Global Methodist Church celebrates growth in first four years

The Global Methodist Church elected eight bishops at its General Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, marking the new denomination's first full-time Assembly of Bishops. The denomination consecrated the bishops at the Saturday conclusion of the conference, it said in a news release. The recent general conference was only the second such gathering in the history of the young denomination.

The Global Methodist Church launched in 2022, after splitting from the United Methodist Church over differences on same-sex marriage and doctrine. Though a new Methodist denomination, it has described itself as faithfully grounded in the Wesleyan tradition. The bishops will lead the denomination until 2032.

The denomination said it added more than 2,500 congregations to its numbers since 2024. It said it had a total of 7,250 congregations in 2026. Church leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America attended the conference, it noted.

What were other conference highlights? Church leaders adopted official Articles of Faith to express the church’s core beliefs for members across the world. Leaders also weighed 451 petitions on issues from foundational doctrine to episcopal leadership to finances.

Dig deeper: Read Mark Tooley’s column for WORLD Opinions analyzing the split of the United Methodist Church.