The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement on this issue had been increasing in strength for decades between churches of the Northern and Southern United States; in 1845 it resulted in a schism at the General Conference of the MEC held in Louisville, Kentucky.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people, AME welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.
Ixopo, also known as Stuartstown, is a town situated on a tributary of the uMkhomazi River along the R56 highway in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Vashti Murphy McKenzie is the interim president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. She is also a retired bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and author of six books. In 2000, McKenzie became the first woman to be elected as bishop in the denomination's history. She later served as President of the Council of Bishops, becoming the first woman to serve as Titular head of the AME Church.
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) is a large Wesleyan Methodist denomination, with local churches across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, and a more limited presence in Mozambique. It is a member church of the World Methodist Council.
An elder, in many Methodist churches, is an ordained minister that has the responsibilities to preach and teach, preside at the celebration of the sacraments, administer the church through pastoral guidance, and lead the congregations under their care in service ministry to the world.
Carolyn Tyler-Guidry, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first woman appointed to be a presiding elder in the Fifth Episcopal District of the AME Church and the second woman to become a bishop in the denomination.
A district superintendent (DS), also known as a presiding elder, in many Methodist denominations, is a minister who serves in a supervisory position over a geographic "district" of churches providing spiritual and administrative leadership to those churches and their pastors.
The Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa aka Fedsem was a multi-denominational theological seminary in South Africa, and an experiment in ecumenical theological education.
Methodist viewpoints concerning homosexuality are diverse because there is no one denomination which represents all Methodists. The World Methodist Council, which represents most Methodist denominations, has no official statements regarding sexuality. British Methodism holds a variety of views, and permits ministers to bless same-gender marriages. United Methodism, which covers the United States, the Philippines, parts of Africa, and parts of Europe, concentrates on the position that the same-sex relations are incompatible with "Christian teaching", but extends ministry to persons of a homosexual orientation, holding that all individuals are of sacred worth.
Mvumelwano Mvume Dandala is a former presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and a former head of the All Africa Conference of Churches. He was the presidential candidate of the COPE in the 2009 South African general elections.
In Christianity, the ordination of women has been taking place in an increasing number of Protestant and Old Catholic churches, starting in the 20th century. Since ancient times, certain churches of the Orthodox tradition, such as the Coptic Orthodox Church, have raised women to the office of deaconess. While ordination of women has been approved in many denominations, it is still a very controversial and divisive topic.
Methodist views on the ordination of women in the rite of holy orders are diverse.
Christianity is the largest religion practiced in Zimbabwe, accounted for more than 84% of the population. The arrival of Christianity dates back to the 16th century by Portuguese missionaries such as Fr. Gonsalo Da Silveira of the Roman Catholic Church. Christianity is embraced by the majority of the population. It is estimated 85 percent of Zimbabweans claim to be Christians, with approximately 62 percent regularly attending church services. Christian faith plays a very important role in the organization of Zimbabwean society.
Seth Mokitimi (1904–1971) was a significant leader in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) during the 20th century. He fostered the development of education, especially theological education, and promoted the use of education as a tool in the struggle for liberation from apartheid in South Africa. Seth Mokitimi was also influential in the youthful development of several important South African leaders, among them Nelson Mandela. In 1963 the MCSA annual Conference elected Rev. Seth Mokitimi as their first black president, in which position he served one term during 1964 and 1965.
At the MCSA Conference of 2007, 36 years after his death, a proposal that the new Methodist Seminary to be built at Pietermaritzburg be named after Seth Mokitimi was approved with "overwhelming enthusiasm".
Paul Verryn is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. Known for his anti-apartheid activism, he was Bishop of the church's Central District between 1997 and 2009. During that period, he was a prominent and controversial figure for his activism against xenophobia, and clashed with the South African government over his decision to accommodate hundreds of refugees at his Central Methodist Church in the Johannesburg city centre.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany is a Lutheran member church of the Protestant Church in Germany.
The Trinity Theological Seminary is a Protestant seminary located on a 70-acre campus in Legon, Accra. As an ecumenical theological tertiary and ministerial training institution, it serves students in Ghana and the West African sub-region. The focus of the curriculum is pedagogy, guidance, counselling, and fieldwork to adequately prepare students for careers in Christian ministry. The school has charter status, offers certificate, diploma, and degree programmes, and is accredited by the National Accreditation Board of the Ghanaian Ministry of Education.
Teresa Elaine Jefferson-Snorton is an American bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. She became the first woman to be elevated to the episcopate in her denomination, when she was elected as the 59th CME bishop in 2010. From 2011 to 2022 she was the presiding bishop for the fifth episcopal district, which has oversight of CME churches in Alabama and Florida. In 2022 she was appointed as the church’s ecumenical and development officer. She is the ecumenical officer and the endorsing agent for the CME church. She also serves as the president of Churches Uniting in Christ, and on the steering committee for the World Methodist Council.
