liberia have encouraged the bishop to listen to the
people he leads and call the special session, but Bishop Quire remains intransigent/uncooperative.
Meanwhile, Bishop Quire continues to violate the Book of Discipline (constitution) of the UMC as a
strategy to intimidate some leaders and members (mostly clergy persons) of the church who disagree
with the ways and manner by which he is leading the church. His continued violation of the church’s
constitution includes the following:
By carrying out illegal suspension of elected conference officials who prevailed and pressed on him to call a Special Session to discuss the decision of GC and disagree with his “Regionalization Plan”; noticeably, the Chairperson of the Board of Ordained Ministry, Rev. George D. Wilson, Jr. who we up today still recognize as the legitimate head of Pastors in the
Liberia Annual Conference, other members of the Board, Rev Alex Harmon, Rev. Isaac C. Padmore, Rev. James Z. Labala, Rev. Rose Fahart, amongst others; and replacing them with some pastors and members who agrees with his plans to regionalize sin and license people to hell, in spite of their questionable characters and qualifications; By illegally dismissing some pastors and leaders who are serving some institutions of the UMC based upon their gifts, graces and abilities because they disagree with him; something that is
against the labor law of our country; By disallowing United Methodists from using the UMC compound and facilities for prayer and
worship and other UMC activities; By traveling across the annual conference to give conflicting reports about decisions taken at the
General Conference, without first allowing the Delegation to make its report to the Annual Conference; By demanding to censor the General Conference delegation’s official report to reflect his current liberal and progressive disposition as a prerequisite for allowing the report to be made to the Annual conference; By asking members of the church to leave the UMC who disagree with his agenda;
By disallowing the Graduate School of the United Methodist University (UMU) from using the United Methodist Radio Station (ELUM 98.7FM) to promote its program and teach discipleship,
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because the Head of Delegation of the Liberia Annual Conference of the UMC currently headsthe UMU Graduate School;
Sadly, the Bishop has begun to use the United Methodist Radio, ELUM, not for promoting thegospel of Jesus Christ, but as a propaganda machinery to promote his new liberal and progressive theology, called Regionalization and to attack the characters of delegation members; The bishop has some United Methodists as well as non-United Methodists on the ELUM to speak evil of some clergy leaders of the church who disagree with him.
They formulate lies as a strategy of distracting members of the church from the main issue of same-sex marriage, the LGBTQ agenda, and ordination and consecration of gays and lesbians as Bishops within the worldwide UMC, the legalization of adultery and fornication; and illicit abortion; The bishop currently has a Jingo on several radio stations across Liberia to promote his “Regionalization Plan.”; The Bishop recently illegally suspended the District Superintendent of Monrovia District, Rev. Dr. Julius YZK Williams because another Minister Rev. Nelly W. Wright lied on him of distributing the delegation official report, that he has illegally censored, at a Charge Conference; These are some of the very unhealthy prevailing situations unfolding within the UMC in Liberia. We therefore call on all well-meaning United Methodists to rise to the occasion and arrest the situation before it gets out of hand.
Remember, our Founding Father, John Wesley was clear that the Methodist Movement is a Church of the laity.
Pastors come and pastors go, but we own the church. We cannot sit and see our church goes into ruins because of the dysfunctional leadership of Bishop Quire. Remember, according to our Book of Discipline (constitution), Bishop Quire is not a member of our Annual Conference. Since his election as Bishop of the Church in December 2016, he became a member of the Council of Bishops. He will remain in that status until 2028 when he retires. Then he can decide whether he wants to renew his membership with the Liberia Annual Conference. Bishop Quire, therefore, has no rights to decide the future of our church.
A Bishop of the United Methodist Church has basically three cardinal functions:
1)To preside when we gather as an Annual Conference, 2) To perform ordination of clergy person and
3) to oversee the implementation of decisions made by the Annual Conference.
FYI: six minority members of the 16-men delegation that refused to sign the official report of the delegation and supports the regionalization of homosexuality in the worldwide UMC denomination with the hope and prayers that the state laws against homosexuality will help govern the church. They include: Bro. Tolbert G. Nyanswah, Rev. Dr. George Weagba, Rev. Nelly W. Wright, Rev. Dorithy McCulay, Rev. Dr. Anthony G. Dioh, and Mother Theresa Davies.
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To conclude, as Secretary of delegation, and with the authority vested in me by the head of delegation Rev. Dr. Jerry P. Kulah, and the Majority members of the delegation (Rev. Dr. George Wilson, Rev. Dr. Julius S. Nelson, Jr; Rev. Dr. James Z. Labala, Rev. Varney A. Cassell, Mother Dr. Muriel V. Nelson, Father Cletus A. Sieh, Mother Ophelia Kennedy and Bro. Samuel Cole), I want to inform all United Methodists of the Liberia Annual Conference of the following:
1) that the official report of the delegation that you elected to represent you at the 2020 postponed General Conference, is out and ready for distribution, along with the Bishop and some of his District superintendents’ censor letters, something they have no legal or traditional basis to do;
2) We still maintain our stance, like many other United Methodists in Liberia today that the Bishop calls the Special Session of the Annual Conference as resolved in Buchannan on 18 February and agreed at the Post Cabinet Meeting on February 22 of this year, for the delegation to report through its Official Report, what happened at the 2024 GC for all United Methodists in Liberia and of the Liberia Annual Conference to decide the future of their Church in Liberia;
3) That in the wake of Bishop Quire’s illegal actions against pastors and United Methodists in Liberia and for subjecting our annual conference and local churches to be part of a Homosexual/Gay Denomination, legal actions through the courts of Liberia are option United Methodists individually and collectively are contemplated on taking against him and the leadership of the LAC/UMC and the UMC denomination as a whole; We have our commitment to Jesus Christ and his undiluted word rather than the institution called the United Methodist Church. Therefore, when the institution deviates from the clear teachings of the words
of God, we have the rights to stand for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and contend for our faith.
Thank you.
September 27, 2024.
