Two of North America’s largest denominations take a giant step for faith

Two major mainline Protestant churches are moving ever closer together on the strength of their shared goals of diversity, inclusion and growth. And it is driven, in part, by Canadian immigration.

With a yes vote among attendees at the May 8-9 meeting of the General Council Executive, The United Church of Canada has agreed to form an interim covenant with the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church. This also signals the churches’ intent to become full communion partners in 2028.

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It’s a significant step toward formalizing a long-standing fraternal relationship. The United Church of Canada, founded in 1925, and the United Methodist Church, founded in 1968, are both members of the World Methodist Council. The United Church, of which the Methodist Church was a founding denomination, is considered the Methodist Church in Canada with more than 300,000 members. The United Methodist Church is based in the United States, and its membership of about 10 million faithful extends to Europe, Africa and Asia.

United Church general secretary Rev. Michael Blair, in a post-meeting interview with Broadview, says the idea of a formal framework for increased co-operation with the United Methodist Church has been around for some time. “Ten years ago, or probably 12 years ago, when we started the conversation with the United Church of Christ, and then with the Disciples of Christ, the question [arose] about what the relationship with the Methodist family would look like. And so this is building on that.”

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The United Church signed a full communion agreement with the United Church of Christ USA in 2015, and a mutual recognition of ministries pact with the Disciples of Christ (USA and Canada) in 2018. These partnerships allow their ministers to be employed across the denominations; for example, a Disciples of Christ minister could serve a United Church congregation and vice versa.

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, the Council of Bishops co-ecumenical officer, says in a statement prepared for Broadview that the interim covenant “provides a framework for developing new ways of working together in our various contexts, and for living into a vital relationship in which we together bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We look forward to a lively and enduring relationship between the governing bodies of our denominations.”

A key factor in this development is the increased immigration of Methodists into Canada. “In recent years, the migrating of members of the United Methodist Church from Africa and the Philippines and the new faith communities they have organized in Canada have prompted new conversation and thinking together,” says Morgan Ward.

Methodists immigrating to Canada are hard pressed to find their church here. That’s because in the Methodist tradition, no new church may be set up where one already exists (The United Church of Canada), except with special permission. At the same time, the United Church is actively working to grow its immigrant ministries and broaden the diversity of its members and leadership. Under this interim covenant, both denominations agree to continue on a path toward full communion and the formal recognition of the members, ordination structure and ministry of each other’s church — smoothing the way for more shared ministries and missions, and for the potential establishment of United Methodist communities of faith as visible members of the United Church family.

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Janice Young is Broadview’s United Church in Focus editor, covering a parental leave position.

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