The Global Methodist Church's Doctrine of Marriage

The Global Methodist Church, formally launched in 2022 by congregations departing the United Methodist Church over disagreements concerning marriage and ordination, states in its Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline that marriage is a covenant relationship intended by God to be a lifelong union between one man and one woman, a definition the new denomination adopted explicitly to preserve the traditional standard that debate within the larger United Methodist Church had put in question. The Global Methodist Church's own public statements describe this position as continuous with historic Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality rather than as a new doctrine, framing the 2022 separation as a decision to maintain existing standards against a change other United Methodist bodies were moving to adopt, rather than as the introduction of a novel restriction. The doctrine carries direct consequences for the denomination's practice of ordination and clergy conduct, since Global Methodist teaching holds that clergy are expected to model the covenant standard in their own lives and are not authorized to officiate at marriages the denomination does not recognize as falling within that definition, a position stated plainly in its founding disciplinary documents rather than left to individual congregational discretion.