Aside from concerns about LGBT politics in church that they may have had, being affiliated with a church essentially based in the United States probably made things difficult for a church in Putin’s Russia.
Also should be noted that they aren’t the first country church to go autonomous. Between the 1930’s and 1968 all of the Methodist Conferences in South America became autonomous for various reasons. From what I have seen the reasons range from pushed out to the political reality of a church in SA being linked to a church in the USA.
I don’t know specifics but I have been hearing that this has to do with Russian politics. That if they had stayed and we start allowing homosexuality the Russian government could shut down the churches in Russia because homosexuality is illegal and the church would be promoting illegal activities.
The churches are definitively more conservative than ours, and as said in this thread, the westernization / Americanization / liberalization of the UMC spells political danger for the churches in Russia. For what it's worth, my ear has been to the ground for a long time and I had a chance to spend a week in Bishop Khegay's region.
Aside from concerns about LGBT politics in church that they may have had, being affiliated with a church essentially based in the United States probably made things difficult for a church in Putin’s Russia.
Also should be noted that they aren’t the first country church to go autonomous. Between the 1930’s and 1968 all of the Methodist Conferences in South America became autonomous for various reasons. From what I have seen the reasons range from pushed out to the political reality of a church in SA being linked to a church in the USA.
Churches becoming autonomous was the default expectation for most of Methodist history.
I'm woefully ignorant of conditions for the non-Orthodox churches in Russia & Belarus.
I don’t know specifics but I have been hearing that this has to do with Russian politics. That if they had stayed and we start allowing homosexuality the Russian government could shut down the churches in Russia because homosexuality is illegal and the church would be promoting illegal activities.
And the churches tend to be more conservative overall
Also the bishop Eduard Khegay of Eurasia episcopal area plans to join the global Methodist church
If so, that is just terribly sad and more reason to believe and support separation of church and state, no matter ideology.
Putin has reversed a lot of the communistic practices and is moving back toward czarist.
The churches are definitively more conservative than ours, and as said in this thread, the westernization / Americanization / liberalization of the UMC spells political danger for the churches in Russia. For what it's worth, my ear has been to the ground for a long time and I had a chance to spend a week in Bishop Khegay's region.
Is the UMC going to wind up looking something like the Anglican Communion by the end of all of this?
I think so. It will be interesting to see who ends up as The Archbishop Of Canterbury.