By PHILIP ENGLISH
Tensions in the Methodist Church over its support for gay clergy have come to a head with the setting up of a breakaway Church.
The breakaways, unhappy for years with the Church's liberal path, this month officially established a new Wesleyan Methodist Church. The splinter group is made up
of five congregations - about 500 people in all - and includes about 250 Samoans from the Methodists' Samoan Synod and six ministers.
The fledgling Church has adherents in Manukau, Papakura and Hawkes Bay and expects more congregations to convert in coming weeks.
The catalyst was the appointment of the openly gay Rev Dr David Bromell to the senior position of superintendent of the Christchurch Methodist Mission in 1997.
Since then tensions between a so-called Methodist gay lobby and conservative worshippers have led to a steady flow of departures.
There has been conflict between worshippers relying on the scriptures and those who put liberal interpretations on the Bible.
The new Church is trying to negotiate leases of property but the parent Church is unwilling to relinquish ultimate ownership of its land and buildings.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand, linked to the international Wesleyan Methodist Church and named after the 18th century founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was established on July 2.
The Church is still small compared with its parent Church, which numbers about 17,000 worshippers most Sundays and, according to the 1996 census, 121,000 followers in all.
The secretary of the Wesleyans, Allan Oliver, a Methodist minister for nearly 18 years, said the Methodist Church could have held together by supporting an Evangelical Synod to give conservative worshippers a voice - but the move was vetoed by "the gay lobby."
He said the Church now had an obligation to be charitable to people who had tried for years to prevent the breakup but who could not live with "the gay issue."
The president of the Methodist Church, Rev David Bush, said yesterday that he was disappointed over the split. It was now too late to return the defectors to the flock.
"I guess you can liken this to any breakdown in a relationship."
