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John Wesley’s Catholic Spirit and United Methodist Schism Cover

John Wesley’s Catholic Spirit and United Methodist Schism

By: Glen O’Brien  
Open Access
|Apr 2025

Abstract

This paper argues that the inability of the United Methodist Church to live together with difference over human sexuality, represents the failure of twenty-first century Methodists to live out of John Wesley’s catholic spirit. In elevating views on human sexuality to a church-dividing principle, the Gospel as a revelation of God’s reconciling work for the world, has been displaced from the centre of Methodist discourse, an action that will result in exclusionary harm for LGBTQI+ Methodists. Queer holiness is real and a recognition of this is necessary for the fully affirming Methodism of the future.

Language: English
Page range: 20 - 30
Published on: Apr 30, 2025
Published by: Wesley House, Cambridge
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2025 Glen O’Brien, published by Wesley House, Cambridge
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.