Round Table

The Nordic and Baltic Roundtable is composed of participants from all seven annual conferences in the episcopal area. The Roundtable meet face to face and online to reflect on and discuss their perspectives on the denominations’ current situation and the understanding of human sexuality and how to be in ministry with all people.

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic the General Conference and subsequently the Central Conference have been postponed – currently General Conference is scheduled to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina April 23rd - May 3rd, and Central Conference is scheduled to take place April 2nd - 6th in Copenhagen.

Background

The Nordic and Baltic episcopal area is diverse in several different ways including our understanding of human sexuality and of how to be in ministry with all people. In spite of our diversities and differences we have managed to be in a committed relationship in one church for more than 100 years. We have built relationships and friendships, we have shared and exchanged ministries, we have supported each other, and we have worshipped and prayed together.

The unity of the United Methodist Church has been under a great deal of stress for some time. The recent called session of the General Conference decided to support the so-called “traditional plan”, however, the conference was not able to come to a broad-based decision, which would be a challenge no matter what the outcome would have been. While many had hoped the called session of General Conference would give us a stronger sense of unity, the reality after the conference is that we are even more divided and polarized.

The many reactions to the decisions of General Conference across the world indicate that it will be very difficult for us to remain together as one church in the future. Several responses and statements in the Nordic and Baltic countries point to a similar division, and there is little doubt that our future as a denomination will be significantly different from what we know today.

We therefore have decided to form a roundtable to bring together key influencers and leaders from each annual conference in the episcopal area, with the purpose of seeking a foundation for the future of the Nordic and Baltic episcopal area that includes as much unity and as much missional strength as possible.
The desired outcome is a consensus on one proposal for the future of the Nordic and Baltic area to be brought to the Nordic and Baltic area group early in the fall of 2022, to enable the area group to recommend this proposal to the 2023 Central Conference.

You may find the first Report from Roundtable here

The covenant for the discussions at the Roundtable, click here